Book and Lyrics by Nancy Nachama Cheser
Music and Spanish Lyrics by Jaime Lozano
A young Hasidic woman steps outside the confines of her Brooklyn community and finds herself as much an immigrant in a new land as the recently arrived students she teaches in her New York adult English class. Lives intertwine as each in their own way struggles to belong, find love, and succeed in a new country. Present Perfect is a uniquely American story told with a contemporary twist, infectious vitality, and a Latin beat.
Nancy Cheser
SCRIPT WRITER/LYRICIST
Nancy Cheser graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in photography. She has work in numerous museums including the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, Mead Museum, Amherst College, Addison Gallery of Art, Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, and a collaborative piece at the Library at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
A professor of English as a Second Language, she conceived of Present Perfect from the stories she observed every day in her classes.
Jaime Lozano
COMPOSER AND SPANISH LYRICS
Born in Monterrey, Mexico. Jamie Lozano is an accomplished musician, vocal coach, composer, arranger, orchestrator, musical producer and musical director.
Jaime's musical theatre works include Tlatelolco (composer, lyricist, librettist), Myths (composer), The Yehuatl (composer, lyricist), Lightning Strikes Twice (composer) Off-Broadway, The Yellow Brick Road (composer, lyricist) Off-Broadway and National Tour, Carmen La Cubana (additional orchestrations) Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France, Children of Salt (composer) New York Musical Festival 2016 which won Best of Fest Show-Score Production Award. He is a teacher and activist for the New York City based not-for-profit organization R.Evolución Latina.
Most recently, Jaime has performed sold-out shows at Two River Theater, Joe’s Pub, and The Green Room 42 with his concert “Jaime Lozano and the Familia: Songs by an Immigrant,” which features an all-Latino line up of Broadway stars. The show spotlights the immigrant experience in the United States—finding a new home, learning a new language, dealing with discrimination, pursuing the American Dream, and building bridges instead of walls. Jaime is currently working on the album for this project.