the VIRTUAL PITCH Conference
… pitching new musicals to developers and producers across the country
the Problem
Writing teams want to get their new musicals in front of potential developers and producers.
the Solution
NMI is hosting a virtual conference for teams to prepare and present pitches to many developers and producers at once.
the Team
The staff at New Musicals Inc. will be joined by theatre professionals from across the country.
the Ask
Participate as a developer or producer - Promote the opportunity - be a Patron for a writing team.
the Problem
Just as has always been true, writing teams want to get their new musicals in front of the movers and shakers in the industry for potential development and production. But now more than ever, those movers and shakers are really busy and not able to read everything that comes across their desks.
What is the best way to get the attention of a potential development partner? What are they looking for? How do they want to receive the information? How does an unknown writing team get past the gate-keepers for that one chance to generate excitement about their great idea, and prompt that potential partner to ask for more materials?
how can a team get their musical to potential partners?
know the market
what are producers looking for?
do the research
how do teams find out what theatres might be interested in their work?
knowing how to pitch
many writers don’t really know how to present their materials in a succinct but compelling way
follow-up?
when and how should a writing team follow-up with a contact?
the Solution
The Biz of the Musical Theatre Biz Pitch Conference will give writing teams a chance to prepare the perfect short elevator pitch, practice delivering that pitch; and then deliver it to multiple producers, all completely on-line.
During the weekend of July 24/25/26, writing teams will spend 4-6 hours per day getting professional and personalized input on how to pitch their new musicals. At the end of the weekend, participants will get a chance to practice their pitches in front of industry professionals who are ready to hand out the tough love necessary to make sure the pitches are ready. In the week following the conference, the participating teams will get to pitch LIVE (online) to a group of industry professionals (each participant will be signed up for TWO such pitching sessions).
BONUS: After the process is over, participants will be able to upload their recorded live pitch onto their own personal page, along with more info about their show including music demos, which will be accessible to all of the industry professionals who have participated, as well as many others.
teams prepare, present, and live-pitch
conference panels
a weekend of information packed panels designed to help teams prepare their pitches
practice pitches
opportunities to practice giving live pitches for immediate feedback
real-time pitches
two live virtual pitch sessions to two different groups of industry professionals
pitch page
each team gets their own pitch page with their recorded pitch plus more material that will be sent out to even more industry professionals
auditing opportunity
the number of live-pitching teams will be limited, but other teams can audit the course and still get their own pitch page that will be sent out to the larger group of industry professionals
the Team
The NMI Staff has been hosting live versions of the BIZ of the MUSICAL THEATRE BIZ Conference every other summer since 2006.
For the 2020 VIRTUAL version of the conference, we have already begun recruiting industry professionals from across the country and are continuing to add to the team.
Elise Dewsberry
Artistic DirectorElise has been involved in the development of new works for over forty years: as an actor/singer, as a director, as a dramaturge, and as a writer. While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise joined ANMT as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise has served as a member of the Selection Committee for the National Alliance of Musical Theatre’s annual Festival of New Works, and is currently a Los Angeles Ovation Award Voter. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com
Scott Guy
Executive DirectorScott Guy (Executive Director) has been actively involved as a writer and producer in both theatre and television. He has six Emmy nominations, and over 100 produced television scripts for Warner Bros., FOX-TV, Disney, Discovery Channel, PBS, etc. Upcoming/recent projects: Disney (musical version of Pirates of the Caribbean); Corday Productions (Days of Our Lives); Manson’s Girls for Hollywood Fringe Festival (Pick of the Fringe); Der Strunkenwhitenlieder at Theatre Elision. Scott is currently writing episodes for three different musical webseries: Tales from a Darkening Wood, The Last of Its Kind, and Slow Time on a Prairie Porch. Scott is the Executive Director of New Musicals Inc. where he supervises online writers’ workshops, lyric labs, and script consultations. Under Scott’s tenure, New Musicals Inc. has developed over 50 musicals for producers across the country, and over 100 independent musicals by NMI writers.
Your Name Here
ProducerWe are just beginning to put together our list of fantastic industry professionals who will be joining us to listen to the pitches of the writing teams.
Our Pitch Panelists don’t necessarily have to be currently in a position to be taking on the development or production of a new work, although that would be great! But it would also be really useful to have panelists who can simply provide their insights into the pitches: What is working, what isn’t? What makes the pitch stand out? How could it be better? Any ideas of what the team should do next? All of those arenas are just as useful to our pitching teams.
We have had many LIVE pitch sessions in past conferences and have been lucky to have the participation of many great panelists such as Cody Lassen, Ken Davenport, Brian Graden, Kent Nicholson, Michael Kerker from ASCAP, Sean Cercone, Sheldon Epps from the PASADENA PLAYHOUSE, Lous Spisto, Heather Provost, Tim Dang from EAST WEST PLAYERS, David Kurs from DEAF WEST, and Tim Kashani and Christopher Sepulveda from APPLES & ORANGES.
the ASK
What does NMI need to make this pitch conference happen? We need the generosity of a little bit of time and attention from a diverse group of industry professionals: producers and artistic directors from local theatres, regional theatres, and commercial theatres.
We are asking all of you to PARTICIPATE by agreeing to virtually attend one (or two?) of the final two hour pitch sessions during the week of July 27th. You can sign up for the morning (10am PST) or afternoon (2pm PST) session any day from Monday through Friday, and commit yourself to listen to 15 short pitches (about 3 minutes each) from the writing teams for a two hour window.
Your response to each pitch could come in one of three ways:
- comment live in the meeting immediately after the pitch
- post your thoughts in the meeting “chat” that we would share with the participants later
- email us after the meeting to let us know if there are any shows you want to know more about
PARTICIPATE … PROMOTE … be a PATRON
CAN'T PARTICIPATE?
be on the PITCH LIST
if you can’t make the week of July 27th as a panelist - you can still be part of our PITCH LIST and get a link to the pages that we put together for all the participants
READY TO DO MORE?
PROMOTE
get the word out about the conference to writing teams you know might benefit
be a PATRON
subsidize one or more writing teams you think might benefit from the conference ($125 per team)
Contact Us
5628 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, 91601
818-506-8500
admin@nmi.org
New Musicals Inc.
come make musicals with us …