29TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS WELCOME 1 FROM THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MUSICAL THEATRE’S PRESIDENT WELCOME To our 29th ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS! I look forward to this journey every year. When I walk into New World Stages, I never know where the Festival will take me, but I know that in just two days, I will feel a surprising and strong gamut of emotions. I will be both entertained and challenged, and I will have perspectives and opinions reinforced one minute and completely altered the next. We’re delighted that you’re here to join us for these two days—truly just the beginning of the journey for these unique musical theatre pieces and their extraordinarily talented writers. We hope you’ll want to blaze a development path with them; every year the Festival inspires many long-term relationships among writers, theatres, producers, directors and performers, and we expect this year will also initiate many new partnerships. NAMT believes that the best way to encourage that ongoing development is to give our writers every possible opportunity to showcase their best work. To Now licensing the musicals of us, that means providing our writers with a creative development experience free from financial and administrative burdens. NAMT assumes the costs of producing and marketing the Festival, handles all administration and logistics and takes no royalty stake in future productions. Put simply: the writers focus ndrew loyd ebber! on writing. A L W Our sponsors, exhibitors, donors and advertisers make this writer-centric Festival possible, by supporting this important annual event and NAMT this week and throughout the year. Thank you! Many thanks again, as well, to the Festival Committee, the NAMT staff and all of you, our audience. Enjoy the Festival! Jeff Loeb President, National Alliance for Musical Theatre FROM THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MUSICAL THEATRE’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR So Glad You’re HERE! A few salutes! First to you, our audience. Our Festival writers are so fortunate to have all of you here, ready to respond to their work. Whether applauding and laughing, gasping or sighing, you give tremendously important information to the writing teams. Next kudos go to the incredibly diligent and insightful Festival selection committee that works to select each year’s great eight from a truly extraordinary pool of submissions—240 this year! And I think it’s important to note that the process of selection is blind: the committee members don’t know who wrote the musicals they are evaluating—they only know what they read and what they hear. This year we are particularly excited not only about the quality, but also about the range of characters we’ll get to know over the next two days. These eight works explore a wonderfully wide variety of issues and themes and use uniquely appropriate styles to make the story-telling even more compelling. And we’re already thinking about next year! The application materials for the 30th Annual Festival are available online. Meanwhile, we’re also planning how we can support our Festival alumni writers throughout the year, through grants given to NAMT membership organizations by our National Fund for New Musicals, through writers’ roundtables and, always, through ongoing individual conversations. BRING THESE ICONIC SHOWS TO Last shout-out goes to the proverbial village…town…city…that makes this Festival happen—it’s a LOT of people! Our most sincere thanks to all of you who contribute, sponsor, advertise and exhibit. You are truly what makes the Festival such a powerful force in musical theatre development. LIFE WITH A NEW GENER ATION Again, thank you all for coming! With your help, we look forward to a great musical theatre future, starting today. Enjoy the Festival, The Musical Company 214 Sullivan St, Ste 4 • New York, NY 10012-1354 [email protected] • @TheMusicalCo www.themusicalcompany.com Betsy King Militello Executive Director 2 NAVIGATING THE FESTIVAL 29TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS 29TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS ABOUT NAMT AND THE FESTIVAL 3 NAVIGATING THE FESTIVAL ABOUT THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MUSICAL THEATRE The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization serving the musical theatre community. SCHEDULE: Our mission is to advance musical theatre by: Each musical will be presented once on Thursday and once on Friday. Your schedule, if you selected one when you registered, is printed on your badge, and the full Festival schedule can be found on the back cover of this program. Those who have pre-registered for presentations will be seated first. If you have a General Pass (white badge), you are not guaranteed entry to any of the presentations and will be seated on a space-available basis. • Nurturing the creation, development, production and presentation of new and classic musicals • Providing a forum for the sharing of resources and information relating to professional musical theatre through communication, PASSES: networking and programming Your badge (aka your pass) must be visible at all times! There are four levels of passes. • Advocating for the imagination, diversity and joy unique to musical theatre PREMiere Pass Priority access to all events; closing party open to registered premiere pass holders only Our 145 organizational members and 65 individual members, located throughout 30 states and abroad, are some of the leading producers of SELECT PASS Priority access to all events except the closing party musical theatre in the world, and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers. ACCESS PASS Secondary access to all presentations and Showcase, standby access to the Cabarets, no access to Panel or Party GENERAL PASS Tertiary access to all presentations, standby access to Showcase, no access to Cabarets, Panel or Party If you want to upgrade your pass and your experience at the Festival, please speak to anyone at the check-in desk located on the mezzanine level by The Green Room Lounge. ABOUT THE FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS The purpose of the Festival of New Musicals is to create a nurturing environment for discovery, development and advancement of the THE LINES: musical theatre art form. The National Alliance for Musical Theatre seeks to do this with a focus on quality, diversity and new voices in There are 3 lines for each theatre and they enter in this order: order to best serve its membership, who represent today’s leading musical theatre producers and developers. 1) PREMiere Pass & SELECT PASS Lines start on the Orchestra level against the light wall. The objectives and goals of the Festival are to: 2) ACCESS PASS For Stage 2, the line will start outside the Stage 2 entrance on the Mezzanine level. For Stage 3, the line will start on the Orchestra level just to the right of the Stage 3 entrance. • Showcase new musicals that are diverse in subject matter, style, concept and ethnicity 3) GENERAL PASS Lines will start on the Mezzanine level in the main part of the lobby outside the entrance to the respective stages. Note: this line will queue on the Mezzanine level for Stage 3 but will then be asked to head down stairs in order when it is time to enter the theatre. If you have • Encourage future productions of new musicals physical restrictions that make this difficult, please speak to a House Manager or Usher. • Promote new work and new voices • Nurture composers, lyricists and book writers Out of respect for your fellow patrons, we ask that no one save seats in the theatre for anyone entering on a later line. • Stimulate networking opportunities for NAMT Members and theatre professionals MEET THE WRITERS: • Provide a forum to spark new collaborations and ventures There will be 30 minutes between each reading, which is the perfect time to meet the writers at a special table on the Orchestra level, drop off a business card and pick up a demo. But don’t go too far away, because the next reading will start sooner than you think! THE 5TH AVENUE THEATRE OTHER THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: MEMBERSHIP SNAPSHOT • The Green Room Lounge is open all day except for an hour before lunch (so we can set-up for the Midday Cabarets) so swing by for a drink (cash bar), (As of September 10, 2017) CONGRATULATES meet up with colleagues and take a break! Alcoholic beverages can be purchased starting at lunch. The Lounge is located on the Mezzanine level near the 50th Street entrance. NAMT’s members make a vital impact in their communities — • Between shows, don’t forget to swing by the Orchestra level and meet our exhibitors who have products and services of interest to your organization. economically, in education, and by entertaining millions of people. • Don’t forget your badge...without a badge, you cannot gain access to the events! Last season, the NAMT members collectively... • Please turn off your cell phone during all events. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited. • Employed over 32,000 people #NAMTFEST29 @NAMT Facebook.com/NAMTMUSicals @NAMTpics • Staged more than 17,000 performances attended by nearly QUESTIONS? 8.5 million people ON 29 YEARS OF • Entertained over 500,000 subscribers The NAMT Board, staff and Festival Committee have special ribbons on their badges, so please approach any of us about the Festival, the shows or joining NAMT. You can also always head to the main check-in table outside The Green Room Lounge for help. We are here to ensure that you have a great time at • Provided education programs for over 1.4 million students ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE our 29th Annual Festival of New Musicals. and teachers • Had operating budgets totaling over $600,000,000 • Performed in 285 facilities with a total of more than 168,000 seats The Festival of New Musicals is supported in part by a generous award from the National Endowment for the Arts.