The New York Musical Theatre Festival Now Accepting Submissions for The Seventh Annual Festival

Now entering its seventh year, The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to revitalize musical theater culture by discovering and promoting new musical theater artists, producers and projects; nurturing a vibrant and innovative artistic community; and connecting one of America's greatest art forms with a diverse, contemporary audience. The New York Musical Theater Festival will begin accepting open submissions for its Next Link Project January 11th for the seventh annual festival taking place September 27 - October 17, 2010.

The largest musical theater event in America, NYMF's annual festival has been hailed as "the Sundance of Musical Theatre." Attended by a large cross-section of both non-profit and commercial producers, as well as a general audience of thousands, NYMF takes over midtown Manhattan for three weeks each fall with nearly 30 full productions, as well as concerts, readings, seminars, and other special events. Combining a professional framework and an economy of scale, NYMF has served as a launching pad for many of its shows, leading to further productions on and off-Broadway, regionally, on tour, and in 12 countries worldwide.

Twelve of the Festival's full production slots are reserved for participants in The Next Link Project, NYMF's primary writer service program. The Next Link Project empowers emerging musical theatre writing teams as both artists and entrepreneurs by providing the training and relationships needed to help them move their musicals from mere readings to fully-realized productions and to advance their careers by maximizing the exposure they receive in the Festival.

Any work that has not been produced professionally in New York City may be submitted by authors with or without industry representation, but scripts should be ready for developmental production and the widespread exposure NYMF provides. All entries undergo double-blind evaluations by several members of NYMF's reading team, with finalists referred to our grand jury. Previous jury members included such Tony winning talents as Susan Birkenhead, Jason Robert Brown, Raul Esparza, Robyn Goodman, Margo Lion, Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx, Kathleen Marshall, Kevin McCollum, Tom Meehan, and Francesca Zambello.

Authors submitting to The Next Link Project will need to provide a demo recording of their songs, a detailed synopsis of their show, a 15-page script sample (15 consecutive pages representing the heart of the show and including lyrics for at least one of the songs), a complete script, and, if applicable, proof of rights to adapt underlying material.

The Next Link Project will accept submissions from January 11th through March 1st, 2010 with an early bird deadline on February 1st. For important additional information, including details about what it takes to produce your show in NYMF (and what you get in return), please visit www.nymf.org.