We are thrilled to announce eleven awards granted from the National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its eighth year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $43,000 to twelve organizations across the country.
NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated: “We are honored and excited to support our member theatres as they work with this inspiring group of writers to develop these innovative and provocative new musicals. With these grants, we have now awarded 88 grants totaling $358,500. These projects will join a growing list of important new musicals added to the canon with support from our National Fund for New Musicals.
National Fund grants of $5,000 to $10,000 to support full productions have been awarded to:
Atlantic Theater Company (New York, NY) for The Band’s Visit by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses with support from Stacey Mindich Productions. Moses is a NAMT Festival alum for his show Nobody Loves You (Fest ’12).
Barrington Stage Company (Pittsfield, MA) for Broadway Bounty Hunter by Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin and Jason “SweetTooth” Williams with support from The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund and Stacey Mindich Productions. Iconis is a NAMT Festival alum for his show Bloodsong of Love (Fest ’11).
Playwrights Horizons (New York, NY) in consortium with Dallas Theater Center (Dallas, TX) for Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs with funding from The Hollywood Pantages, a Nederlander organization. Childs is a NAMT Festival alumna from her shows The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Fest ’98) and Funked Up Fairy Tales (Fest ’12).
National Fund grants of $4,000 to $5,000 to support a workshop or reading have been awarded to:
New Musicals Inc. (North Hollywood, CA) in consortium with 3-D Theatricals (Anaheim, CA) for Invisible by David Hollingsworth and David Orris with funding from The Alhadeff Charitable Foundation.
Stage Aurora Theatrical Company (Jacksonville, FL) for Drawn from the Water by Darryl Reuben Hall.
This is the eighth year of grants awarded from the National Fund of New Musicals, a fund created by NAMT to help support every stage of development for new musicals. This year’s recipients were selected by a distinguished panel, moderated by Gigi Bolt, the former Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts. The panelists were Elisbeth Challener, Managing Director of ZACH Theatre, NAMT Board Member and Development Committee Chair; Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., General Manager of Two River Theater; Tyler Dobrowsky, Associate Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company; Dan Murphy, Founding General Manager of Broadway Rose Theatre Company; Christine Toy Johnson, award-winning writer, actor, filmmaker, director and advocate for inclusion; Kara Unterberg, founder of The New York SongSpace Ltd.; and Marty Wiviott, General Manager of Nederlander theatrical activities in Los Angeles.
Additionally, the National Fund for New Musicals has awarded each of the following member organizations $500 to $1,500 for Writers Residency Grants over the past year, with support from Stacey Mindich Productions and The Human Race Theatre Company:
11th Hour Theatre (Philadelphia, PA) for Big Red Sun (NAMT Fest ’10) by John Jiler and Georgia Stitt.
Dallas Theater Center (Dallas, TX) for an untitled “Teen Sniper” project by Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman.
MCC Theater (New York, NY) for Magnificent Climb by Rick Elice and Will Van Dyke. Van Dyke is a NAMT Festival alum for his show Imagine Harry (Fest ’15).
Pittsburgh CLO (Pittsburgh, PA) for Nero by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik. Sheik is a NAMT Festival alum for his show Noir (Fest ’15).
Theatre Aspen (Aspen, CO) for Finn the Fearless by Andrew Farmer and Andrew Butler.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, CA) for The Four Immigrants Manga by Min Kahng.
The National Fund for New Musicals has supported the development of many musicals over the last 8 years, including The Fortress of Solitude by Itamar Moses and Michael Friedman at the Public Theater; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson at Dallas Theater Center; Ordinary Days (NAMT Fest ’08) by Adam Gwon at Adirondack Theatre Festival, which is now licensed through Rodgers & Hammerstein; Far From Heaven by Michael Korie, Scott Frankel and Richard Greenberg at Playwrights Horizons; The Memory Show (NAMT Fest ’09) by Sara Cooper and Zach Redler at Transport Group; The Circus in Winter (NAMT Fest ’12) by Ben Clark, Hunter Foster and Beth Turcotte at Goodspeed Musicals; and Southern Comfort (NAMT Fest ’12) at all three grant levels, at Playwrights Horizons, CAP21 and Barrington Stage Company; among many others.
NAMT thanks the following foundations, government agencies and organizations for their ongoing support of our programs: ABE Charitable Foundation, The Alhadeff Charitable Foundation, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York Creative Spaces Grant, ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, Anonymous, BMI Foundation, The Frederick Loewe Foundation, Friars Foundation, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Noël Coward Foundation, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation, Stacey Mindich Productions and The Shubert Foundation.