Peter Ekstrom

Peter Ekstrom graduated from Antioch College in 1973 and in 1978 traveled down the Mississippi River on a raft with Otrabanda Theatre Co., stopping in two dozen towns from St. Louis to New Orleans to perform a vaudeville show in a circus tent. His professional career began when Jon Jory of Actors Theatre of Louisville hired him to write music and lyrics to a satirical revue in The Humana Festival of New American Plays. His Matrimonium and Doctors and Diseases (in which he also performed) followed in the next two Festivals. In 1981 he wrote a musical adaption of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi which ran at Actors Theatre of Louisville at Christmastime for 17 consecutive years as well as being produced by many regional and amateur theatres across the country. Doctors and Diseases was revived by The Barter Theatre, Virginia in 1997 and subsequently moved to Off-Broadway. Mr. Ekstrom’s musical comedy with Steve Hayes, Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village, has been produced at St. Peter’s at Citicorp, New York City, The Northshore Theatre on Cape Ann, Massachusetts and in 2000 at the Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington. With Steve Hayes and David Deboy his musical romance, Girl of My Dreams, has had productions by Musical Theatre Works, New York City, The Barter Theatre, Virginia and in 2006 The Village Theatre, Washington. From 2001 to 2004 Mr. Ekstrom wrote and performed weekly with Michael Quinn The Front Page Follies, a political satire revue, at the Cornelia Street Cafe, New York City. For Jon Jory, Mr. Ekstrom has written over a dozen incidental scores for plays from Shakespeare’s to Charles Ludlum’s The Mystery of Irma Vep. He wrote the incidental score for Jon Jory’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice when it premiered in 2005 at Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson. He has written two musical comedies with Jon Jory with a third on the way! Mr. Ekstrom is a member of ASCAP and lives in Chinatown, New York City.