Life is always hard... but stories give us hope
I’m a writer, musician, and actor telling emotionally raw, imaginative stories about love, loss, and the quiet courage it takes to survive them.
We’ve all faced pain. For me, the darkest moments in my life always led me back to one thing: music and story.
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I grew up on Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Narnia... worlds where ordinary people rose through hardship to become heroes. I wanted to be like them. But my story didn’t unfold the same way.
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After a long, dark stretch, and a near-miss with cancer, I realized that even when life doesn’t go how it should, there’s still beauty to be made from the wreckage. Turning pain into music and story didn’t just give me purpose... it helped heal me.
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Now I create songs, novels, and musicals for anyone who’s ever carried a hurt too big to name. If my work helps you feel seen, feel something, or just take one more step forward, then it’s doing what it was meant to do.​
Current Works
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Ward Dales
Teacher and Mentor
"Raphael is one of those rare talents who pass through a teacher’s career only on occasion."
Maaike Laanstra-Corn
Board President, Shakespeare on the Green
"[Raphael directed] the best student production I've seen at Brown."
Michael Maricondi
Director,
"Love: American Style"
"This kid can SING."