We are thrilled to announce 11 awards granted from the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals (formerly known as the National Fund for New Musicals), and six awards granted from the Innovation & Exploration Fund. Now in its 11th year, this year the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals (FYFNM) is providing grants totaling $70,000 to organizations across the country. The Innovation & Exploration Fund (I&EF) is providing grants totaling $12,000 to organizations nationwide.
NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated: “We are honored and excited to support our member theatres both as they work to develop innovative and provocative new musicals, and as they explore ideas to create new best practices in the field. With these grants, we have now awarded 162 grants totaling $563,000 to NAMT members across the country. These projects will join a growing list of important new musicals and initiatives supported by NAMT’s granting programs.”
theater latte da
Members in the News
NAMT in the News
NAMT News
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.
Blog
NAMT News
NAMT New Musicals Month: Week In Review
This week we kicked off our New Musicals Month with Pittsburgh CLO, Theater Latte Da, Barrington Stage Company and the writing teams of two of our festival shows this year – The River is Me & 17 Again. In case you missed it, here’s our week in review!
We are thrilled to announce 18 awards granted from the National Fund for New Musicals, and five awards granted from the Innovation & Exploration Grant program. Now in its tenth year, this year the Fund is providing grants totaling $58,000 to organizations across the country. The Innovation & Exploration (I&E) Grant program, now in its second cycle, is providing grants totaling $7,000 to organizations nationwide.
NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated: “We are honored and excited to support our member theatres both as they work to develop innovative and provocative new musicals, and as they explore ideas to create new best practices in the field. With these grants, we have now awarded 135 grants totaling $481,000 to NAMT members across the country. These projects will join a growing list of important new musicals and initiatives supported by NAMT’s granting programs.”
Blog
NAMT News
New Work in Progress: Goddess
Every year Theater Latté Da’s NEXT Festival introduces their audiences to new musicals. We reached out to Peter Rothstein, Theater Latté Da’s artistic director, to learn more about a show featured in this year’s Festival, Goddess, written by Saheem Ali, Jocelyn Bioh, Mkhululi Z. Mabija and Michael Thurber. The show was recently selected to receive a Writers Residency Grant from NAMT’s NFNM.
Can you tell us a little about the history of Theater Latté Da’s NEXT Festival and what your goals are for the program? How does the program tie into Latté Da’s mission?
NEXT is Theater Latté Da’s new work festival showcasing three works that stretch the boundaries of musical storytelling. It officially began in the spring of 2013. Each show receives two or three public readings with time for the writers to implement changes between each presentation. Following each performance is an in-depth conversation between the audience, playwrights, composers, lyricists and directors, facilitated by a dramaturg.
Latté Da’s mission is to create new connections between story, music, artist, and audience by exploring and expanding the art of musical theater. As our world changes, so does our need to produce work that reflects that evolution. NEXT is a significant part of Latté Da’s investment in the bold future for American Musical Theater.
Members in the News
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.
Members in the News
NAMT in the News
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!
Blog
NAMT News
New Work in Progress: C.
This month, we checked in with Peter Rothstein from Theater Latté Da about their upcoming Spring premier of C., a past NFNM Writers Residency Grant Recipient, written by Bradley Greenwald and Robert Elhai.
How did C. find its way to Theater Latté Da?
I have long been interested in adapting Cyrano de Bergerac into a piece of innovative music-theater. Bradley Greenwald, who is one of the Twin Cities’ finest singer/actors, was working with me on the world premier of Steerage Song, a musical about the American immigrant experience. He expressed interest in doing more work as a writer. I had experienced Bradley’s impressive work adapting operas for Theatre de la Jeune Lune. He has the natural ability to take classical work and make it contemporary, immediate and bold.
A guest post from Rebekah Greer Melocik, lyricist for this year’s show The Last Queen of Canaan, written with Jacob Yandura and Harrison David Rivers. In April,The Last Queen of Canaan was awarded a NFNM Writer’s Residency Grant at Theater Latté Da.
Blog
NAMT News
Festival Show Update: STU FOR SILVERTON
This month, we check in with Peter Duchan and Breedlove, the writers of 2014 Festival show Stu For Silverton, as they prepared for a reading of the show at NAMT member Theater Latte Da last month.
Based on the true story of America’s first transgender mayor and the town that elected him, Stu for Silverton celebrates a new American folk hero from Silverton, Oregon. This heartwarming, all-American new musical blends Our Town and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, testing the boundaries of tolerance as a small community adjusts to big changes.
The summer leading up to last year’s Festival you did some major reworking of the book to Stu for Silverton. What were those changes?
We’re quite fortunate that the real story of Stu Rasmussen and Silverton provides a strong emotional climax. Everything we’ve written builds to that beautiful, true moment of counter-protest staged by the community. Our challenge all along has been creating the right set up for it, giving the audience the information they need for the moment to really land effectively–and not giving them information that muddies the storytelling and weakens that emotional impact. Prior to NAMT, we made a number of changes, particularly to the first act: a new song/sequence to open the show, a new song to introduce Stu’s girlfriend Vic, a new sequence we hoped would explore the tug of war Stu feels between his hometown and the exploration of his identity that occurs in Portland. So, lots of new stuff, much of which we performed at the NAMT Festival.
How did the presentation in the Festival help you discover further changes to make to the show?
The Festival experience was definitely helpful and energized us to make further revisions. We were lucky to have smart, engaged actors in the room, a number of whom graciously offered us their honest reactions during the process. (Annaleigh Ashford, in particular, is a friend of ours, and a smart budding director in her own right, and she gave us some great, generous notes, a number of which we’ve incorporated.) We also met with producers and other theatermakers, gathering reactions and ideas quite helpful to our revisions. The result: we’ve made a number of changes, including writing ANOTHER new song to introduce Vic, as well as reworking the support group sequence, among other things. We learned a ton.
What was the response to the show like after the Festival?
We were thrilled with the response! We worked really hard to shape an abridged, 45-minute Festival draft that would give the audience a fun taste of the show and, hopefully, leave them wanting more. We got a lot of positive reaction from NAMT members. When Theatre Latte Da offered us this workshop, we jumped at the chance to work on the show out of town, out of sight.
You are now preparing for readings of the full script at NAMT member Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis this week. How has it been working on the show again and hearing the full version?
Blog
NAMT News
New Works in Progress: NEXT series at Theater Latté Da
An interview with Peter Rothstein, Artistic Director of Theater Latté Da about the launch of their new NEXT series developing new musicals in Minneapolis, Minnesota, next month.
Theater Latté Da will cap its 15th Anniversary Season by launching the major new works initiative NEXT. The inaugural season will feature readings of three new ventures into musical storytelling in various stages of development at The Lab Theater in Minneapolis’ historic warehouse district. NEXT will provide Twin Cities audiences the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the creative process and witness new musicals in the making. The musicals are When the Moon Hits Your Eye by Jon Marans; C. by Bradley Greenwald, Robert Elhai & Peter Rothstein; and Bessie’s Birthday by Kate Baldwin Eng & Jeff Tang.
Why did Theater Latté Da decide to start a new work festival?
Theater Latté Da’s mission is to explore and expand the art of musical theater. Launching a program that gives playwrights, composers and lyricists the opportunity to experiment is central to fulfilling our mission; shepherding new works from incubation to full production is a priority for our organization. We also want to be part of the national dialogue around the future of the American Musical Theater and have an impact on the next generation.
Why do you think Minneapolis is a great place to test out new works?
Minneapolis is home to one of the largest and most vibrant theater communities in the country. We have an incredible pool of talent in the Twin Cities, thinking artists who can bring talent, skill and insight to the development process. We also have a loyal and adventurous audience who I believe can play a vital role in moving a show to the next level.
This is the Festival’s first year. What will the programming of NEXT look like?
We have always been energized by the marriage of content and form, looking for innovative ways for music and story to intersect. Our inaugural year of NEXT will feature a diversity of stories, a wide range of musical styles and adventurous forms.
What do you hope your writers will get out of their Minnesota experience?
Our goal is to put the writers at the center of the process and have them articulate the next step for their work. Hopefully we can provide a safe, supportive environment and surround them with the talent to do so.
What do you hope your audience will get out of NEXT?
For a number of years we have been creating video trailers leading up to opening night that help to illuminate the design and rehearsal process. We want our audience invested in the creative process as well as the finished product. A new work series is the next logical step in that immersion, inviting our audience in on the development process from its early stages.
Why should people head to the Twin Cities to catch NEXT?
We have a dynamic line-up of shows and writers, and the snow should be melted by then.
For more info about NEXT, please visit www.theaterlatteda.com.