About the Author

Janice Cohn - Author

• For information about Dr. Cohn’s professional background and her author appearances, workshops and speaking engagements, please click here.
• For information about how educational, religious and community organizations can purchase additional copies of The Christmas Menorahs: How A Town Fought Hate at a special discount, contact Dr. Cohn at (973) 509-0336 or via email at drjanicecohn@aol.com.
• For information about obtaining copies of Dr. Cohn’s book, Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children In A Violent World, which contains more inspirational stories of children, adults and American communities, as well as research-based guidelines for instilling courage and compassion in young people, please contact Dr. Cohn at the phone number and/or email address listed above.  

 

About the Composer & Lyricist

Roxanne Kent - Lyricist

Roxanne Kent (on the right) rehearsing in Bloomington Illinois

Roxanne Kent has been involved in numerous community theater productions, including musicals, but heretofore strictly on the acting side. She has also been professionally involved in using her pen, as a documentary writer for television specials. Never in her most capricious imaginings did she contemplate writing a song … much less a series of songs for a play. She has had long involvement with the story of Billings, however, reading the author’s book, The Christmas Menorahs to children of different grade levels and taking part in workshops of the play in several schools.

"Despite my long history with this wonderful project," Roxanne reflects, "It was still a major surprise (read shock) to me when, as I was thinking of the directions in which Paper Candles' music, might go, I jotted down notes on a napkin and found the “Bullying Song” had come to life. Since then it has been both challenge and delight to try to capture the warmth, moral dilemmas, courage, wit, and other strong feelings and situations with which this extraordinary story deals. It is a privilege to try and extract its essence into words that its young actors will enjoy and hold deep within the musical memory that is powerful within us all."

Barry James - Composer/Lyricist

Barry James has been involved in musical theater in New York and Montana for a number of years as a composer, director, and playwright. Despite his relatively young age, he has made quite a name for himself, having been compared on several occasions to Jonathan Larson, composer/lyricist of Broadway’s Rent. 

Although the play’s themes of community, courage, and “doing the right thing” are universal, the actual events which the play recounts take place, of course, in Billings, Montana. Barry was able to contribute not only his talent, but his knowledge, love, and “feel” for Montana and the Billings area.  

Barry’s works have been performed in New York City, White Plains, NY and Helena, MT. He has co-written with Jeff Downing, the musical Once Upon A Time (performed at the Play Group Theatre), and has written and directed Risk! and Brushstrokes (performed at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre). Two musical reviews of his work, Going Places and Settling Down Again, have been performed at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre in New York City and the Grand Street Theatre in Helena, Montana. 

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