Fall Conference 2022

In-person participants, get your badge and some coffee, make sure your app is set up, and start greeting your colleagues and friends.

Online participants, the video lounge will be open and this is a perfect time to get set up and start making connections, too!

Morning coffee sponsored by Pearl Studios.

A chance for all Fall Conference participants, in-person and online, to share what’s on their minds and set the stage for the days to come in a fully hybrid, interactive session. What are some of the biggest challenges you’re facing as you head into the fall? What are some of the greatest rewards you’ve experienced producing new musicals in the last year? Come to the mic or the Zoom screen and tell your theatre’s story.

Janette Roush is the Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital, for NYC & Company, New York City’s official destination marketing organization.  She oversees the organization’s paid media strategy, digital initiatives and media insights to raise the profile of NYC and to inspire visitation to the five boroughs.  She is also responsible for the organization’s domestic and international promotional campaigns, B2B marketing for the travel trade and meeting planners, partnerships, and promotional strategy for campaigns like NYC Restaurant Week and NYC Broadway Week.  Prior to joining NYC & Company, she spent more than two decades marketing Broadway at organizations such as Broadway.com and AKA, a global leader in entertainment advertising and strategy.

Sponsored by Disney Theatrical Group and Pittsburgh CLO

Taking a step beyond Zoom readings, Apples and Oranges presents how they are using Virtual Reality technology to develop and present new musicals and the potential implications for the future of theatrical storytelling. Using examples from their live VR family musical Winter Lights to the pre-recorded immersive VR musical The Calling, speakers Tim and Pamela Kashani, Alani iLongwe and Tyler Heaton (Apples and Oranges Arts) will discuss the process for creating the shows in VR as well as tools and techniques to help NAMT members explore incorporating virtual reality into their development and production practices.

Barriers to entry in the theatre are nothing new, but something has changed in the last two years, for audiences, artists and administrators. Or have frictions that have always been there simply been newly exposed? How are we welcoming people back to the theatre and cultivating new audiences at the same time? What positive changes are we seeing? What work still has to be done?

Moderated by Orlando Morales (The 5th Avenue Theatre), with Victoria Bailey (Theatre Development Fund), Andy Butterfield (Weston Theater Company), Pablo Hernandez Basulto (The Public Theater), Jason Kantrowitz (Luminous Ventures Ltd) and Shanta Thake (Lincoln Center)

Afternoon coffee sponsored by AMS and Hollywood Pantages

(NAMT Members Only)

Come for important updates on the state of NAMT and vote on the new slate of Board members and other important business.

All NAMT members are encouraged to attend this meeting, even if you’re not with us at the Fall Conference. Watch your email for Zoom details.

Sponsored by Concord Theatricals

Morning coffee sponsored by Broadway Licensing and The Muny

Two years after a racial awakening, many theatre companies are talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, justice… (you name it), but where is the ACTION? Join us for a facilitated conversation with two NAMT member theatres who are on active IDEA journeys. Hear about the successes, the ongoing challenges and everything in between.

Moderated by Seena Hodges (The Woke Coach), with David Byrd & Donna Lynn Hilton (Goodspeed Musicals).

We talk about wanting to bring in new audiences but are we really developing work they want to see? Or maybe more importantly that they want to perform? Where is the work for high schools about high school students? Are there vibrant roles for actors of all ages? Are the communities we’re trying to reach truly being represented? We tell writers to write what they know, but whose voices are we telling them we value by what we produce?

Moderated by Aislinn Frantz (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), with Suzie Bixler (Village Theatre), Brannon Bowers (American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern University), Britton Melton (Uptown Players), Greg Reiner (National Endowment for the Arts) and Kit Yan (Interstate, Fest ’19)

Afternoon coffee sponsored by Goodspeed Musicals and Theatre Under the Stars

Meet the writers and learn about the shows of the 34th Annual Festival of New Musicals!

Join us for this breakout conversation about the evolution of new musical development at the college and university level including what the future looks like for both institutions and writers. In-person attendees may participate live in the Signature Rehearsal Studio (food and drink are not allowed in this room, so please eat lunch first, or join online from the lobby cafe). Online attendees, join us on Zoom. This session is also open to NAMT Academic members not attending the Fall Conference (check your email for details).

Is this a great time or a terrible time to be producing new musicals? If we’re all rethinking how we engage our audiences, what other strategies can we rethink? What can we learn from other industries and businesses about the last year of change? How can we lean into opportunity instead of hiding from misfortune. Our panelists will discuss the new landscape for risk and growth for producers, artists and audiences.

Moderated by Susanna Gellert (Weston Theater Company), with Rachel Aldeman (Long Wharf Theatre), victor cervantes, jr. (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Ann-Carol Pence (Aurora Theatre) and Keena Redding.

It seems like an unusually high number of NAMT member theatres have undergone leadership transitions over the last two years. What’s more, they did so during a time of turmoil and uncertainty for the industry. Hear from both incoming and departing leaders about how they successfully passed the baton, what wisdom they have to impart and what changes they plan to make.

Moderated by Kate Galvin (Constellation Stage and Screen), with Kwofe Coleman (The Muny), Mark Fleischer & Van Kaplan (Pittsburgh CLO), Adam Immerwahr, Laura Lee & Robb Hunt (Village Theatre), and Kappy Kilburn & Emily Wells (The Human Race Theatre).