The Academy for New Musical Theatre announces

The Interstate
Musical Theatre Project

Beginning in October 2008, states across the nation will be participating in the Interstate Musical Theatre Project, a national collection of brand-new musicals examining American themes and culture.

Musical theatre writers from every part of America will be invited to participate in this national coalition of new musicals written simultaneously across the nation. The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize and a concert production as part of ANMT's Concert Reading Series.  (The 2007 and 2008 Concert Readings were at the Colony Theatre in Los Angeles/Burbank).  Every musical participating in the project receives three developmental workshops in Los Angeles.

The Interstate Musical Theatre Project is a two-year-long series of developmental workshops creating new musicals (pre-existing musicals are not eligible). Writers participating in this program will receive three workshops with members of the Academy Repertory Company in Los Angeles, and dramaturgical support and feedback from the staff of the Academy for New Musical Theatre.

Workshops will be digitally recorded and uploaded to a password-protected website; participants will be able to view workshops for their own musical as often as they wish, as well as view other workshops in the project. The public will not be able to view these workshops; they will be available only to project participants.

An overview of the process

Phase One - Writers apply as a team: bookwriter, lyricist and composer.
Phase Two: Table-readings, workshops, and feedback:
First half of Act One
Second half of Act Tone
Full draft of entire musical
Phase Three - winner receives workshop, cash prize, and concert production

Workshopped and hosted by ANMT in Los Angeles, each musical will receive:

• Guidance and feedback to create an outline

• Three workshops with professional actors in Los Angeles at three key stages of development:

the first half of Act One
the second half of Act One
completion of the first draft

• Digitized table readings and feedback sessions which are uploaded to password-protected website, so authors can view them as often as they wish.

• Support from professional dramaturgs, music directors, lyricists, actors, and directors in conjunction with the Academy Repertory Company in L.A.

• National press releases and exposure to producers all around the country, as part of the Academy for New Musical Theatre’s network of theatres, artistic directors, writers and producers.

• One musical will be selected to receive a $10,000 cash prize and a concert presentation in Los Angeles.

• All musicals will be considered for further development and production, as well as consideration for sponsorship by ANMT to the New York Musical Theatre Festival, NAMT Musical Theatre Festival, Village Theatre Musical Theatre Festival, Theatreworks Musical Theatre Festival and STAGES Festival in Chicago.

Here’s how it works

Interstate Musicals are not pre-existing musicals. The idea is that new musicals will be created from scratch, specifically for the Interstate Musical Theatre Project. Interstate Musicals can be any genre and any size, although ANMT recommends a cast of 4 to 8. This recommendation is merely to increase the commercial viability of the resulting musicals, but is not a requirement.

Each musical should explore American themes or culture, specifically “interstate” -- which might mean anything from state-to-state relations/politics/ controversy, interstate highway transportation, inter-state commuting, long distance relationships, historical events, or anything in between.

The staff of the Academy for New Musical Theatre will guide each state’s musical from idea to outline to first draft, providing workshops and support at every step along the way.

About ANMT

ANMT is able to interact with composers, lyricists and bookwriters via internet technology, webcasting workshops, table readings, feedback sessions via its website. This process was wildly successful in an international musical theatre project pairing writers from London and Los Angeles, with ANMT actors and staff in Los Angeles and writers in various parts of England. The result was eight musicals, some of which have subsequently been presented in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and London.

"I couldn't be more impressed with the folks at ANMT. They are dramaturgs, coaches, and teachers of the greatest, highest caliber. The feedback they'll offer you on your work is astonishingly insightful and detailed. I highly, highly recommend getting their input on your new musical projects."

- Jeff Marx
Tony award-winning co-creator of Avenue Q

"I recently had the pleasure of working with The Academy for New Musical Theatre on a reading of The Grouch’s Daughter, my new musical co-written with Jack Helbig. ANMT staff member Elise Dewsberry served as both dramaturg and director, and in our years of working on this show, no one person has been as helpful to us as she was. I'm deeply impressed with the care and intelligence of their creative input, and would not hesitate to work with ANMT again."

- Mark Hollmann
Tony award-winning composer of Urinetown

"We have nothing like this in the UK. I don’t know how you guys do this, in such amazing detail, show after show after show. Thanks so much for taking the time to help us get this show as strong as it can be. This sort of feedback is priceless."

Denise Wright, London
Shaharazad and Me

"[ANMT} was the best thing that could have happened to Fairystories. Their careful and insightful feedback provided me with expert and informed opinions and still allowed my show to change and grow in the way I wanted it to. They applied their knowledge to both the general and the specific and did so with unfailing generosity of spirit. I can’t believe we did all this by email and video feedback. I would recommend this programme to any writer, composer or producer with a new musical....You could not wish to be in safer hands!"

Paul Graham Brown, Berlin
Fairystories

"ANMT has found a way to combine both the educational component – How To Write A Musical – with the practical application – access to people and organizations looking for new musicals. In that, they are unique and proven. ANMT was responsible for bringing the three of us together – composer, lyricist and librettist – and introducing us to Steve Ullman and the South Bay Civic Light Opera. Without ANMT, THE COTTON CLUB would never have happened for the three of us in the way it did."

Arnold Margolin
The Cotton Club

"ANMT stands for excellence, in songwriting and in scriptwriting. In this musically challenged time we live in, they are one of the few organizations, whose goal is to maintain the high standards, we have always expected of the theatre."

Marty Panzer
Lyricist for Barry Manilow

"EWP had an opportunity to create an original musical from idea-to-production. We would never have attempted it on our own, but ANMT's incredible creativity, energy and artistic quality of musical development drove us all the way to production. The process is astonishing. We can't imagine how we would produce an original musical again without ANMT."

Tim Dang, East West Players
Imelda

Anticipated Development Process

Applicants must submit as a team, consisting of a bookwriter, composer and lyricist.

Teams of two will be acceptable but not preferred.

Teams must include at least one U.S. citizen.

Each team will submit a single proposal for a musical, and samples of their writing. Teams will be selected on the basis of their proposal, their samples and their biographical backgrounds.

1. From Fall 2008 through Summer 2010, ANMT will conduct informal workshops for the exploration of the Interstate Musicals by providing actors, directors, music directors, pianists, rehearsal space, and dramaturgical support. Some of these workshops will be part of the regular ANMT workshop curriculum, some will be in conjunction with the Academy Repertory Company’s curriculum, and some will include ANMT staff members. 

2. ANMT will conduct three informal assessments of each musical, which shall follow a table reading of the work with ANMT staff. These assessments will follow the submission of 1) the first half of Act One, 2) the second half of Act One; and 3) the first complete draft. Deadlines for submissions will be set at regular month intervals, such that the entire musical will be written within an 18-month period, currently contemplated from March 2009 through Summer 2010.  East Coast, Central, and West Coast writers will be on staggered submission and feedback schedules, but all teams will be allotted the same amount of time.

3. ANMT will provide Interstate writers with access to non-public webcast versions of all the table readings and assessments. Interstate writers will be encouraged, but not required, to visit Los Angeles during the final assessment periods of the full draft.

4. At the culmination of the project, one of the Interstate musicals will be selected for a concert reading in Los Angeles, a $10,000 cash prize, and will also be automatically be considered for sponsorship by ANMT to one or more of the following: New York Musical Theatre Festival, NAMT Musical Theatre Festival, Village Theatre Musical Theatre Festival, Theatreworks Musical Theatre Festival and STAGES Festival in Chicago.

5. An approximate timetable for the project:
July-November 2008 Writing teams formed
November 08 - January 09 Outline to ANMT’s artistic staff
December 08 - February 09 Outline revisions
February -April 09 Submit the first quarter of the musical
June - August 09 Submit the second quarter
October - December 2009 Submit full first draft
February - April 2010 Submit judges' draft

Fees

$6,000 participation fees for each musical. There are no additional fees. The Interstate Musical Theatre Project is subsidized in part by the Academy for New Musical Theatre. (Estimated value is $12,000 for actors, music director, dramaturg, rehearsal space, digitizing/uploading, camera rental, tape, broadband fees, administrative fees, copies.)

$3000 is due upon acceptance of your application.  The second $3000 is due upon submission of the second half of act one.  Payments are not refundable.

Cash prize and concert reading are fully subsidized by ANMT.

Application Procedure

This project is open only to bonafide citizens of the United States of America; at least one member of each team must include a U.S. citizen.

For consideration, each team must electronically submit each the following:

• application form
• a brief description, no more than a page, of the idea for the musical.
• a brief biographical paragraph about each writer on the team
• excerpt(s) from a piano/vocal score from the composer, 3-4 songs or musical cues, uploaded in pdf format
• 3-4 audio samples of the composer’s work, uploaded in mp3 format
• excerpts from the lyricist, 3-4 lyrics, including a description of the songs’ context; uploaded in either pdf or Word format
• excerpts from the bookwriter’s work, 10-20 pages from either a play or a musical; uploaded in either pdf or Word format
• proof of sponsorship (covering the $6,000 submission fees) from either a theatre, a public or private corporation, or from the writing team itself, uploaded in pdf format

The writing team does not have to have collaborated together previously.

Once selected, the writing team will be given a Participation Agreement to sign, in which a rigid set of deadlines and upfront payment is agreed to, in accordance with the process described above.

As ANMT’s sponsorship of this project is dependent upon a minimum number of participants, ANMT reserves the right to cancel or postpone the project and refund participation fees if it does not receive a sufficient number of qualified applicants.