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INSIDE THE 2016 FESTIVAL: Finding the Right 45 Minutes

October 3, 2016

A guest post from Gordon Leary, lyricist and librettist of this year’s show The Loneliest Girl in the World, written with Julia Meinwald. Leary and Meinwald have previously been a part of the NAMT Festival in 2011 with their show Pregnancy Pact.
There are so many things to be excited about when your show is accepted into the NAMT Festival of New Musicals. You look forward to getting to know seven other writing teams and their work, working with wonderful actors and directors, and having the opportunity to share your writing with NAMT members from across the country… Then you remember that you need to do it all in 45 minutes.

NAMT News

INSIDE THE 2016 FESTIVAL: Finding Our Voice

September 28, 2016

A guest post from Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould, the writers of this year’s show Lempicka.

Before passing roles and songs along to singer/actors, we need to find the character’s true voice. Tamara de Lempicka, painter, Polish refugee, woman who will fall in love with her model, Rafaela… the first voice she sings in is always Matt’s. This is one of the first songs we wrote for the show, and the place where we truly found out who she is. Here, after they make love for the first time, Tamara observes and paints the sleeping Rafaela, wondering how, how in this world can she truly capture this. This woman.

NAMT News

INSIDE THE 2016 FESTIVAL: Why I Applied to the Festival

September 21, 2016

A guest post from Brett Ryback, writer of this year’s show Joe Schmoe Saves the World.
The question of why apply for the NAMT Festival is wrapped up in the larger question of why apply for any festival, or grant or award, etc. It’s certainly no small feat to fill out the application, record the necessary demos, pony up the entry fee, and get it all in the mail on time. Sometimes, even despite the potential production or reading or financial gain, applying for things feels like a burden that gets in the way of the thing you’d rather be doing – writing (or eating, it’s often a toss-up for me). But the actual act of applying comes with its own worthwhile lessons, and I recommend every writer give it a shot once or five times.

Failure Makes You Stronger

Rejection is part of the business, and learning to handle rejection is one of the best skills an artist can develop. Handling rejection in a healthy way will give you the stamina to keep going through even the toughest slog, AND get better while you do it.
The trick is that you can’t simply disregard rejection, you have to learn from it. Find out why you got rejected, decide whether you agree with that reason, and then adjust your work accordingly. You might learn that your piece is not for every audience, or you might come to understand that a certain quality you thought you were communicating is actually not being received by the reader. Or you might learn that the only way to get ahead is to live in New York City and have famous people sing your songs at 54 Below (Joking!) (Sort of.). Either way – you’re learning how to rebound and move forward. And eventually, that rejection will turn into acceptance.

NAMT News

INSIDE THE 2016 FESTIVAL: The Road to the Festival

September 15, 2016

I first had the germ of an idea to write a modern Cinderella story in the early 90’s. At the time the story was to be set in a launderette in the East End of London, run by a young single mother who falls in love with a married politician. The pumpkin carriage was to be a London taxi, the fairy godmother a customer who brings a ball-gown to be dry-cleaned. It was to be called Launderella and pretty much all that remains of that treatment is the song “They Don’t Make Glass Slippers.”
It was a few years later, sitting in Hyde Park with George, and basking in the recent success of Honk!, that we revisited the idea. We wanted to write a modern musical fable, loosely based on the fairytale but very London-centric. We decided to make our Cinderella character a young gay guy, Robbie, who works in the city’s most cosmopolitan district, Soho. As Robbie sings, in one of the lyrics:
ALL CITIES HAVE THE SAME
ONE STREET THAT KNOWS NO SHAME
In London, that is Old Compton Street – a glorious melting pot where gay bars, straight bars, theatres, coffee shops and strip clubs sit seemingly happy, side by side. One afternoon we sat in Old Compton Street just watching the tide of interesting characters walking by, and wondering what their stories were.

NAMT News

NFNM Show Update: The Band's Visit

September 1, 2016

The Band’s Visit, written by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses (Fest ’12, Nobody Loves You), will receive its world premiere at Atlantic Theater this Fall, supported in part by a Production Grant from the National Fund for New Musicals. We reached out to Annie MacRae, the Atlantic’s Associate Artistic Director, and Itamar to learn more about the show’s history and this upcoming production.
What is Atlantic’s history with new musical development? How does this tie into the theatre’s overall mission?
Annie MacRae: It is Atlantic’s mission to produce great plays simply and truthfully by utilizing an artistic ensemble. Over our 30-year history, commitment to this mission has led to some exciting new plays from Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Between Riverside and Crazy to Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew. At the same time, we’ve been working to build upon past world premieres like Patty Griffin’s 10 Million Miles and the iconic Spring Awakening to become a home for musical theater in NYC. In the past three years, we’ve developed and produced great projects like Martha Clarke’s reimagining of The Threepenny Opera and premieres of Found by Eli Bolin, Hunter Bell, and Lee Overtree and These Paper Bullets! by Billie Joe Armstrong and Rolin Jones. We’ve also produced several one and two-week workshops of musicals to help develop thrilling projects from the ground up.

What was the first inspiration for The Band’s Visit?
Itamar Moses: The project originated with our producer Orin Wolf, who acquired the stage rights to the film from Eran Kolerin, the filmmaker. He asked me to take a look at the film — which I’d heard of but never seen — and of course I loved it, because it’s great, and I immediately saw why Orin thought it might make a good stage musical. So then David Yazbek, who also saw the potential, and I were hired to do the adaptation.

NAMT News

Programs Are People: What We Learned At NAMT's First Education Roundtable

September 1, 2016

Two years ago, as part of our strategic plan goal to engage with more individuals at our NAMT member theatres, we launched a new program of Management Roundtables with a forum in Miami on board development and best practices. Following the model of our successful Writers’ Roundtables and New Works Summits, this program (as the name implies) was designed to focus on topics on the business side of theatre (which may or may not overlap with new work development and production). These smaller events, hosted by our member theatres, would allow us to explore areas that we weren’t able to support a full two-day conference on, but that warranted more discussion — and more face-time — than an online presentation.

Theater Latté Da Finds Permanent Home

September 1, 2016

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.

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

August 5, 2016

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!

NAMT News

Announcing the 28th Annual Festival of New Musicals

July 11, 2016

We are thrilled to announce the line-up of new musicals for the 28th Annual Festival of New Musicals, which takes place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 in New York.
Now in its 28th year, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals attracts theatre producers from around the world for this industry-only event to discover eight new musicals presented in 45-minute concert presentations over two days. All production costs are underwritten by NAMT, at no cost to the writing teams. As a non-profit organization, NAMT funds the Festival entirely through donations, sponsorships and contributions.
The festival has introduced musical theatre producers to 236 musicals and 448 writers from around the world. As a direct result of the Festival of New Musicals, more than 85% of the musicals presented have gone on to subsequent readings, workshops, productions and tours, been licensed, and/or recorded on cast albums. Some past festival shows include the Broadway-bound Come From Away (Spring 2017), The Drowsy Chaperone, It Shoulda Been You, Striking 12, Ordinary Days, Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others.

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: LIZZIE

June 2, 2016

Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt recently began licensing their 2010 Festival show LIZZIE. Now that they’ve begun licensing the show, we wanted to check in with LIZZIE one last time to find out what this new step means for the show.
LIZZIE has had quite the journey since it appeared in the 2010 Festival! Can you tell us a little bit about the developmental path that brought the show to its current form?
SC: In the 2 years following NAMT, we did a developmental production at Village Theatre in Washington, a concert at Ars Nova in New York, and a co-production of Baldwin Wallace University and Playhouse Square in Cleveland, directed by Vicky Bussert who we met when she directed our NAMT presentation. All those productions were very different, and working with such different directors and actors was great for allowing us to see how the show worked and to zero in on things that needed to be sharpened. We did a lot of rewriting in those years, added a few new songs and reworked whole sections. And we changed the name of the show from Lizzie Borden to just LIZZIE.
Then we made the album! We always described LIZZIE as a concept album come to life, but it was just a way of talking about the show. There was no actual album. But in 2013, Alan completely orchestrated the show and produced the recording, which we approached more like a rock record than a cast album. At that point, the show really felt “finished” to us. (The album is on Broadway Records and is available as a CD, digital download, and vinyl.)
Since then we’ve had productions at TUTS in Houston, Portland Center Stage, Fredericia Teater in Denmark, and Ray of Light Theatre in San Francisco.

NAMT in the News

NEA Will Award Over $82 Million in Grants

May 23, 2016

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!

Theatre by the Book in Big D

May 20, 2016

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.

Festival Alumni in the News

Festival Shows in the News

Members in the News

NAMT News

Congrats To Our Members and Alumni Nominated for NYC Theatre Awards

May 10, 2016

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.

NAMT News

New Work in Progress: Invisible

May 4, 2016

This month, we checked in with Elise Dewsberry from New Musicals Inc. about their upcoming concert reading of Invisible, written by David Hollingsworth and David Orris. The reading is being produced in consortium with NAMT member 3-D Theatricals, and has just received a Project Development grant from the National Fund for New Musicals.
Invisible is a John-Hughes-esque musical theatre adaptation of the HG Wells classic The Invisible Man with a totally original pop/rock score that takes great joy in paying homage to popular music and popular cultural tropes of the era. The show ultimately endeavors to physically and figuratively bring the audience into their own hallowed high school hallways via the heightened and dangerous halls of Springborough High School. Invisible lives in the fairly self-concerned and narcissistic year of 1988, because at its core, it is a show about what it means to cut away all of the cultural and social melodrama and truly see another human being.
NMI is working together with 3-D Theatricals to develop this project. How did that relationship first come about, and how did the two organizations come together to work on this specific project?
Funny you should ask! Although T.J. Dawson and I both work near Los Angeles, we actually met at the NAMT Conference in the fall of 2014. We got to chatting, and T.J. mentioned that he was interested in having 3-D Theatricals get involved in the development of new musicals. Since that’s exactly what we’re about at New Musicals Inc., I suggested that he let me know if he had any new works he would like to submit for a reading as part of our STAGES Festival. Since T.J. is hoping to produce new work on his mainstage at some point in the future, it made perfect sense that we should bring him some readings so that his audience could start to feel like they were a part of the development process, and start to take ownership of some of the new shows. Once we got back to LA, we had several more meetings, and we wound up actually expanding our STAGES Festival (summer of 2015) and bringing performances of all five new musicals (including Invisible) down to Orange County for T.J.’s audience. Since then, we’ve created a Concert Reading Series to bring even more new shows down to his audience. It’s a win-win situation—our writers get a chance to hear their new works in development, and T.J.s audience gets a chance to know more about the development process.

NAMT News

2016-2017 National Fund for New Musicals Grants Announced

April 27, 2016

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.

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: My Heart Is the Drum

April 7, 2016

This month, we chat with Festival Alumni Phillip Palmer, Stacey Luftig and Jennie Redling about their 2013 Festival Show, My Heart Is the Drum, which opens at the Village Theatre in Issaquah tonight. The show previously received a Writers Residency Grant at Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance.
My Heart Is the Drum has had quite a journey since the 2013 Festival! How did the show make its way to the Village Theatre for this production?
It has been quite a journey! And along the way, My Heart Is the Drum has become sort of a poster child for NAMT-member development. At the NAMT after-party, we met Robb Hunt, Village Theatre’s Executive Producer, who told us he loved the show. A few months later, we had a formative week-long writers retreat at Goodspeed Musicals. That summer, Drum was part of the Festival of New Musicals at Village Theatre. That was followed in the fall of 2014 by a workshop at Kent State University, and, that winter, a developmental production there—which Robb Hunt attended, and where we signed our contract with Village Theatre. Two workshops at Village happened after that, and here we are—with opening night of our World Premiere at Village Theatre [tonight]!
The last time we checked in with My Heart Is the Drum, the show was preparing for a production at NAMT member Kent State University. What has kind of response has the show had since then?
We’re thrilled to report several honors since then to complement the BMI Harrington Award for Creative Excellence that Jennie Redling had earned a few years back for the libretto. In 2015, Phillip Palmer and Stacey Luftig won the Fred Ebb Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre Songwriting, and in 2016 Stacey won the Kleban Prize as Most Promising Lyricist—both awards based on songs from My Heart Is the Drum. The show was also a Finalist for the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award. And Village Theatre was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Grant to help expand understanding of issues raised in My Heart Is the Drum.

NAMT News

Festival Show Update: Othello: The Remix

March 4, 2016

This month, we chat with Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Rick Boynton and The Q Brothers, JQ and GQ, about 2015 Festival Show Othello: The Remix, written by the Q Brothers and developed with Boynton. Othello: The Remix, which received a Writers Residency Grant at CST, is heading back to Chicago for a production this spring.
What has the post-Festival response for Othello: The Remix been like?
Rick Boynton: We had a terrific response to the presentation and are in talks with both commercial and not-for-profit producers. We are producing the show this spring at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and look forward to continuing those conversations.
Q Brothers: It’s been great. We have a lot of new fans because of it. The opportunities are still unfolding, and theater always takes time, so we’ll see!