Creative Team
Alison Holman (book, music, lyrics) is known for infusing her long- standing love of American history with unconventional narratives designed to entertain and enlighten. Her recent Civil War-era musical, “Nobody’s Child” (with Matthew Martin and Lawrence Neals) addresses the challenges of a love triangle crossing both racial and political boundaries. “The Wise Women”, her most personal musical to date, is both the culmination of years of research, and a tribute to her family... in every way.
A newcomer to musical theater composition, Christopher Iain Blair (music, lyrics) is thrilled to contribute his vast choral and piano experience to “The Wise Women” score. Not only do his passions for everything from Gregorian chant to progressive metal come into play here - Blair pays homage to his wife’s descendants with their collaboration.
Alison Holman
Born in Layton, Utah, Alison began taking classical piano lessons at the age of 6 on her teacher’s cow farm in southern Idaho. Music has always been her passion, singing in choirs, joining theatre groups, and accompanying many of them and local orchestras, as a pianist. She wrote the several drafts of her original musical, Nobody’s Child, before graduating high school. Following a move to Branson, Missouri, Alison sang and danced professionally for theme parks and variety shows and spent time directing, choreographing and musically directing for local theatre groups. Eventually, her piano skills took her abroad, working for five years as a classical pianist on Carnival Cruise Lines, where she met her husband and writing partner, Christopher Blair. Relocating to New York City, she worked as a pianist, music directing new theatrical works, and accompanying Broadway artists around the city. She has played for Broadway Pops, Playbill, Lincoln Center Local, 54 Below, Birdland, The Growing Studio and The Stella Adler School as well as countless up and coming performers. Her original musical, Nobody’s Child has had three sold out staged readings in New York City and is in development with Mills Theatrical. Alison’s artistic vision and skill are not limited to music, as she designed both logos for her shows, paints, sculpts and makes jewelry. In her free time, she and her husband volunteer doing cat rescue and fostering through the New York based animal rescue
group, PuppyKittyNYC.
Christopher Iain Blair
Born in Toronto, Canada, Christopher began classical piano lessons at age 5 at the Royal Conservatory of Music, continuing his music education for eleven years at St. Michael’s Choir School. There, he studied Gregorian chant, polyphony, piano, pipe organ, voice, and music theory, and performed in countless cities, towns, and venues around the world, with the choirs at
the school. Upon graduation, his love of tight harmony led to the formation of an a cappella group that performed on cruise ships. Following the completion of a music theatre performance diploma at the Randolph College for the Performing Arts, as a triple threat, Christopher held multiple supporting roles with Toronto Operetta Theatre. After returning to cruise ships as an assistant cruise director, Christopher landed multiple lead vocalist roles crossing both major oceans, and meeting his wife, Alison. Life eventually lead them to New York, pursuing Alison’s first musical, Nobody’s Child. Surrounded by the creative energy of Alison and her writing team, Christopher was inspired to write his own material, receiving extremely positive responses at multiple open mic events around New York. It was Alison who asked him to join her on this exploration of her ancestry through their shared love of music, and he is forever grateful to be
part of this journey with her.
Michael Mills, Producer
As a producer, Mr. Mills is very familiar with both sides of the stage and motion pictures. He was performing professionally, as a teenage, on stages across the western United States eventually pursuing undergraduate and graduate work in Musical Theatre & Film. While he enjoys performing, his real passion is producing, bringing the best together to create magic on the stage and films.
Michael has previously worked as Executive Producer for Los Angeles based Imagic Entertainment, a theatrical production and motion picture company, working on movies of the week, studio pictures and developing and launching national touring shows.
Moving to the city that never sleeps, in 2003, Mr. Mills continues his decades long passion as Executive Producer producing shows for Broadway, documentary/narrative films and brand storytelling working with such notable talent as Angela Lansbury, Gladys Knight, Emilio Estafan, Patti Lupone, and more.
An ocean/beach lover, born and raised in San Diego, California, Michael enjoys time with family, serving in the community and his church and being in the city he calls home, New York City.
