Theater

Librettist, Lyricist, and Playwright

My musicals and plays ignite stories of defiance; characters who shatter societal expectations to claim their truth and carve out a place of their own.

MARLISE!

When Marlise Mattox, a fading 1950’s Hollywood star, is framed for murder, she must join forces with her obsessive fan, to clear her name and solve the crime. marlisemusical.com

Book & Lyrics: Jesse Ayala | Lyrics & Music: Justino Tesoro

Developed at Berklee, under Adam Gwon, and the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theater Workshop.

MADAME X

When famed painter John Singer Sargent’s hidden romance with his male muse becomes the talk of Paris, he must brush over the scandal in a way only a painter could, or so he thinks…

Book & Lyrics: Jesse Ayala | Lyrics & Music: Brandon Scott Grayson

Developed at Berklee, under Julianne Wick-Davis, and the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theater Workshop.

JUNE MOON

When a sex-addicted tech bro is tasked by his therapist to rewrite his habits in one night, he meets a woman who pushes him toward becoming the one thing he’s never dared to be: emotionally honest.

Book & Lyrics: Jesse Ayala | Lyrics & Music: Justino Tesoro | Additional Lyrics: Isa Peña

Developed at NYPL Lincoln Center.

On view at the Theatre on Film and Tape (ToFT) Archive at Lincoln Center

A CURIOUS SPECTACLE

When Marie, an unassuming young physics student, makes an earth shattering discovery, her suspicious mentor places the spotlight on her gender, not her ideas, causing her to go to war to prove herself.

Book: Jesse Ayala

BATTLE OF VERSAILLES

When Didi, an hustling aspiring actress, fakes her way into the cutthroat world of high-stakes New York fashion, she must decide to keep up the act, or be herself in a revolutionary moment in fashion history.

Book & Lyrics: Jesse Ayala

A BIGGER BLOW

When Damien takes shelter in the lavish crypto-mansion of an estranged friend as a hurricane bears down, he finds himself trapped in a moral tempest, caught between effective altruism, digital wealth, and the cold calculus of who deserves to be saved.