Deborah Wicks La Puma
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Deborah Wicks La Puma is a composer, music director, and one of the most produced Theatre for Young Audiences artists working today. Her most popular TYA musicals include Ella Enchanted (based on the book by Gail Carson Levine) with Karen Zacarias, She Persisted (based on the book by Chelsea Clinton) with playwright Adam Tobin, and Elephant & Piggie's We Are In A Play and Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical with best selling children's author Mo Willems. As an arranger and music director she has worked with major regional theatre companies across the country, including the Guthrie, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She received her MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and her bachelor's degree from Stanford University. Her honors include an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Musical, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, an NEA New American Works Grant, two Parents' Choice Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Adaptation. A proud Mexican-American and "Navy brat" who grew up in Brazil, Portugal and California, La Puma is a member of TYA/USA, ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.