ZACK ZADEK
Book, Music, & Lyrics for The Turning
Zack Zadek is a Brooklyn-based musical theatre writer, screenwriter, and songwriter signed to Warner/Chappell. He was named by Playbill magazine as “a contemporary musical theatre writer you should know” and won the Weston New Musical Award for his show Deathless which was produced at Goodspeed Musicals (dir. Tina Landau). Zack is a MacDowell, Yaddo, Dramatist Guild Foundation, Ucross, and VCCA Fellow, and a Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Grant, and Fred Ebb Award finalist. He received the inaugural New Voices Award from Disney Imagineering/NMI and was artist-in-residence with SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Civilians, Johnny Mercer Grove, and The Orchard Project. As a songwriter, his songs have been cumulatively streamed over 200 million times including Tate McRae's single "Slower," which was certified gold. Zack is currently writing musicals under commission from Ars Nova, Arena Stage (with Emily Feldman), Manhattan Theatre Club (with Liza Birkenmeier), Discovering Broadway, Universal Theatre Group (with Charlie Kaufman and Eva H.D.), Warner Bros, Theatre Ventures, and XRoads Entertainment, and has several film/TV projects under development. The studio album of Deathless will be released by Warner Music this spring. @zackzadek
SAMMI CANNOLD
Co-Developer for The Turning
Sammi Cannold is a Broadway director and filmmaker who is one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment, one of Variety’s 10 Broadway Stars to Watch, one of Town and Country's Creative Aristocracy, and a Drama Desk Award winner. In 2025, she was selected to develop her first feature film in the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive. She has directed work at The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center as well as for the National Symphony Orchestra, ABC, Cirque du Soleil, and many regional theaters around the country. She has spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Global Business Summit, and TEDxBroadway and is an alum of Stanford University, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Sundance Theatre Lab. www.sammicannold.com @sammi.cannold
Why are you excited to bring this piece to the O'Neill and what are you hoping to accomplish here?
Zack and I could not be more elated or honored to be bringing The Turning to The O'Neill. We're greatly looking forward to digging in at the table and iterating in an artist-driven process where we can develop and hone the piece as it approaches the production phase. We're exceptionally grateful to be working in an environment where we can dramatically explore and take risks and want to express our immense appreciation to the team at the O'Neill for hosting us and The Turning. - Sammi
What inspired you to create this piece?
Mystery-box storytelling is my favorite kind of writing, and I had long been excited by the idea of trying to give an audience that kind of a thrill ride inside of a musical. After meeting my director and collaborator Sammi Cannold, a shared fascination with wellness culture and belief systems—as well as my lifelong love of folk music and Americana—began to form the seeds of The Turning. - Zack
Why are you drawn to plays/musicals as a medium for storytelling and/or for telling this particular story?
I'm deeply obsessed with story and, in my opinion, musicals are simply the greatest form of storytelling. Music is a direct line to invoke and share emotion, and the chance to fuse so many different disciplines in service of one cohesive narrative is something that no other medium can compete with. The Turning is, at its heart, a story between two best friends getting caught up in something bigger than themselves—and it's the combination of music and immersive theatricality that will hopefully allow audiences to have an emotional experience alongside our characters. - Zack
What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
Read as much as you can about anything and everything that interests you—fiction and non-fiction. Listen to as much music as you can and learn what you like, and what you don't like. Watch narratives in all forms: musicals, plays, film, TV—classics and contemporary. Finding your voice as a writer starts with finding your taste—and that comes from understanding what stuff turns you on and a curiosity of how it works. - Zack
Zack and Sammi's reading recommendations to accompany your experience with The Turning:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Midsommar Screenplay Book by Ari Aster
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
The Girls by Emma Cline
Rajneeshpuram: Inside the Cult of Bhagwan and Its Failed American Utopia by Russell King