Goodspeed Announces Revised Upcoming 'How Do You?' Seminars

Goodspeed Opera House has announced additional special guests for next week's Festival of New Artists and the symposium "Passion. Courage. Risk.: Creating the Future of Musical Theatre" has been added to the schedule.

The seminar titled "How Do You? Create the Look..." will feature Tony Award-winning Costume Designer Gregg Barnes. Alan Williams who was previously announced as the host of the seminar "How Do You? Invest In a New Musical..." is unable to attend. The session will now feature Broadway General Manager/Producer Steven Chaikelson.

Event Descriptions:

Passion. Courage. Risk.: Creating the Future of Musical Theatre*
Sue Frost hosts a lively panel discussion with the leaders in developing new musicals across the nation. The panel will include Robb Hunt, Executive Producer for Village Theatre; Sean Cercone, Executive Director and Producer for Chicago Muse Theatre; and Kent Nicholson, Director of Musical Theatre for Playwrights Horizons. Moderator will be Sue Frost, Tony Award-winning Producer (Memphis) / Managing Partner of Junkyard Dog Productions. The Symposium is sponsored by the Noel Coward Foundation.*This event is free and open to the public. Saturday, January 15th at 4:00 p.m., Goodspeed Opera House

How Do You? Create the Look...
Broadway Costume Designer Gregg Barnes (The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde, Bye Bye Birdie, Elf) discusses creating the physical world of a new musical.

How Do You? Invest In a New Musical...
Get the inside scoop from Broadway General Manager/Producer Steven Chaikelson (Ring of Fire, Elaine Stitch At Liberty, A Moon for the Misbegotten) about the financial side of new musicals.

Created in 2002, Goodspeed's Showalter Center inspires and nurtures musical theatre artists and students by providing a unique and comprehensive range of training and educational programs to serve both the national and local academic communities.

One of the Showalter Center's major endeavors is The New Artists program. It offers new and emerging artists the rare opportunity to thoroughly work on their projects with the help of Goodspeed's renowned resources and artistic environment, while affording senior students from The Hartt School real-world experience in new musical development and performing new musicals. The Hartt School, founded in 1920 and one of three founding institutions of the University of Hartford (Conn.), is an internationally acclaimed conservatory with innovative programs in music, dance and theatre. This year students from Boston Conservatory will also be participating in the New Artists program.

The New Artists program is being held throughout the Goodspeed campus January 4 - 16, 2010. During the first week of the program, three teams of writers and composers will dedicate their time to further writing and composing their musicals in development. In the second week, senior students from The Hartt School and Boston Conservatory will join them for rehearsals and continued development of the material. The New Artists program culminates with Goodspeed's Festival of New Artists which will showcase staged readings of the new musicals developed during the New Artists Program and is open to the public.

Goodspeed's New Artist Program is generously sponsored by The Adolph & Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation.
Dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theatre, Goodspeed Musicals produces three musicals each season at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., and additional works at The Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Conn., which was opened in 1984 for the development of new musicals. The first regional theatre to receive two Tony Awards (for outstanding achievement), Goodspeed also maintains The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in the Musical Theater. Goodspeed gratefully acknowledges the support of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, visit goodspeed.org.