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NEA Awards Grants to NAMT and Our Members

The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will award over $27 million in grants to fund artistic projects and research, with $3.24 million going to companies working in the field of Theater & Musical Theatre. Many NAMT members have been selected to receive grants in this cycle, including $55,000 to NAMT itself, in support of our Festival of New Musicals and Fall Conference. Congratulations to those members receiving grants in this round of NEA funding, including:
Ars Nova
Atlantic Theater Company
Diversionary Theatre
East West Players
Horizon Theatre Company
La Jolla Playhouse
MCC Theater
NAMT
North Carolina Theatre
The Old Globe
Olney Theatre Center
Philadelphia Theatre Company
Phoenix Theatre
Playwrights Horizons
The Public Theater
Red Mountain Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
Seattle Rep
Village Theatre
ZACH Theatre
Additionally, two Festival shows have received grants for productions taking place within the granting cycle. Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA) received a grant for the world premiere of Gun & Powder (Fest ’18) by Ross Baum and Angelica Chéri opening this month. NAMT member East West Players and Mixed Blood (Minneapolis, MN) received grants for upcoming productions of Interstate (Fest ’19) by Melissa Li and Kit Yan.
Congratulations to all, and thank you to the NEA for supporting arts organizations throughout the country! For a full list of the recipients, visit the NEA’s website. 

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NEA Awards Grants to NAMT and Our Members

The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will award over $27 million in grants to fund artistic projects and research, with $3.28 million going to companies working in the field of Theater & Musical Theatre. Many NAMT members have been selected to receive grants in this cycle, including $55,000 to NAMT itself, in support of our Festival of New Musicals and Fall Conference. Congratulations to those members receiving grants in this round of NEA funding, including:
Ars Nova
Atlantic Theater Company
Diversionary Theatre
Horizon Theatre Company
The Lark
NAMT
The Old Globe
Philadelphia Theatre Company
Playwrights Horizons
The Public Theater
Roundabout Theatre Company
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Theater Latté Da
Theatre Under The Stars
Village Theatre
ZACH Theatre
Congratulations to all, and thank you to the NEA for supporting arts organizations throughout the country! For a full list of the recipients, visit the NEA’s website. 

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NEA Awards Grants to NAMT and Our Members

The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will award over $25 million in grants to fund artistic projects and research, with just over $3 million going to companies working in the field of Theater & Musical Theatre. Many NAMT members have been selected to receive grants in this cycle, including $60,000 to NAMT itself, in support of our Festival of New Musicals and Fall Conference. Congratulations to those members receiving grants in this round of NEA funding, including:
Ars Nova
Atlantic Theater Company
Dallas Theater Center
Diversionary Theatre
Goodspeed Musicals
Horizon Theatre Company
The Lark
Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma
MCC Theater
NAMT
The Old Globe
Playwrights Horizons
Prospect Theater Company
The Public Theater
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Village Theatre
ZACH Theatre
Congratulations to all, and thank you to the NEA for supporting arts organizations throughout the country! For a full list of the recipients, visit the NEA’s website. 

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Time Magazine: The Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017

This week, Time Magazine released their list of the Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017, and two musicals in the NAMT family made the list! Come From Away (NAMT Festival ’13) by Irene Sankoff and David Hein and The Band’s Visit (NFNM Cycle 8 Production Grant recipient) by David Yazbeck and Itamar Moses respectively claimed the fourth and second spots on the list.
Both shows have been supported by NAMT members throughout their development processes. After its 2013 Festival presentation, Come From Away was first produced at La Jolla Playhouse with Junkyard Dog Productions, both NAMT members. The Broadway production claims seven NAMT members as producers, including Junkyard Dog Productions, Michael Rubinoff with Sheridan College, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Spencer Ross, Yonge Street Theatricals, Wendy Gillespie & La Jolla Playhouse. The Band’s Visit received a Production Grant from the National Fund for New Musicals for its Off Broadway production at NAMT member Atlantic Theater Company, and bookwriter Itamar Moses is a NAMT Festival alumnus for his 2012 Festival show Nobody Loves You. Additionally, two plays produced by NAMT member The Public Theater were included in the list, including their production of Sweat which was named the number one play of the year.

The stupefying boredom of forgotten hamlet in the Israeli desert, where the residents are jolted out of their trance-like existence by a visiting band of Egyptian musicians. The inhabitants of a remote rocky island off the coast of Canada warmly embrace the passengers of 38 jets stranded there in the wake of 9/11… In this most polarized of years, a number of the best productions celebrate man’s shared humanity and the possibility of even the most entrenched enemies finding common ground and a path forward.

Visit the Time Magazine website to see the full list.

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Member in the News: Big Data and Jazz Hands: How One Company Aims to Bring Silicon Valley to Broadway

Last week, Variety took a look at Apples and Oranges Arts‘ new works program, THEatre ACCELERATOR to dig into the unique way that this NAMT member is looking at new musical development. The Accelerator uses Silicon Valley entrepreneurial techniques to speed up the new musical development process. Variety spoke with Tim Kashani, Apples and Oranges’ co-founder, to get some further insight into the program’s creation and its goals.

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Member in the News: La Jolla Playhouse Offers New Work With a Bite

American Theatre has a great report on NAMT member La Jolla Playhouse’s new audience engagement program, initiated in 2015 with a Building Audiences for Sustainability grant from the Wallace Foundation. Since receiving the grant, the Playhouse has used their resources to create and sustain programs that will allow them “to build an audience that is more reflective of San Diego.” Through interviews with staff and board members, increased patron participation and commissioning new works, the Playhouse has been hard at work on making this immersive community engagement effort one that will have a direct and lasting impact on the theatre’s work.

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Members in the News: Lake Dillon Theatre Company's Brand-New Performance Space

Last month, Lake Dillon Theatre Company opened both their summer season and a brand new performing arts center. Covered by both the Summit Daily and The Know, the new performance space is the result of a partnership between LDTC and the town of Silverthorne, CO. The partnership began in 2013 when the town realized that the theatre’s need to expand meshed perfectly with the town council’s goal of developing a thriving downtown. Now, the $9 million Silverthorne Performing Arts Center is up and running, featuring three new performance spaces.

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Members in the News: It’s beginning to look a lot like Broadway at Ogunquit Playhouse, Maine State Music Theatre

The Portland Press Herald recently wrote a feature about two Maine-based NAMT members, Ogunquit Playhouse and Maine State Music Theatre. The article highlights the extraordinary changes that both Ogunquit and MSMT have made in recently, through expanding their seasons, programming new work, bringing in big-name talent and much more. In response to audience demand, both theatres have focused on creating Broadway-level productions, a focus that has paid off both in ticket sales and in reputation.

Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold of Brunswick, who writes and edits for the online theater website Broadway World, said both theaters have transitioned into the 21st century with their sophistication and technological savvy while retaining some of their mid-20th century appeal. New York has noticed, and that recognition is reflected in both the quality of the creative talent working in Maine as well as the number of premieres both theaters take on.

To read the whole article and learn more about the work Ogunquit and MSMT are doing, visit the Portland Press Herald‘s website.

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Kirsten Childs Thinks Big

Kirsten Childs, a Festival alumna for The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Fest ’98) and Funked Up Fairy Tales (Fest ’12), is well known for her imaginative stories, and her latest musical certainly lives up to that reputation. Supported by a production grant from the National Fund for New Musicals, Childs’ Bella: An American Tall Tale had its world premiere at NAMT member Dallas Theater Center, and the production is now playing in New York at member theatre Playwrights Horizons. American Theatre recently published a feature on Childs, her latest production and her views on the theatre.

“The musical theatre form can lift you to such a wonderful place,” Childs testifies. “And it’s my personal and political goal to be uplifting, without needing to give people rose-colored glasses, without needing to let the truth be swept under the carpet, and without pretending that awful things don’t exist.”

Read the full profile the American Theatre website. Interested in learning more about how the project came to be? Check out our interview with Childs’ from last year.

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‘Zoot Suit’ Draws Crowds and Decked-Out Fans in Los Angeles

NAMT member Center Theatre Group’s new production of Zoot Suit was recently featured in a New York Times article. The article highlights the audience reaction to this season’s production; the show was first staged by CTG in the late ’70s and premiered on Broadway in 1979. This year’s production has proved extremely popular, with sold-out houses and three extensions. Audience members are also expressing their excitement about the show in another way–by coming to the theatre dressed in the fashions highlighted onstage. The NY Times spoke with several of these audience members about what seeing the show staged today means to them.

 “My mom was a pachuca, and before I saw the play I would be very embarrassed, I would be ashamed of my own skin. Then she took us to the play, and what stood out to me most was that most of the audience was Anglo and they were shouting and embracing what was going on. I remember feeling kind of proud, finally. I thought, Wow, this is my culture and where we come from.”
-Valerie Munoz

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Who knew Wichita was such a talent pipeline to Broadway?

The Wichita Eagle recently wrote a feature on NAMT Member Music Theatre Wichita, focusing on the caliber of MTW’s work, and how that makes the Kansas theatre a pipeline to Broadway for many young actors. The piece talks with many actors and theatre professionals who credit MTW as the place that kick-started their careers. Producing artistic director Wayne Bryan is also featured in the piece, discussing MTW’s programs and the important role that the theatre plays in shaping Broadway’s talent pool.

“There’s a real passion and a real openness to, I think, a lot of the performers that come out of the MTWichita program, and I think that contrasts with a lot of other young actors I see, where there’s a lot of self-doubt and a lot of sort of competition and a lot of second-guessing themselves,” [Stephen Kopel, Broadway casting director and MTW alum] said. “The folks that work at MTWichita, probably because they’re working at such a professional environment, come out a step ahead in terms of knowing how to present yourself, not second-guessing yourself and not treating everything as a sort of competition. There is an openness and joy to what those performers do, and I think that comes from MTWichita.”

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Know a Theatre: WaterTower Theatre of Addison, Texas

For the second month in a row, a NAMT member was featured in American Theatre‘s monthly “Know a Theatre” feature. This month, American Theatre spoke with Joanie Schultz, the new artistic director at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, TX. They spoke about about the theatre’s history, Schultz’s relationship to the organization and her excitement about theatre’s future.

I’m in the midst of a lot of exciting new developments at WaterTower, as we shift our focus toward creating empathy, building community, and creating dialogue with innovative, engaging theatre that speaks to our contemporary moment. This coming season we will be doing new and contemporary work and using our theatre in ways it’s never been used before. It’s an exciting time to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and at WaterTower Theatre in particular.

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Know a Theatre: Broadway Rose Theatre Company

American Theatre recently featured NAMT member Broadway Rose Theatre in their monthly “Know a Theatre” feature. Sharon Maroney, Broadway Rose’s producing artistic director, was interviewed about the theatre’s history, regional impact, artistic programming and more.

We are committed to producing new or lesser-known works as well as classic Broadway musicals. We always want to balance our season with artistically satisfying productions and shows that will help us stay financially sound. Last season we did a new work called Fly by Night. It was wonderful—an artistic and critical success and our audience enjoyed it. We also did Church Basement Ladies—a definite crowd pleaser that sold out and helped support other productions that we knew wouldn’t make as much money but were important to produce.

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Musical Theatre Students Are Becoming Triple Threats

NAMT members Baldwin Wallace University, Pace University, and the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program are discussed in this great article from American Theatre that looks at how musical theatre training is changing to meet the demands of the current marketplace.

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Broadway's Most Sought-After Young Star Is A NAMT Member

The NAMT staff had heard of the legendary Broadway baby Twan Baker, of course, but until last week’s in-depth New York Times profile of him, we didn’t realize he had such deep NAMT roots! From the Times:

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NEA Awards Grants to NAMT and Our Members

The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will award over $30 million in grants to fund artistic projects and research, with $3,505,000 going to companies working in the field of Theater & Musical Theatre. Many NAMT members have been selected to receive grants in this cycle, including $55,000 to NAMT itself, in support of our Festival of New Musicals and Fall Conference. Congratulations to those members receiving grants in this round of NEA funding, including:
The 5th Avenue Theatre
Ars Nova
Atlantic Theater Company
The Lark
Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma
The Old Globe
Playwrights Horizons
Portland Center Stage
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Village Theatre
ZACH Theatre
Congratulations to all, and thank you to the NEA for supporting arts organizations throughout the country! For a full list of the recipients, visit the NEA’s website. Watch the NEA’s video above to learn more about their impact on the arts in America.

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Theater Latté Da Finds Permanent Home

NAMT member Theater Latté Da has recently announced the purchase of the historic Ritz Theatre in northeast Minneapolis. American Theatre reported on the purchase, noting that this will mark the first time in Theater Latté Da’s 18-year history that the administrative offices, rehearsal spaces and performance venues will be in the same building.

“During our time at the Ritz Theater, our patrons have expressed how much they love the intimacy of the space and the vibrancy of the neighborhood,” said artistic director Peter Rothstein in a statement. “Residents and local businesses have been extremely welcoming and become a vital partners. With the Ritz Theater as our artistic home, we will continue to deepen our relationship with Northeast Minneapolis. The Ritz Theater is a fantastic building in a dynamic neighborhood with a rich history of diverse ethnic identity and cultural exchange. Theater Latté Da is thrilled to be a part of its next chapter.”

Congratulations to Peter and the whole Theater Latté Da staff on this exciting new development! Read more on American Theatre’s website.

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Watch Broadway Stars Perform Songs by Young Musical Theatre Songwriters of Tomorrow

Late last month, the inaugural recipients of The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students were announced. The program is a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and Playbill, Inc. with additional support from Disney Theatrical Group.
Angel Rodriguez, a student from Puget Sound Adventist Academy High School in Seattle, Washington was named National Champion; Rodriguez was initially recommended to the program by Seattle NAMT member theatre The 5th Avenue. The two runner-ups were Jake Berglove from Perpich Arts High School, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota and Chelsea Mayo from R.L Turner High School in Dallas County, Texas.
Now, Playbill has uploaded videos of all three songs being performed by Broadway talent! Watch the full videos and see what’s in store for the future of musical theatre. Congratulations to all three of these young songwriters–we can’t wait to read your Festival submissions one day!

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NEA Will Award Over $82 Million in Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts has recently announced that it will award over $82 million in grants to fund artistic projects and research, with $2,735,000 going to companies working in the field of “Theater & Musical Theatre.” Many NAMT members have been selected to receive grants in the NEA’s 50th anniversary year, including NAMT itself, in support of our Festival of New Musicals and Fall Conference. Congratulations to those members receiving grants in this second announcement of NEA funding, including:
Barrington Stage Company
CAP 21
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Goodspeed Musicals
The Old Globe
Pace University
Paper Mill Playhouse
The Public Theater
Theater Latté Da
Walnut Street Theatre
Weston Playhouse
To view a full list of the grant recipients, visit the NEA’s website. Congratulations, all!

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Theatre by the Book in Big D

Member theatre Dallas Theater Center has been exploring new ways to connect their audiences to the materials presented on their stage. One of their most innovative programs is a community book club that meets to discuss books, chosen by DTC staff, that relate to each show in the DTC season. American Theatre digs into this community engagement program, talking with staff at DTC about the successes and the challenges that this program has faced.

The book club fosters strong connections—among plays and club members, their community, and the thea­tremakers. Though theatre appreciation in an academic sense isn’t a goal of the project, the direct interaction with theatre personnel leads to more personal investment. “I’m always surprised by how much some audience members want to see how the sausage is made,” [Travis] Ballenger [DTC’s artistic associate] commented. “They formed a deep connection with the shows after those conversations and would often see the production multiple times. It was those conversations that led us to create New Play University,” a separate program, in its initial year, in which participants read drafts of, and meet with the artists behind, new plays in development in Dallas.

Read more about this program on American Theatre’s website.

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Congrats To Our Members and Alumni Nominated for NYC Theatre Awards

The incredibly busy New York awards season is underway, and the hard work of many NAMT members and alumni has been recognized in this full season of musical theatre. Congratulations to all!
The 70th Annual Tony Award nominations were announced last week. Hamilton (developed at and produced by member The Public Theater) received a record-breaking 16 nominations. Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (produced in part by member Center Theatre Group) received ten nominations, including Best New Musical. School of Rock, written by Festival Alum Glenn Slater (Fest ’08, Beatsville) received four nominations, include Best New Musical. Duncan Sheik’s (Fest ’15, Noir) American Psycho the Musical (produced in part by Center Theatre Group) earned two nominations, and the revival of his Spring Awakening received three nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.

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With New Works Initiative, Oklahoma City's Lyric Theatre puts focus to staging new musicals

Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma‘s New Works Initiative was developed to allow the theatre to commit to producing world premiere musicals. Through this program, Lyric supports the future of musical theatre, and is helping make Oklahoma a home for new musical development. NewsOK took a look into Lyric’s newest premiere, Mann…And Wife, to explore the evolution of the New Works Initiative and Artistic Director Michael Baron’s vision for the program.

The modern dating comedy “Mann … And Wife” marks the third world premiere production in three seasons for Lyric, after the 2014 musical mystery/romance “Triangle” [NAMT Fest 2012] and last year’s period piece “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” [NAMT Fest 2011]. Continuing through Feb. 21 at Lyric’s cozy Plaza District theater, the romantic comedy is part of the New Works Initiative Baron has championed at the more than 50-year-old company.
“I feel as a not-for-profit and a vibrant arts institution we should be adding to the canon of musical theater and that other places should be doing musicals that premiere here in Oklahoma. And that’s already beginning to happen,” Baron said in an interview.
“Some theaters have large reading series, some of them do lots of workshops, and I feel like the best use of our space and time is to actually do either the first kind of development production or the actual world premiere on its feet. Because there’s lots of new musicals and rarely do they get to get on their feet with costumes and all that. … And for us, it’s almost just as expensive to bring out the entire group for a workshop, so we might as well put it on the stage and do a full production.”

Read more at NewsOK.com.
Photo: From left, Mateja Govich, Zachary Prince and Liz Shivener rehearse a scene from Lyric Theatre’s new musical “Mann … and Wife” at Lyric at the Plaza, 1727 NW 16th St., in Oklahoma City, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman.

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Come From Away Sets Broadway Flight Plan

It has been announced that 2013 Festival show Come From Away will open on Broadway in the spring of 2017, produced by NAMT member Junkyard Dog Productions. Variety reports on the details:

“Come from Away,” the musical that earned enthusiastic reviews in an initial co-production at [NAMT Member] La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theater, has mapped out a road to Broadway, landing in New York in spring 2017 following engagements in Washington, D.C. and Toronto.
Junkyard Dog, the production company behind Tony winner “Memphis,” will produce the commercial staging. “Memphis” director Christopher Ashley, who is also the artistic director at La Jolla Playhouse, will reprise his directorial duties on the musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Kelly Devine (“Rocky”) choreographs.

Congratulations to the Come From Away team! Read more at Variety.com.

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Members in the News: How to Write a Canadian Musical

Academic member Sheridan College has been doing their part to contribute to the new musical theatre landscape through the Canadian Music Theatre Project. Macleans reports on the CMTP process, interviewing composers, including Festival Alumnus Brian Hill (Fest ’07, The Story of My Life), to highlight how Sheridan is uniquely positioned to help writers develop new shows:

Canadian writer Brian Hill (Broadway’s The Story of My Life), who has workshopped two musicals at Sheridan, says the developmental community is “buzzing” about the CMTP. “Michael Rubinoff has created something rare and wonderful,” he notes.
Influenced by programs like Northwestern University’s American Music Theatre Project [also a NAMT member], the CMTP selects new musicals for a five-week workshop process, culminating in a staged reading and a demo record of the songs (an essential tool in selling a show to producers). The cast is chosen from fourth-year music theatre students, but the directors and musical directors are paid professionals. The first show Hill did there with his composer-lyricist partner, Neil Bartram, The Theory of Relativity, had its first London production last year, and the CMTP’s first show, Come From Away, is making the rounds of U.S. repertory houses.

Read more on the Macleans website.
 
Photo: A presentation of The Theory of Relativity, Music and Lyrics by Neil Bartram and Book by Brian Hill. Developed by the Canadian Music Theatre Project. (John Jones)

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Southern Comfort Musical to Play Off-Broadway; the Public Theater Appeals for Transgender Actors

BroadwayWorld.com reports that NAMT member The Public Theater has added a production of Festival 2012 show Southern Comfort to their 2015-2016 downtown season.

Transformative tuner Southern Comfort has been added to the Public Theater’s 2015-16 downtown season. Directed by Thomas Caruso, the off-Broadway production will feature a book and lyrics by Dan Collins and music by Julianne Wick Davis, and is scheduled to begin previews on February 23, 2016. Opening night is set for March 7 and the show will play a limited engagement through March 27 in the Public’s Anspacher Theater.
In casting the musical, the Public wants to meet with actors and singers who identify as transgender; contact details are below. The complete company will be announced later.

Read the whole article at BroadwayWorld.com.

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