Our featured video this week is an interview with TIM KASHANI and PAMELA WINSLOW KASHANI, the master-minds behind Apples and Oranges Studios, producers of the Tony award winning musical An American in Paris (among many others!). Apples and Oranges Studios combines the team’s diverse involvement in the entertainment industry with experience in the tech start-up and enterprise IT worlds to develop and produce new musicals in cutting-edge ways. Utilizing revolutionary tools and complex data analysis to build audiences and drive business, Apples and Oranges Studios endeavors to tell compelling stories with strong commercial viability. View the interview on NMI’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/anmtTV
If you’re under the age of 26, and you’re writing for musical theatre, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment and New Musicals Inc. would love to hear from you.
New Musicals Inc. in Los Angeles is sponsoring its fourth annual New Voices Project, in which young playwrights, composers and lyricists receive workshops and concerts of their work, with feedback sessions from executives from Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment and New Musicals Inc. Selected finalists will have their work critiqued in an in-house workshop in March of 2016; and then presented in concert in Los Angeles in April 2016.
Writers are encouraged to submit up to three selections, either from a single work, or separate works, for a total of 20 minutes of material. The staff of New Musicals Inc. selects up to six writers’ works to present to executives at Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Engineering.
The finalists work will receive feedback from the NMI staff and representatives from Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, and the writers will then be given an opportunity to rewrite and resubmit in time to be presented in concert at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, as part of NMI’s annual showcase, “got musical,” which features highlights of musicals in development at NMI.
“We’re looking for writers in whom we see potential,” says NMI’s Executive Director Scott Guy. “We’re not pigeon-holing that potential: that is, we’re not looking for ‘Broadway musical’ writers per se, or ‘ground-breaking’ or ‘commercial’ or ‘avant-garde’. We’re looking for writers who are exploring their voices through the blend of music and voice. The stronger your voice and vision are, the more likely we’re going to respond to your work.”
The 2015 New Voices Project winners were: Jacob Combs & Madeline Myers, Bill Nelson and Joseph Trefler, and Michael Finke. The Merit Award Recipients were: Mark Sonnenblick, Andre Catrini, Sam Chanse and Bob Kelly, and Ben Boecker. Three writers were selected in 2014: Danny Bernstein, Santino DeAngelo, and Zack Zadek. The writers selected in 2013 were Amar Benkhoukha, Ion Constantine, Nick Jester, Christopher Byron Pratt, and Noah Reece.
“I’m really excited about the structure of our fourth season, which will give writers an opportunity to revise their work before it gets presented at the got musical concert,” says Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry. “There are so few opportunities available right now for young musical theatre writers. There is the ASCAP/Dreamworks annual workshops; and the great programs from the Festival of New American Musicals, and we are proud to provide another west coast opportunity.”
There is no application fee. NMI is hopeful that funds will be available to fly the winning participants to Los Angeles for the got musical presentation in April, but such funding is not yet secured.
For more information, consult either the link to the project, or contact Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry at admin@nmi.org; www.nmi.org; 818.506.8500.
Want a great deal on tickets to Deaf West’s SPRING AWAKENING on Broadway? Make a bid at the NMI online auction! Lots of other great offers on theatre tickets, restaurant gift cards, spa/beauty treatments, and singing/acting/piano/dance lessons. Check it out at:http://www.biddingforgood.com/anmt
Have you written a great new musical, and are you looking for feedback and/or an opportunity for a concert reading? Don’t miss the July 15 deadline for the annual Search for New Musicals at the Academy for New Musical Theatre.
The Search for New Musicals accepts entries from around the globe; winners receive awards worth up to $25,000 in workshop productions, concert readings, feedback, and developmental support.
“We are thrilled to sponsor the Search,” says Elise Dewsberry, Artistic Director of the Academy. “We love seeing what writers are creating; and of course our mission is to nurture the folks who are writing musicals, so I’m looking forward to seeing what submissions we will get this season.”
Established in 2008, the Search for New Musicals has awarded concert readings and/or workshops to twenty promising new musicals including It Happened in Roswell by Terrence Atkins and Jeffery Lyle Segal; The Looking Glass Wars by by Kurt Kuenne, based on the novel by Frank Beddor; Infamous by Karen M. Cohen and Stephen Kingsbury; Mad Bomber by Charles Monagan and Richard de Rosa; Emerald by Chris Burgess and Denise Wright; Chapter Eleven by Stephen Telfer; Gilbert & Sullivan on Wall Street by Charles Veley; The Water by Georgia Stitt, Jeff Hylton, and Tim Werenko; Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, Jr., Chris Budinich, Diana Belkowski, Dan Tramon, and Carl Anthony Tramon; Girl Detective by Alan Gordon and Mark Sutton-Smith; Greenbrier Ghost by Susan Murray and Clay Zambo; The Next Fairy Tale by Brian Pugach; and Life After Life by Tracey Langran Corea and Thaddeus Corea.
If you’ve written a musical, and you would like some honest, constructive, detailed feedback on how to make your musical better, you can submit your musical to ANMT for dramaturgical feedback at levels from evaluation to analysis to table reading to workshop to concert reading.
The submission deadline this season is July 15, 2014. All submissions will receive either an audio Overview Evaluation ($100 submission level) or an audio/video Detailed Analysis ($400 submission level), and will also be automatically entered into the Search contest..
“I’ve never received a more cogent and useable evaluation,” wrote Search writer Elliott Baker (author of The Tooth Fairy’s Daughter). “I’m very comfortable with the critique process but I have never finished reading a critique/evaluation with as much desire and energy to go to work on and polish a piece.”
“The evaluation was far more in-depth than I expected and seemed to cover all the key aspects of the show. Frankly, I found it more helpful than a staged reading would have been,” stated Search participant Barbara Campbell (bookwriter/lyricist of The Awakening). “This critique offered me far more in-depth comments into the basic ‘nuts and bolts’ than I have ever received to date.”
British writer Michael Dresser stated “The real value of this service is in its rarity: from genuine industry professionals who have the clarity and vision to provide feedback with no bias or agenda and which asks the right questions and suggestions to enable YOU to genuinely UNDERSTAND how to make your work a better piece of musical theatre - the long term benefits of which are incalculable!”
All entries will receive constructive dramaturgical feedback, and will be entered in the Search contest. The winner of the 2014 Search will be announced by November 15, and will receive a workshop with the Academy Repertory Company, detailed feedback from the ANMT staff, and will be given a concert reading in Los Angeles.
Writers can submit their shows electronically via ANMT’s website, or submit materials by mail after completing an online submission form.
Information on submitting to the Search is available by CLICKING HERE.
The Academy for New Musical Theatre is offering three courses this summer for musical theatre bookwriters and lyricists as part of the annual Musical Theatre Summer Boot Camp.
BEATING BROADWAY
Instructor: Scott Guy
Tues/Thur for 2 weeks; 7pm to 10pm
August 5, 7, 12, 14
Course Fee: $200 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $180)
Using Steve Cuden’s book BEATING BROADWAY, these four sessions will detail the ‘beats’ of the plot line of several successful Broadway musicals. We’ll work for two sessions examining several different approaches to musical theatre structure. By the third session, you’ll select one approach which seems promising for a musical which YOU want to write. And in the fourth session you’ll bring in a bare-bones version of an outline. The goal is to build the foundation of your story, and use Cuden’s powerful tools to increase your main character’s conflict and the emotional impact (s)he will have on your audience. You’ll want after this crash course to go back and flesh out the details of your characters and subplot, etc., but you should be able to apply Cuden’s principles not only to your outline, but to many outlines to come! (Course fee includes a free copy of the book.)
BOOK LAB
Instructor: Elise Dewsberry
Six Saturday mornings from 10am to 2pm
July 12, 26, August 2, 9, 16, 23 (note no July 19)
Course Fee: $595 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $495)
The Book Lab is designed as an introduction to writing the book of a musical while also outlining the collaborative steps involved in creating a new musical with the whole team. The book of a musical is not just the spoken words, but encompasses the entire story of the musical. The Bookwriter is officially responsible for the writing of the book, but the entire writing team needs to collaborate on the story.
The collaborative process is explored through six units including: THE IDEA, THE OUTLINE, THE ROUGH DRAFT, ADDING SONGS, REVISIONS, and FINISHING TOUCHES. Along the way, other topics are incorporated including: Unwavering Want, Action Loops, Conflict, Adaptation, Language of an outline, Story structure, Creating a Character Worksheet, Exposition, Character Diction, Dialogue, Song Spotting, Incorporating Songs, Dealing with Feedback, Collaboration Agreements, Project Pitches, Public Domain
This course qualifies as the Book Lab element of the Academy for New Musical Theatre’s Core Curriculum.
OUTLINING ANYWHERE!
Instructor: Elise Dewsberry
Six Monday evenings from 7pm to 10pm
July 14, 21, 28; August 4, 11, 18
Course Fee: $495 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $395)
The Outlining Lab is available in-person OR online (or a combination of the two!) Video lectures, exercises, handouts, and tests are all available online. Attend the live sessions for feedback on your homework assignments - or submit your work online if you can’t make the sessions.
An outline can be an invaluable writer’s tool for clarifying the structure and story arc of a musical idea. It can then serve as a blueprint for the rough draft that the collaborators will use to develop the new musical. Writers who skip this important step in the development process are likely to find themselves bogged down with a partially written new show that is riddled with logical inconsistencies, and does not compellingly deliver the intentions of the creative team.
In the Outlining Lab, you will be lead step-by-step through the process of developing a musical idea from concept through to a working outline, with detailed constructive feedback along the way. By the end of this ten-unit course, you should have a well-developed and detailed outline that will solidly prepare you for the collaborative task of writing your new musical.
Along with the basic six steps to an outline, other topics dealt with will include: Types of Conflict, 20 Questions for your Outline, Language of an Outline, Dealing with Feedback, Pitch and Synopsis, One-Liner and Logline
All courses are offered at ANMT, 5628 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood.
For more information, and to register for courses, CLICK HERE.
