Charlie Romano is a Latin American Composer from the Chicago area. As a member of a rather large immediate and extended family, he is used to sharing everything and spending time with many different kinds of people. As a result, Charlie is passionate about telling people’s untold stories. His recent work includes CALL ME FROM THE GRAVE (2021 O’Neill Finalist, 2023 ASCAP Workshop), the story of Blues icon Robert Johnson (who, legend has it, sold his soul to the devil), VIDEO RENTAL STORE, a “micro-musical” about a video rental store that experiences unexpected business one day, ONWARD AND UPWARD, a musical adaptation of Bridget Carpenter’s play Up (The Man In The Flying Chair), a show about a family’s struggle to find meaning and stability, and

WORD NERD, a musical comedy about a crossword-based game show and its eccentric host. He is also currently working on TITA, a new musical about his Panamanian-immigrant grandmother (an extraordinarily energetic polyglot whose life touched countless others around the world). Charlie recently completed the 2023 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz. While in LA, Charlie was also selected to write an original song for the ASCAP/Netflix presentation on Music for Children's TV. He is also a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and the Latiné Musical Theatre Lab. He is the recent winner of the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theater Award.

Photographs by Simone Ray