The National Alliance for Musical Theatre launched the National Fund for New Musicals, a major granting initiative to support theatres and writers as they work together to create a new musical.  NAMT established the National Fund for New Musicals in order to provide a creative and effective process to support a musical’s development. Today, musical theatre writers can see their musicals follow an unpredictable path, often taking place over many years of isolated readings and without a clear destination of a full production at the end of the journey.  For theatres, the development and production of a new musical is an expensive and risky undertaking. Consequently, many works languish in development.  NAMT offers a support system to help small, mid-sized, and large theatres collaborate with one another and with other musical theatre artists, in order to bring more musicals to audiences around the world.

The goals of the National Fund for New Musicals are to:

1. advance the art form by furthering the development and production of new musical theatre works of great imagination and artistry
2. promote multiple models of new work production
3. bring together NAMT members to build collaborative relationships with one another and with outside partners
4. nurture creative writing teams
5. expand opportunities for writers and other creative artists to work with producers
6. encourage new musical theatre work diverse in ethnicity, subject matter, and style
7. encourage the sharing of expertise, resources and physical productions
8. encourage additional productions and the extended life of new musicals

Granting Categories
The National Fund for New Musicals provides grants to NAMT’s not-for-profit theatre members in three categories, which together reflect a musical’s trajectory from early development to full production.   Collaboration and effective planning are important considerations in an application.

1. Writers Residency Grant – To support the collaboration between producers and writers at a NAMT member theatre, in the early phase of a musical's development.
2. Project Development Grant – To enable producers and writers to develop and refine works which are further along in their trajectory.  The intended outcome is a workshop or reading of the piece, a finished script, or a demo CD.  Awards are up to $6,000 and the recipient must match the grant 2 to 1.
3. Production Grant – To support a full production of a new musical with the potential to enrich the repertory.  The intended outcome is a full production at one theatre or multiple productions among several theatres.  Awards range from $10,000-$20,000 and the recipient must match the grant 3 to 1. 

Distribution of Awards
Applications to the Writers Residency Grants are accepted once per quarter. Project Development and Production Grant applications are reviewed once a year by a panel selected by NAMT and comprised of NAMT members and other musical theatre professionals. The next granting cycle for Project Development and Production Grant applications will be announced in December of 2010.

For more information, e-mail New Works Director Branden Huldeen.