Myriad projects are always actively in the works! From scripts in development – be they for the stage, screen or other creative treatments – to collaborations with various musicians, artists and theatre professionals.
Select works, both from the past as well as ongoing and upcoming, below:
DACHAU FOR QUEERS
A provocative workshop premiere at the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. At times shockingly brutal and at others comically surreal, this innovative odyssey is punctuated by surprising characters, leaps of fantasy, and heartfelt truths.
Adrift in 1970’s San Francisco, runaway Jonah Goodson lands in the belly of the beast, confined at California’s notorious Atascadero Psychiatric Hospital. His “sickness?” Homosexuality. Navigating a psychotropic maze of barbaric treatments, he encounters the most unlikely guides – but are they real or imagined?
LIMITED RUN: Performing Sept 25 – 29 at Theatre Exile.
MORE INFO AT FRINGEARTS
September 2025
Theatre Exile | Philadelphia Fringe Festival
Philadelphia, PA
Written by Daniel Neer
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Cast featuring Tristan Jenis, Lois Sach, Neena Boyle, Ted Gorodetzky, and Avery Leach
HOPPER HAIKU
Written and performed by Ellen Mandel and Daniel Neer, and inspired by the artwork of American painter Edward Hopper, this art song collection provides a musical voice to the characters and environments depicted in Hopper’s iconic works. Set to narrative haiku by lyricist Daniel Neer, Ellen Mandel’s jazzy musical settings create an evocative soundtrack to the urban isolation and gritty landscape of twentieth century America, and explore the complexities of isolationism and human connection in modern society.
NYC PREMIERE – MON, NOV 10, 7PM – ONE NIGHT ONLY
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November 2025
Scorca Hall | National Opera Center
New York, NY
Composed by Ellen Mandel
Lyrics by Daniel Neer
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Performed by Daniel Neer (baritone) and Ellen Mandel (piano)
THE FINAL WALTZ
The Final Waltz celebrates the height of operetta’s popularity in Vienna while exploring the devastating challenges faced by its creators during Hitler’s annexation of Austria and the ensuing Holocaust. Some of the most famous melodies from Viennese Operetta’s glorious apex in the late 1930’s are accompanied by original narrative media segments of archival film and photography – paying homage to the art form’s exceptional artists, mourning the many tragic losses and honoring the heroes of the era.
March 2024
Battelle Fine Arts Center
Otterbein University | Westerville, OH
Written by Daniel Neer
Direction & Media by Ted Gorodetzky
Daniel Neer, baritone
Suzanne Newcomb, piano
June 2025
Ralli Hall
Hove, England, UK
Written by Daniel Neer
Direction & Media by Ted Gorodetzky
Produced & Musical Direction by Simon Gray
Daniel Neer, baritone
Lindsey McKee, soprano
Simon Gray, piano
MERCURY FALLING
A monodrama for tenor, solo dancer and chamber ensemble, Mercury Falling interprets the last night in the life of Parisian sculptor Jean-Louis Brian (1805-1864) with shifts between reality and an allegorical fantasy. Attempting to protect his clay statue of ‘Mercury in Repose’ from the bitter cold by covering it with his only blankets, Brian froze to death beside his famous sculpture while finishing it. As the temperature drops and he succumbs to hallucinations, he is lured into a world in which his Mercury creation comes to life. Through music, dance and drama, Mercury Falling explores the artist’s struggle for meaning, recognition and even survival.
“The music constantly changes to fit Brian’s mood swings. These are superbly realized by Neer as performer, his voice coloring all Brian’s fears and yearnings while expressing his derangement with haunting physicality… The physical interaction of sculptor and statue is viscerally staged, adding nuanced dimensions to the concept, sensitively shaped by director Ted Gorodetzky… this is a confident, intriguing work.” – The News & Observer
June 2009
Long Leaf Opera Festival | Stewart Theater
North Carolina, OH
Composed by Chandler Carter
Libretto by Daniel Neer
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Musical Direction by Chandler Carter
Choreography by Jody Oberfelde
Jean-Louis Brian: Daniel Neer, tenor
Mercury: Jake Szczypek, dancer
Piano: Viktor Valkov, and Benjamin Smith
BRUCE BAILEY
An urban cantata for soprano, baritone and piano trio, based on housing advocate Bruce Bailey, who tirelessly championed for tenant’s rights on NY’s Upper West Side during the city’s gentrification and infamous housing crisis of the 1970’s and 1980’s. The new musical work, commissioned by Two Sides Sounding, pays homage to this influential local hero and the city he lived in, offered in vignettes by vocalists who portray myriad characters throughout the piece. Original photography by Tish Webster (longtime friend, advocate of Bailey and staff photographer of the Columbia Tenants Union) is reimagined as a backdrop of visual media, accompanying the stirring musical drama.
September 2014
Brooklyn BEAT Festival | Brooklyn Historical Society
New York, NY
Composed by Daniel Felsenfeld
Libretto by Daniel Neer
Direction and Multimedia Composition by Ted Gorodetzky
Performed by Daniel Neer (baritone), and Eleanor Taylor (soprano), Mila Henry (piano), Lynn Bechtold (violin) and Jennifer DeVore (cello)
THE INTERVIEW
A one act drama about women in art, The Interview focuses on themes of nudity, racism, objectification, elitism and sexism in the art world. Split into two interweaving scenes from vastly different periods (Paris, France 1891 and Brooklyn, New York in present day), the overlapping action explores the psyche of four women with contrasting perspectives of the art world, and their subsequent struggle for identity and success.
April 2011
New Works 3: International Short Play Festival
Richmond Shepard Theatre
New York, NY
Written by Daniel Neer
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Cast featuring Evangelia Kingsley, Mary Leggio, Laura Michelle Cleary, and Lorna Haughton
MASKS & THE NEW SONG
Masks is an original theatrical composition for baritone, piano, guitar, actor and electronics. With text comprised of three poems initially inspired by the photographic images of Andreas Gursky, the piece functions as a veneer underneath which a drama is enacted through music, motions, and electronic sounds. The audience is invited to ponder the relationship between words spoken and unspoken, and speculate about just how many layers of masks there may be.
February 2017
Scorca Hall | National Opera Center
New York, NY
Composed by Alex Burtzos
Libretto by Daniel Neer
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Vocalist: Daniel Neer
Piano: Erika Dohi
Guitar: Jason Robert Taylor
Actor: Sonoko Kawahara
WHAT MISS DICKINSON HEARD – AND DIDN’T
An Opera for Rhapsodist, Vocal Quartet and Duo-Pianists devised by Kit Young. What Miss Dickinson Heard–And Didn’t follows a large arc of Emily Dickinson’s life as if it were one day by exploring Dickinson’s depth of auditory artistry through evocative improvisational music and environmental sound, expressed in her poetry, letters, with some additional commentary. An improvising pianist herself, the soundscapes are human, animal, natural and celestial, along with 19th-century parlor music, readings and hymns.
August 2019
Emily Dickinson International Society Conference
Asilomar, CA
Rhapsodist: Daniel Neer
Duo-Pianists: Eve Kodiak, Kit Young
Directed by Ted Gorodetzky