NYMusical Theatre Festival Seminars This Week

Admission Free, seating open; please RSVP to NYMFseminars@aol.com

The Critics– Reviewing the Situation Wednesday, Sept. 29th, 5PM,

Review or not to review? Professional critics and the Audience - what is the relationship? Do critics write to the industry, the public in general, or their employer's audience? What is their relationship to their editors? To Advertisers? How has the advent of the electronic media affected them? Do bloggers really count? Are reviewers affected by promotional publicity? By "Buzz"? How do press agents fit into the picture? What prompts the critics to visit your show, and can you use their critiques? At what stage of development do critics play a role?

Moderator: Sherry Eaker, Editor-in-Chief, Back Stage

Panelists: Peter Filichia – Star-Ledger, Theatremania.com; Adam Feldman, TimeOut Magazine; Jeremy McCarter, NY Sun; David Rothenberg, WBAI (99.5FM); Stephen Sunderlin, Press Agent

Authors - How to Write Shows and Influence people Thursday, Sept. 30th, 5pm

Writers and composers exist in a solitary occupation. How can they reach out to collaborators? Get past the gatekeepers? Network? Market themselves and their work? How can they string the individual events of each project together to build a career?

Moderator: Thomas Cott, Artistic Director, Musical Theatre Works, NYMF Advisory Board

Panelists:

Beth Blicker, Literary Agent, Abrams Artists; Carol Edelson, Music Theater International;
Sharon Fallon, Producer (I'm Not Rappaport), New Producers Alliance; Michael Kenyon, Literary Manager, The Public Theater; Beck Lee, Media Blitz Publicity/Marketing;
Ralph Sevush, Esq, Associate Director, Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

The Cast Album – From hit LPs to free MP3s,the changing face of Cast Albums Friday, Oct. 1st, 5PM

Has the day of the cast album passed? With many major labels scaling down or removing any connection to musical theatre – can the cast album still be a marketing tool? If there is no hit song, can the show be a success? Or is the cast album being reinvented - in this age of mp3's and downloads, and ordering of niche recordings across the internet, is there a new model being created?

Moderator: Lonny Price – Director;

Panelists:

Ralph Braun- AFTRA Recording Representative; Robert Cabell- CabellnCo., audio recordings;
Brian Camelio- President, Artistshare.com; Steve Fickinger,-VP, Disney Cast Recordings;
Thomas Z. Shepard – Record Producer, Composer