Development
Five Minutes on the Low Road is an original, research-based work of musical theater. The script was first drafted in the writers’ workshop at New Musicals, Incorporated. Excerpts have since been presented at Nautilus Music-Theater’s Rough Cuts showcase (pic), and the show is currently in development under the auspices of the New Musical Theater Exchange in Minneapolis. Concept recordings are in progress.
The stage is the primary form, but the concept reaches beyond any single medium. The illustrations start to suggest a graphic novel, and a novella is already in progress.
Charles T. Betz
Book, Lyrics & Music · Original Concept
Charles T. Betz is a Minneapolis-based composer and lyricist, and the creator of Five Minutes on the Low Road, for which he wrote the book, music, and lyrics. He trained in classical and jazz guitar, brass, music theory, and jazz arranging at the University of Minnesota and the University of North Texas, and has performed across classical, jazz, rock, choral, and worship music. He completed the year-long Core program at New Musicals, Incorporated (2022–2023) and was invited to return as guest composer the following season, and in 2024 was selected for Nautilus Music-Theater’s Composer-Librettist Studio. Recent works include IQ: The Musical (Los Angeles, 2023), the commissioned choral-orchestral Wild and Precious (2024), and River Song (2025). He is a member of the New Musical Theater Exchange, the Minnesota Association of Songwriters, and the Playwrights’ Center. His work on Five Minutes grows out of direct engagement with near-death-experience research and the IANDS community, keeping the show grounded in the clinical literature rather than in spectacle.
Josiah Thomas Turner
Additional Book, Lyrics & Music · Dramaturgy
Josiah Thomas Turner is a writer, musician, and theater-maker. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Annie Baker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Kirk Lynn, and he was a Many Voices Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center (2023–2025). His honors include the Kennedy Center’s National Undergraduate Playwriting Award, the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Scholarship, and the Planet Earth Prize, and he is a 2026 Creative Capital grantee for The Adventures of Huckleberry Jim. He currently serves as an Artistic Department Assistant at the Guthrie Theater. A multi-instrumentalist and freelance dramaturg, he contributes additional book, lyrics, and music to Five Minutes on the Low Road and provides the dramaturgical guidance that shapes its structure and stakes, work that continued through the show’s Nautilus Music-Theater workshop.
Ben Jossi
Orchestrations
Ben Jossi orchestrates Five Minutes on the Low Road. He is a winner of the Louis Armstrong Award, the Woody Herman Award, and the Founders Award. More information at www.benjossimusic.com.
Luke O’Leary
Illustration
Luke O’Leary created the illustrations for Five Minutes on the Low Road: the tunnel-of-light hero art and the gallery pieces. See more of his work at lukeoart.carrd.co.
Acknowledgements
Dramaturgical
Elise Dewsberry and John Sparks of New Musicals, Incorporated; Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Music-Theater; Josiah Thomas Turner; and the members of the New Musical Theater Exchange.
Musical
Josiah Thomas Turner; Lia Peros; Eulis Kay; Joshua Row; Xan Mattek; Luke O’Leary; Ben Jossi; and, again, the New Musical Theater Exchange.
Inspirational
The International Association for Near-Death Studies for its ongoing research and conferences, and the local Twin Cities NDE meetups.
Book, music, lyrics, and original concept by Charles T. Betz. Additional book, lyrics, and music by Josiah Thomas Turner, Kennedy Center Emerging Playwright. Dramaturgy by Josiah Thomas Turner. Orchestrations by Ben Jossi. Illustrations by Luke O'Leary.
The story presented in Five Minutes on the Low Road is an amalgam. All story points are based on multiple accounts, or created purely as imaginary-yet-plausible within the known literature and associated cosmology. Any resemblance to any individual, living or dead, is coincidental.