Sarah Hammond spent her formative years living abroad, but for much of her childhood and young adulthood, she lived in Columbia. Her father’s earlier work as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal took the family to places like Hong Kong and Belgium, where she lived from age 2 to age 9. After the family moved to Columbia, Sarah finished her primary schooling, earned her bachelor’s degree from USC, and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from the University of Iowa as well as a second MFA in musical theatre writing from NYU.
Sarah moved to the Big Apple in 2006, living in the gritty creative enclave of Brooklyn. It was an exciting time during which she met friends who would become longtime collaborators. “One of the first things I did after moving to New York City was join an emerging writers group of playwrights and musical writers,” she says. “I met composer Adam Gwon, whose star was on the rise, and we became buddies. We wound up deciding to write a show together. Because I found that process so inspiring, I got the itch to try writing lyrics myself. I thought writing dialogue might lend itself well to writing lyrics.”
Sarah embraced the young artist’s life in the big city, cranking out plays that included House on Stilts, Green Girl, The Extinction of Felix Garden, and Circus Tracks. She and Gwon together created String, an original musical derived from Greek mythology’s three Fates but set in the modern world. String won the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company’s 2014 New Musical Award. Clearly Greek mythology offers much fodder that captivates Sarah’s imagination. She also wrote a musical titled Barefoot Persephone, as well as several short musicals.
Sarah is a respected, award-winning playwright and lyricist residing in Philadelphia. She married in 2019 and is now the mother of two active young children, Owen and Maud. Sarah generally leaves stage singing to the pros but admits that she herself completely enjoys singing. “I love to sing,” she says. “It’s one of my favorite parts of parenting. To get my son to sleep at night, I like to sing him a little song.”
