biographies
Homer Hickam, Jr. (Book)
Homer Hickam is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rocket Boys, which was made into the acclaimed Universal feature movie October Sky. Rocket Boys is studied in many schools and is one of the most selected Community/Library reads in the USA. It is published in numerous languages and generates hundreds of letters weekly from students, teachers, would-be engineers and space lovers of all ages and cultures.
Mr. Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999). The Coalwood Way, a memoir of Homer's hometown he calls “not a sequel but an equal,” was published the next year. His third Coalwood memoir Sky of Stone followed in October 2001, and his final book about Coalwood is a self help/inspirational tome titled We Are Not Afraid (2002). Homer also has a series of popular novels about Josh Thurlow, a Coast Guard officer during World War II. The series began with The Keeper's Son (2003), followed by The Ambassador's Son and The Far Reaches.
With the launching of his 2008 novel The Red Helmet, Homer started a scholarship with The Marshall University Foundation in West Virginia to benefit dependents of coal miners and coal mine rescue workers.
My Dream of Stars, the memoir of Anousheh Ansari written with Homer, was published earlier this year. Anousheh’s remarkable journey from Iranian refugee to astronaut is yet another source of inspiration for all those who wish to soar among the stars – like the “Rocket Boys” - and make their wildest dreams come true.
For recreation, Mr. Hickam loves to scuba dive. In 1984, Mr. Hickam was presented with Alabama's Distinguished Service Award for heroism shown during a rescue effort of the crew and passengers of a sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River. Also an avid paleontologist, he works with Dr. Jack Horner in Montana every summer. Most of all, however, Homer loves to write: accordingly, his latest novel is The Dinosaur Hunter, due for release later this year.
Homer is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant. They love their cats and share their time between homes in Alabama and the Virgin Islands.
Diana Belkowski (Composer/Lyricist/Vocal Arrangements)
With Rocket Boys and Flyer, Diana and her co-composer Dan Tramon became two-time (consecutive-year, unprecedented) winners of the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Award. Diana is also a grad of the BMI Lehman–Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a recipient of two Billboard Music Awards for work in musical theatre and Contemporary Christian music. Rocket Boysheld its NY industry-read last June with a cast of Broadway pros under the esteemed Musical Direction of Joe Baker. It had its full staged reading premiere in Huntsville, AL (“Rocket City”) in 2008, and also won ANMT’s Search for New Musical Voices that year. Flyer, based on the lives of the Wright Brothers, most recently enjoyed it’s first full-production run in Kansas City (attended by an average crowd of over 1500!) and its premiere Equity Regional Production in Delaware of 2009.
A Juilliard alumnus, Diana has traveled nationwide as a member of the Presidential Arts Committee, and has written material for both presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. A long-time Director of Sacred Music, she has extensively written for both children and adult choirs, and won numerous awards as a classical pianist during childhood. Other solo compositions include Clarissa (Circle Rep Theatre), a 50-song educational series for Random House and TV theme and credit music. Currently, Diana is working on a sung-through version of the classic book “Vanity Fair”; and a new collaboration with author Harold Schmidt, “Coconut Road”, about the life of hobos in the 1930’s.
Diana is extremely honored to have taken part in setting Homer Hickam’s life-story to music and stage, and hopes the score will also serve to inspire as Mr. Hickam has inspired millions to overcome circumstances and ALWAYS “aim high!”
Dan Tramon (Composer/Lyricist/Orchestrations)
Dan Tramon has been involved in New York musical theater for most of his life. A Juilliard Prep graduate, he performed piano recitals in Lincoln Center and boy soprano roles at the Met. After the voice changed, he attended Columbia University, where he co-wrote and performed in the Varsity Shows, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s original stomping grounds. While deciding what to do with his life, he took courses at the Institute of Audio Research, and began working Broadway sound gigs, which gave him the theater bug.
Along with co-composer Diana Belkowski, Dan enjoyed the honor of two ASCAP/Disney Musical Theater Workshop Awards, for their musicals Flyer, the story of the Wright Brothers, and Rocket Boys, based on the Homer Hickam Jr. bestseller. He is an alumni of the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in NY.
Dan composed the pre-show music for The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway. Currently closing out Catch Me If You Can, he has served as Broadway Production Sound Engineer for Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out, Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5, Phil Collins/Disney’s Tarzan, as well as In The Heights and Swing. He was Associate Sound Designer for Broadway’s The Will Rogers Follies and Victor/Victoria. Dan served as Music Programmer for Paul Simon’s Capeman, and Broadway’s How To Succeed, Cats, and Beauty and the Beast. He orchestrated and performed digital music for Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Westbeth Theatre in NY and he also composed the score for an adaptation of Moliere’s The Miser. He is now joining the Sound Production team of Frank Wildehorn’s newest B’way musical, Bonnie & Clyde.
Dan makes his home in Oakland, NJ, with his supportive wife Kim, a brave NY School Principal, and his favorite composition: his outrageously amazing infant son, Daniel Anthony.
Carl Anthony Tramon (Co-Book; Sonny)
By the age of three Carl had the stage under his feet, and a relentless smile on his face ever since! Broadway, National Tours, and Equity Regional productions include: Fame, the Musical; Amadeus (as Mozart); What Makes Sammy Run (title role); Peter Pan; Gypsy (w/Angela Lansbury); Rags (directed by Stephen Schwartz); etc. Principal TV roles include Saturday Night Live, One Life to Live (recurring), Saved by the Bell (series regular, full season); Growing Pains, and over 50 national commercials. Feature films include: Pizza Palace, The Lackluster Syndrome, Aladdin (w/Barry Bostwick, Disney Channel), and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Carl recently received the coveted Best Actor award nomination by the Broadway League.
Carl’s major directorial and/or *Co-Book credits include: *Flyer (2009, The Freeman Stage and The Lamb’s Theatre, NY); *Rocket Boys (2010, New York City; 2008, Huntsville AL and 2005 Disney Theatricals, Workshop, NY); Einstein’s Breakfast (2008, Delaware PAC); *Coconut Road (World Premiere, Delaware PAC); Fame, the Musical (Bardavon Opera House, Poughkeepsie, NY); The Jeweler’s Shop (Carnegie Hall & The United Nations, NY); Szymborska (Consulate General, NY); Grease (Somerville, NJ), etc.
Original Cast albums currently available include: Fame, the Musical; What Makes Sammy Run; Coconut Road; Rocket Boys; and the albums of Bill Solly: Let Me Give You a Lift and I Could Fall in Love, the latter of which earned Carl critical acclaim.
Carl, or “CAT”, as his colorful potpourri of friends calls him, was fortunate to also be the lead member of the pop group UNETI, which recently returned from an international tour. Their music video, which airs on MTV around the globe, was chosen to be the soundtrack for The New York Yankees and Hideki Matsui in their TV & Radio promotions for NYC. UNETI can be heard on Chaka Khan’s Christmas album, and was propelled by Nelson O’Reilly Productions, who also produce Willa Ford, Donna Summer, Lucy Woodward, The Baha Men, and other chart-topping performers.
Carl is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.
site by eye factory media