NAMT Unveils Spring Conference Programming and Writers Residency Grant Recipients

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) has announced the programming lineup and panelists for its 2026 Spring Conference, as well as the recipients of the 2025–2026 Writers Residency Grants through the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals.

Titled “Go With The Flow: Navigating Fundraising in 2026,” the Spring Conference will take place March 25–27 at Broadway Rose Theatre Company and other locations around Tigard, Oregon. The annual event brings together theatre administrators, producers, and development professionals from NAMT member organizations across the United States and Canada to discuss fundraising strategies and industry trends.

This year marks the first time the conference has been hosted in Oregon.

The conference will open with a keynote presentation by Colby Reade, Vice President for External Affairs and Strategy at the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Reade’s talk, “Building Stronger Theatres Through Strategic Collaboration,” will focus on practical approaches to strengthening arts organizations through partnerships and collaborative models.

Panels scheduled throughout the conference include:

• What Do Development Directors Want? featuring Danielle Franich (Village Theatre), Charlie Ludden (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma), Cory Smallwood (The Muny), and Juliana Han Witt (Asolo Rep).

• Fundraising in an Uncertain World featuring Jennifer Benoit-Bryan (SMU DataArts), Hillary Hart (Theatre Under The Stars), Sharon Maroney (Broadway Rose Theatre Company), Greg Phillips (CSTAR Development), and Andrew Recinos (Tessitura Network).

• Managing Change featuring Sarah Bierenbaum (Nimble Penguin), Mark Fleischer (Pittsburgh CLO), Cynthia Fuhrman (TOC Arts Partners), and Meredith Gordon (Broadway Rose Theatre Company).

• Loyalty & Membership Models featuring Ross Egan (Asolo Rep), Deahna Geehan (Village Theatre), Eric Nelson (MCC Theater), Phil Santora (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), and Andrew Wainacht (BackOffice Thinking).

• Everyone’s A Fundraiser featuring Eddie Allen (Pacific Northwest Fundraising), Jeffrey Herrmann (Seattle Rep), Ciera Iveson (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), Jennifer Jaquess (Red Mountain Theatre), and Chip Miller (Portland Center Stage).

Breakout sessions will include discussions on departmental collaboration, CRM systems, grant writing, planned giving, and board-based fundraising strategies.

Conference participants will also attend a performance of Dear Evan Hansen at Broadway Rose Theatre Company and take part in networking events including a cruise on the Willamette River.

The conference is open to NAMT members and sponsors and will be offered both in person and partially online.

2025–2026 Writers Residency Grants

NAMT also announced the recipients of the 2025–2026 Writers Residency Grants, awarded through the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals. The grants support collaborations between NAMT member theatres and musical theatre writers during the earliest stages of development.

The following organizations and projects received grants:

• Ars Nova (New York, NY) — Good Fridays by Emerson Mae Smith and Murphy Taylor Smith

• Fire Island Pines Arts Project (Sayville, NY) — Sunken Cathedral by Taylor Fagins and Chase Uram

• Goodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, CT) — THE BROWN MUSICAL: A New Brown Musical by Rona Siddiqui

• Michigan State University – New Musical Laboratory (East Lansing, MI) — Taking Off! by Sonya Hayden and Matt Lowy

• MusiCoLab (Philadelphia, PA) — The Living by Seth Rozin and Kate Brennan

• Playwrights Horizons (New York, NY) — MISS STEP by Kit Yan and Melissa Li

• Signature Theatre Company (New York, NY) — Dido & A. by Heather Christian

• Theater Latté Da (Minneapolis, MN) — My Åntonia by The Kilbanes and Alexander Gemignani

• TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, CA) — The Bridge by The Kilbanes and Patricia Cotter

• Theatre Now New York (New York, NY) — The Passion of the Labradoodle by Dylan MarcAurele

• UNTITLED Musical Project (New York, NY) — A Musical for Henrietta by Lisa Stephen Friday

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals has provided more than $1 million in funding to new musicals over the past 18 years, supporting projects including A Strange Loop, Soft Power, The Band’s Visit, Oratorio for Living Things, and King of Pangea.

Founded in 1985, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre is a nonprofit organization that supports the development, production, and promotion of new musical theatre. NAMT currently includes 145 organizational members and 75 individual members across 36 U.S. states and five countries.