Day 25
It’s finally here! SHOW OFF! is tonight at 7pm! Do you have a ticket?
In honor of this event, let’s look at the show this title is borrowed from—The Drowsy Chaperone, which appeared in our 2004 Festival. Refresh your memory of the show with a video feature about the Original Cast Recording…and if you attend SHOW OFF! tonight, you may even see an original cast member recreating one of the performances shown below:
Day 24
This Festival show has had over 4000 productions in the US and Canada alone—but it has also been translated into many different languages and performed all across the world. (Including, albeit in English, in London, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical!)
Check out this fun clip from a Norwegian-language production of Stiles & Drewe’s Honk! at Stavanger kulturskole in Stavanger, Norway:
What Honk! song do you hope to see in SHOW OFF?
Day 23
Songs for a New Worldput Jason Robert Brown on the map, and appeared in the Festival in 1997. As this composer gears up for a Broadway run in January with his newest show, The Bridges of Madison County, why not look back at the show that started it all?
Read the original New York Times review for the show’s original Off Broadway run.
Watch and listen to Audra McDonald singing the popular song “Stars and the Moon:”
Buy tickets today to SHOW OFF!, where there a sure to be world-class performances like the one above.
Day 22
Today we look at the 2002 Best Musical Tony Award winning Thoroughly Modern Millie! Speaking of Tonys, have you seen the award night performance of the literally-toe-tapping number, “Forget About the Boy?”
Might another exciting number from Millie be featured in SHOW OFF? Attend to find out!
Day 21
Only 5 days left until SHOW OFF! (It’s not too late to buy a ticket!)
These last five days will feature some of our biggest and most successful, dazzling Festival shows!
We begin with John Caird and Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden, which appeared at the Festival in 1996. Watch an interview with Mr. Schwartz below, where he discusses the genesis of the show and names it as his favorite!
DAY 20
A handful of NAMT shows have gone on to Broadway—and even more shows by our alumni authors have had this great privilege. Here are some of their shows to play the Great White Way! Can you name some others?
Top to Bottom, First Column: Wicked (Stephen Schwartz – Fest ‘96), Little Shop of Horrors (Alan Menken – Fest ‘03), Pippin (Stephen Schwartz – Fest ‘96), Big Fish (Andrew Lippa – Fest ’05 & ‘06), Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Mel Marvin – Fest ’93, ’93 & ‘01)
Second Column: Everyday Rapture (Dick Scanlan – Fest ’96), Legally Blonde: the Musical (Laurence O’Keefe – Fest ‘03), Sweet Smell of Success (Craig Carnelia – Fest ‘01), Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken – Fest ’03; Tim Rice – ‘ Fest ‘94), First Date(Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner – Fest ‘06)
Third Column: Parade (Jason Robert Brown – Fest ‘97), City of Angels (David Zippel- Fest ’03 & ‘08; director of SHOW OFF), Jane Eyre (Paul Gordon – Fest ’06 & ’13; John Caird – Fest ‘96), Grey Gardens (Michael Korie – Fest ‘89), 13 the Musical (Jason Robert Brown – Fest ’97)
A guest blog entry from David Hein, writer of Come From Away to be presented at this year’s Festival of New Musicals.
I grew up listening to Newfoundland folk music – bands like Great Big Sea, Shanneyganock and The Navigators playing instruments like accordion, mandolin, bodhran, tin whistle and “ugly sticks.” They sang sea shanties with thirty verses that you couldn’t understand all the words to about drinking, shipwrecks, drinking, lost loves, drinking, loneliness and more drinking. In kitchen parties along the coast, people would dance until they fell down or drank until they fell down or a little of both. Raucous and rowdy, Newfoundland folk is passionate music and, like Newfoundland itself, it’s a looooong way away from the musical theatre of New York (which we also love – it’s just that, until Once, that kind of music wasn’t heard much in these here parts).
We first workshopped Come From Away at The Canadian Musical Theatre Project with a four piece band: (1) acoustic guitar, (2) fiddle/viola/cello, (3) accordion/mandolin/guitar and (4) bodhran/drums/mandolin/low whistle. We were trying to represent not only this amazing original style of music, but also to represent through music what happened in Newfoundland after 9/11 when so many passengers were stranded there – a fusion of many diverse cultures. So we not only needed to play Newfoundland folk, but ambitiously, we decided to also add a little Texan country, some African drums, Moldovan choral chanting, Hebrew and Hindu prayers and more…
But when we brought Come From Away to Goodspeed, we were told we could only use a piano – and that it would be played by our music director who was assigned to us – some guy named Dan Pardo. Honestly, we were
kind of dreading our crazy Celtic folk show being translated into formal classic music theatre arrangements, with pristine pronunciation, and coming out sounding like Gilbert and Sullivan (not that there’s anything wrong with G&S). But when we arrived, Dan invited us out to the Griswold Inn (the oldest pub in America). When he’s not working on shows like Showboat and Mame, Dan plays concertina at the Gris each Monday night – they sing sea shanties, drink a lot and make the crowd sing (and drink) along. After that, we knew our show was in good hands.
Fast forward to now: we’ve only got a 29-hour reading to teach all these styles of music and we’ve got more than just a piano, but far fewer instruments than we’d originally envisioned. We’re at CAP21 for our first rehearsals with a ridiculously talented cast who have performed in some of our favorite Broadway shows. Dan has updated our original orchestrations (written by the equally amazing Callum Morris) and they sound wonderful. Frankly, our cast could make anything sound wonderful – but we still only have a very short time to teach everything – and even though the cast seems to be taking it in, we really only get one or two passes…
On our third rehearsal, we meet the band. NAMT restricts the band size to 2-3 performers, so we have Erikka Walsh, who’s played violin in Oncesince its initial development; Eli Zoller, who plays guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo and drums; and Dan, back playing piano and concertina. It’s a rushed rehearsal – Erikka has to get back to Once and we’ve got to head to a NAMT writers meet-n-greet, so we don’t get to everything.
Today, we had our sitzprobe – bringing the band and cast together. This is the moment of truth… and it all works! Dan’s orchestrations sound beautiful underneath the twelve choral voices. Eli somehow turns his guitar into a guitar-drum and Erikka hits every note. And the cast is magic. Ruthie Ann Miles and Nick Choksi are singing in Hindi, Spencer Moses and Jason SweetTooth Williams are singing in Hebrew, and everyone is singing in Newfoundland-ese. By the last song, everyone’s clapping and stamping their feet and it feels like we’re in an East Coast pub singing sea shanties.
Sure there’s still some work to do, but we’ve still got some rehearsals – and it feels like all these disparate bits and pieces will come together. Which is kind of one of the themes of Come From Away: telling a story about all these different people from around the world coming together in a tiny community. And telling that story by playing music from around the world – and finding the common denominators that tie them together. Come From Away is a true story musical about a little town that shared everything it had with new friends from around the world – and we can’t wait to share this show with our new friends at NAMT.
DAY 19
Today we take a break from looking at Festivals past and jump ahead to this year’s! Here is a sneak peek at our 2013 Festival program—front page, back page, and inside page about how the festival runs. Will you be joining us later this week for the live festivities?
Day 18
Since 2002, the Festival of New Musicals also features a concert performance called The Songwriters Showcase. These shows are chosen for many different reasons, from being National Fund recipients to ones being developed by NAMT Membersto Festival runner-ups. One thing that never changes is how great the shows are—some have even moved on to Broadway!
Learn about some of their big and recent successes below:
First Date by Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary was featured in 2012 and is currently running on Broadway.
Spring Awakening by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik was featured in 2005 and opened on Broadway in 2006.
High Fidelity by David Lindsay-Abaire, Amanda Green and Tom Kittwas featured in 2004 and opened on Broadway in 2006.
Memphis by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan was featured in 2002 and opened on Broadway in 2009.
Fly By Night by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock, which was featured in 2012, has an upcoming run at member theater Playwrights Horizons, and recently played at another member theatre, Dallas Theatre Center.
Next Thing You Know by Ryan Cunningham & Joshua Salzman was featured in 2011 and recently released a cast album!
Tamar of the River (f.k.a. Tamar & the River) by Marisa Michelson and Joshua H. Cohen was featured in 2010 and is currently running in New York City, produced by Prospect Theater Company.
DAY 17
Part 2 in our series on licensed NAMT Festival shows is here!
Today we discover what the licensing houses MTI & Theatrical Rights Worldwidehave to offer. Check it out below!
Will any of these shows be featured in SHOW OFF? Buy tickets now and find out soon!
DAY 16
The Story of My Life by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill appeared in the 2007 Festival and ran on Broadway 2009. One of its next stops: South Korea, for a full production translated into Korean!
Check out one of the show’s stand-out numbers “Mrs. Remington” sung by the original Korean cast.
Click here for an English version, to compare.
Will a song from The Story of My Life be featured in SHOW OFF….possibly this very one? Buy tickets today!
A guest blog entry from Kevin Del Aguila, writer of The Astonishing Return of…The Protagonists! to be presented at this year’s Festival of New Musicals.
It’s a week away from NAMT, I’ve got our 40ish-minute cut of the show ready, we’ve written a new song for the presentation, we’ve assembled an UNBELIEVABLE cast, and yet all I can do is think about the venue where the whole thing will take place: New World Stages.
New World Stages is where I go every night. Not because I love hanging out in a basement, but because that’s where I’m currently performing in Peter and the Starcatcher, reprising the role of “Smee” that I originated on Broadway. Our producers recently announced that the show will be closing in mid-January, so I’ve felt a little nostalgic about New World recently, and started to think about how much time I’ve spent there.
With a style that can only be described as “airplane hanger chic,” New World Stages is the place where I first became involved with NAMT as the director of the See Rock City and Other Destinations presentations in 2008. Hey! That’s not true! I was a performer in
the musical Lizzie Borden at NAMT in 2000 when it took place at the (now demolished) Douglas Fairbanks Theater many moons back. Well, forget about that.
These days, I’m wearing my author hat at NAMT. And my little superhero extravaganza, The Astonishing Return of…The Protagonists!, will be showcased not just within the same theatreplex that I go to every night, but on the exact stage where another show I wrote ran Off Broadway for five terrific years. The show was called Altar Boyz and it gave me my first taste of commercial success. I was no longer just “a guy who writes,” I became “the guy who wrote Altar Boyz.” A small, but tremendous upgrade to my career.
In fact, several of my collaborators from Altar Boyz are involved in our NAMT presentation, from performers (Andy Karl, Tyler Maynard and Carlos Encinias) to our Music Director (Lynne Shankel) to our director Chris Gattelli, who won a Lucille Lortel award for his choreography of Altar Boyz at a ceremony held at…New World Stages!
Walking around NWS (as the kids call it), I find that each area brings back a memory. The stairwell where I slept between shows. The hallway where I met that TV actor. The couch where I first read a review of Altar Boyz that called my book “wafer thin” (oh, if I had a nickel…). The bathroom where someone unknowingly recommended my own show to me. It’s a place where I’ve had a lot of anxiety, laughter, failure and success. In short, it’s the theatre.
The Protagonists! is a project that I started writing when New World Stages was still just a $2 movie theater. I am very thankful to NAMT for helping to bring it to life and looking forward to adding another memory to the place.
DAY 15
Earlier in this series we shared with you a bit about David Kirshenbaum, the only author to have 4 shows featured in the NAMT Festival. Today, we share the authors who have had three works showcased–and there are six! Learn about their history with the Festival below.
How many of our Three-Timers will be featured in SHOW OFF? Buy tickets now to find out on October 20.
An interview with Irene Sankoff and David Hein, writers of the upcoming Festival show Come From Away, about exploring an unexplored topic, composing a musical inspired by Newfoundland and how the Festival has challenged this writing team.
Come From Away depicts an aspect of 9/11 that is not often focused on. How did you hear about the event in Newfoundland, and what inspired you to write about it?
Irene Sankoff: Our friend Michael Rubinoff (a NAMT member through Sheridan College and the Canadian Music Theatre Project) suggested the idea – and after a quick Google search we found so many articles and news clips that we’d be sitting there for hours looking at them with tears in our eyes. We saw that there were events planned in Newfoundland to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, and we noticed many of the people who had been stranded there so unexpectedly were returning to visit the friends that they had made 10 years earlier – and so we decided we had to be there too. We applied for a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to spend close to a month out there – and we got it.
When we arrived everyone was so willing to share their stories with us, and they spoke of one another and their memories with respect and love and gratitude toward the Newfoundlanders for putting them up, feeding them, entertaining them and befriending them during such a terrifying time. It was such a positive response to a hateful act and the people who were there to experience the Newfoundlanders’ hospitality really want this aspect of history to be shared. The stories are not only touching, there are humorous ones, too. At one of the shelters, a local asked a passenger if there was anything she needed – she said “A cup of coffee… and my dog.” The local left the shelter and then returned a while later with a cup of coffee and the family’s pet dog to keep her company. That’s just one story of the many amazing stories we heard…
What is the intended function of the story as a re-telling instead of happening in the present tense?
IS: We were inspired initially by The Laramie Project. Both shows are about a town’s response to a tragedy as told through the people who were affected by it. It’s important to underline how much the time spent in Newfoundland still resonates with the people who were stranded there after 10 years. And we wanted to relay the stories as much as possible in the way they were told to us.We weren’t interested in a fictionalized retelling of history, since what actually happened was so amazing (having said that, we still needed to take thousands of stories from hundreds of people and turn them into a musical, so some of the people we met are merged into one character, and some events that happened we ascribed to different characters, but while it’s not a documentary, it’s all based on truth). Finally, the story we wanted to tell wasn’t just that people were treated incredibly when stranded in Newfoundland—we wanted to show that they and the Newfoundland community were changed by these events—and we felt we could only do that by showing what happened next when the passengers returned home. The town felt emptier and quiet for the first time. And passengers who returned home wrestled with their experience being so different from everyone else’s – and they all mourned losing something amazing that they never expected to find. It was really only ten years later, when these groups reunited, that the story finally felt resolved.
The Newfoundland accent is fascinating. What was it like writing for this dialect, and what were your considerations for how quickly an American audience would catch on?
IS: Ow’s dat, B’y? Oh, my ducky, the Newfoundland tongue – she’s right difficult! But she’s a beauty too, B’y!
We were immersed in the dialect while visiting Newfoundland in September 2011, and found some
folks were easier to understand than others! We missed the punch line of many jokes because when the locals got together they would speak faster and faster as they got excited, and once a joke landed they would look at us expectantly and we would just stare back blankly! We recorded a lot of verbatim interviews and we also got ourselves a copy of the Newfoundland Dictionary. We tried to keep speech patterns and figures of speech as intact as possible, and while workshopping made changes to clarify intent if people were confused. What’s emerged still represents the richness of the language, but doesn’t lose anyone along the way.
What cultural aspects of Newfoundland informed the musical composition? Were you aiming for a specific genre of music or did each song evolve from a different musical style?
IS: Newfoundlanders told us that at least one person in every house plays an instrument and David grew up on
East Coast music and folk festivals. He couldn’t wait to start composing for a bodhran (a hand drum), accordion, fiddle, penny whistle and ugly stick (basically a stick stuck in a boot with bottle caps screwed into it…no, really). But along the way, we got really excited about trying to represent through music what happened in Newfoundland over those five days – a merging of cultures from around the world over top of a base of Newfoundland folk. For passengers who came from Moldova, we listened to Russian and Moldovan music. For passengers who came from Texas, we listened to country rock. We added African percussion for passengers from there and somehow we found common denominators to create a musical metaphor for the world coming together.
One of your main characters is American Airlines captain Beverley Bass, the first female captain of a commercial airline. What was it like writing a character with such real-life historic import?
IS: We are in awe of Beverley! She told us that as she was growing up she had no understanding of sexism, so when she decided at a very young age she wanted to be a pilot, she saw no reason why she couldn’t become one. It’s amusing that even in 2013 people assume that she’s a flight attendant until the script reveals otherwise. Women especially respond to Beverley’s song in the second act detailing what flying means to her and how she got where she is today – lyrics which were very close to the verbatim story that she told us herself. Beverley is a huge supporter of us and fan of the show – she just sent our new baby daughter an adorable welcome gift and she’s constantly cheering us on over Facebook! We have shared the music with her as the show has developed, and she saw a live streaming of the show as it was performed in Canada from her home in Texas! Beverley, like many of the people we spoke to, continues to keep in touch with us and follow the show’s development. In fact, we might have a couple special guests at NAMT!
When you two work together do you more or less stick to respective categories as book writer or composer, or do you both dabble in everything?
David Hein: We write everything together – book, music, and lyrics – although since I used to be a singer/songwriter, I tend to start the songs and write the majority of the music – but by the end, we can barely remember who wrote what. We each work in different ways. I tend to slap things on a blank page and Irene goes in to refine them, and what follows is usually hours of conversation and debate before anything else goes down on the page.
Has the Festival process presented any challenges or elucidated anything for you about Come From Away?
DH: What challenges HASN’T it presented? From script cutting, to finding our newborn daughter a passport, to casting from Canada via google and youtube…but despite all that, the NAMT staff, our advisors, and our director and music director have really shared the workload, and really jumped in when Irene gave birth at the beginning of August, which has made it a completely wonderful experience. From a script and music perspective, it’s really forced us to take a step back and look at what’s essential to our piece – which is wonderful, because one of our challenges was that we felt our Act 1 was a little long. Fitting it into a 45-minute reading required tweaking each line and really being economical, and we’ve had to kill some of our darlings, but we feel like we’ve made it leaner and faster in the process. Having said that, some of our favorite stories and songs are in Act. 2, or have ended up on the NAMT cutting room floor… but we’re crossing our fingers that this isn’t the last time we’ll see them!
DAY 14
The list of merits given to alumni writers of the Festival is too long to list—but we will try! Here is a look at all the Alumni authors to win Jonathan Larson Grants, listed by the year they were awarded.
2013: Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham
2012: Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis
2011: Michelle Elliott and Danny Larsen
2010: Daniel Maté, Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond
2009: Mark Allen, Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore
2008: Gaby Alter, Susan DiLallo
2006: Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman, Joseph Iconis, Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda
2005: Neil Bartram, Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy, Michael Cooper and Hyeyoung Kim, Glenn Slater and Stephen Weiner
2003: Nell Benjamin
2002: Julia Jordan, Michael Korie, Peter Mills
2001: John Bucchino, Laurence O’Keefe
2000: Beth Blatt and Jenny Giering, Chad Beguelin and Matt Sklar, David Kirshenbaum, David Simpatico
1999: Kirsten Childs
Congratulations all!!
Make sure to attend SHOW OFF! to see numbers by many of the award-winning composers listed above!
DAY 13
Triple threat writer (book, music, lyrics) Kirsten Childs has brought two shows through the Festival—The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin in 1998 and Funked Up Fairy Tales last year. Check out the media below and learn all about Kirsten’s special brand of musical theatre.
Read the review for the original Off Broadway production of The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, which Ben Brantley called “sharp and tasty”!
Watch an interview with Kirsten filmed during the Festival process last year:
DAY 12
Does all this information about NAMT shows have you longing for a night at the theatre? Here is a guide to some of the shows in our Festival history currently playing–don’t wait…see a NAMT show today!
First we start with a few recent Festival shows playing at NAMT member theaters:
LIZZIE (Fest ‘11)
at 11th Hour Theatre Company (PA)
Playing Nov. 23 – 25
more info
at Theatre Under the Stars (TX)
Playing Oct. 10 – 20
more info
A LITTLE PRINCESS (Fest ‘05)
at Berkeley Playhouse (CA)
Playing Oct. 30 – Dec. 8
more info
at Fiddlehead Theatre (MA)
Playing Nov. 21 – Dec. 8
more info
Next, visit the UPCOMING/NOW PLAYING tab on the MTI, R&H, or TRW show page for any of the licensed, previous NAMT shows for dozens of professional and amateur productions playing all across the country. (Check out our post on October 5th about licensed shows, and look for the upcoming Part 2 of that series.)
Quick links to some of these shows include:
The Drowsy Chaperone (Fest ‘04)
Children of Eden (Fest ‘96)
Songs for a New World (Fest ‘97)
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Fest ‘96)
Ordinary Days (Fest ‘08)
I Love You Because (Fest ‘05)
Striking 12 (Fest ‘04)
Happy theatre-going!
P.S. – If you cant make it to any of these performances, attend SHOW OFF! for numbers from over 15 Festival shows.
DAY 11
Some of the most popular shows to come out of the Festival have been productions of Theatre for Young Audiences and family oriented shows. This includes the international sensation Honk! (Fest ‘99) by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, this year’s Festival show by the same authors The Three Little Pigs, last year’s Festival favorite Funked Up Fairy Tales, Andrew Lippa’s A Little Princess (Fest ‘05), and many, many more.
Watch this great video of the title song from another Festival TYA show, How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back? (Fest ‘09), filmed in Chicago, the same city where the show was developed at NAMT member Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
And don’t forget to attend SHOW OFF!, where one of the benefit honorees is Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Creative Producer Rick Boynton.
DAY 10
Becoming licensed for performance offers a musical the chance to reach audiences all across the world, through productions at professional and amateur houses from San Diego to Chicago and London to Seoul. This is Part One of a two-part series about all of the shows that have become licensed after participation in the NAMT Festival.
Today we look at the licensing houses Samuel French, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Dramatists Play Service have to offer:
Keep watching the blog next week to learn about the shows licensed by Musical Theatre International and Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
Can you guess which of the shows listed above will have a number featured in SHOW OFF?
DAY 9
No festival is complete without the talented performers who bring each show to life. Today we look at some of the repeat cast members in Festival history. See what they are up to now and check out pictures of them in rehearsal and performance over the years–and be sure to look around the NAMT website for more pictures of our talented casts.
Kenita Miller in Funked Up Fairy Tales
Alex Brightman – Currently on Broadway in Big Fish
Kerry Butler – Performing in SHOW OFF! October 20.
Bryce Ryness – Currently on Broadway in First Date
Nancy Opel – Currently in Honeymoon in Vegas at Papermill Playhouse
Kenita Miller – Recently seen in many productions with City Center Encores!
Santino Fontana – Currently on Broadway in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Chris Hoch – Currently on Broadway in Matilda
Lindsay Mendez – Currently on Broadway in Wicked
Alex Brightman & Kerry Butler
Lindsay Mendez in rehearsal for Band Geeks!
Chris Hoch (far left) and Santino Fontana (second from right) rehearsing Bonfire Night
Bryce Ryness (background) rehearsing Triangle
Nancy Opel (second from right) in Bleeding Love
Day 8
I Love You Because by Salzman & Cunningham was featured in the 2005 NAMT Festival, received an Off Broadway run in 2006 and since then has lived on in countless productions at regional and international theaters. Some of the international production locations include Germany, the Philippines and England. Take a look at some of the artwork and photos from these cross-continental mountings!
Left column: Repertory Philippines, Philippines 2009
Right Column: Landor Theatre, UK 2007
Day 7
This year’s 25th Annual Festival of New Musicals features FIVE returning teams of writers. Find out more about the history of each team at NAMT below and be sure to visit the 2013 Festival page to hear clips from their shows.
* These authors have appeared at the Festival even more times than are listed above! Without Mr. Taylor, Robert Oberacker co-wrote In That Valley (Fest ’99); without Mr. Greenberg, Tommy Newman penned Tinyard Hill (Fest ’07); without Mr. Drewe, George Stiles was on the team for The Three Musketeers (Fest ’99). We are thrilled to have them and their collaborators back!
Day 6
This year, it was Festival alumni author Daniel Maté!! He charmed audiences in 2010 with The Trouble With Doug (co-written by Will Aronson) an inventive musical that re-imagines Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Here is Daniel and Will performing a song from The Trouble With Doug, and be sure to check out the other videos on Daniel’s YouTube channel for endless funny, smart, and poignant numbers like this.
Congratulations Daniel!
Some other recent Festival alumni-Kelban Prize winners include: Andrew Gerle (2012), Adam Gwon (2011), Michelle Elliott (2011), Peter Mills (2010), Laura Harrington (2008), Joe Iconis (2007) and Jeremy Desmon (2007).
Day 5
The 2009 Festival featured Memory is the Mother of All Wisdom by Sara Cooper and Zach Redler. After the Festival, the show was a produced at Barrington Stage Company (a NAMT member theatre!), and with the help of a National Fund for New Musicals grant, Transport Group (another NAMT member theatre!) produced the show Off-Broadway this past year, now with the new title: The Memory Show. Though the title changed, the cast stayed the same through all of these productions.
Look below for images of Leslie Kritzer and Catherine Cox staring in this powerful piece—4 years apart!
Day 4
In 2003, the Festival featured The Ballad of Little Pinks a charming musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Marion Adler, and a book by Connie Grappo.
Take a peek inside the original festival program for the show below. Can you spot the 2012 TONY Award winner in the cast? Comment below!