Young Composers Featured in Colony Theatre's GOT MUSICAL Program Today

A new musical theatre composer -- "21 years old"? No, it's not a typo: in fact there are three of them in the got musical program for May 6 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, an evening of highlights of this year's season of development at the New Musicals Initiative and the Academy For New Musical Theatre. Actually, they're 21, 22 and 23 years old and they're the winners of the New Voices Project at ANMT, sponsored in part by Walt Disney Imagineering.

The fifth annual got musical! is, like its predecessors, a sneak preview of brand-new musicals the Initiative has been creating this season, as well as an insight into the Academy's unique curriculum for musical theatre writers. As a special bonus, got musical will feature the songs of three 21-23 year olds, the winners of this year's New Voices Project.

The concert will feature highlights from this season of musical theatre development at ANMT, including:

City of Light by Gabrielle Wagner, Jan Roper, and Julie Weiner
Rails to Ruin by Peter Welkin, Ron Barnett, and Randi Wolfe
Roughing it with Mark Twain by Ken Stone and Jan Powell
OK in Wisconsin by Richard Castle and Matthew Levine
It Happened in Roswell by Terrence Atkins and Jeffery Lyle Segal (winner of the 2014 Search for New Musicals

The concert will feature generous selections from The Max Factor Factor by Adrian Bewley, Joseph Blodgett, and Chana Wise, which has had several workshops at ANMT, and is now gearing up to have its world premiere this summer at the NoHo arts Center.

The youngest composers on the program have come through this year's New Voices Project, in which writers under the age of 26 submitted their work, received intensive feedback from a distinguished panel, and their final revisions will now be presented as part of got musical. Those writers are:

6 by Zach Zadek (New Voices winner)
Canterbury Tales by Danny Bernstein (New Voices winner)
Another Happy Ending by Santino DeAngelo (New Voices winner)
Smoldering by Mitch Glaser and Marc Macalintal (current Core Curriculum participant)

The excerpts will be presented by members of the Academy Repertory Company (Sari Rose Barron, Elise Dewsberry, Scott Guy, Evelyn Halus, David Holmes, Andrea Press, Tedd Szeto, and Peter Welkin); and Guest Artists Jordan Kai Burnett, Randy Guiaya, Justin Jones, Ryan Ruge, Christina Valo, Gabrielle Wagner; and members of the 4x10 Showcase Company; with Ron Barnett at the piano.

"We are showcasing some great material this year, " says ANMT/NMI Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry, "but we are particularly excited about featuring the winners of our New Voices Project. We are really grateful to Disney Imagineering for helping make it possible for us bring these three talented young men to Los Angeles to be part of the evening. What a privilege to be part of the development of the musical theatre writers of the future."

"We're also thrilled to be featuring the members of our new 4x10 Company," adds Founding Artistic Director John Sparks. "This company is being formed specifically to showcase the material of ANMT writers, and we're excited to bring you a sneak peek of our inaugural season."

Showcasing the tradition of creating and writing musicals, got musical! takes place at 8:00pm on May 6th at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. Tickets are $10.

Supporters of ANMT (at the $100 level) receive two tickets to got musical! as well as access to a special pre-show wine and cheese reception and post-show dessert and coffee reception.

For more information, and to make a reservation, visit www.anmt.org and click on got musical!

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