Daniel Lazour News

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 32 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2017 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 18 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration.

'New theatre work is important because it is more likely to reflect what is actually going on in the world; it can speak to global happenings and events and find ways to digest them and cope with them.' Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre Curt Dale Clark is talking about his recent visit to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Conference and Festival of New Musicals in New York on October 24-28, 2016. Clark, who has been a NAMT Board member for the past two years and currently co-chair of the membership committee, is proud that his theatre company, MSMT, has been a founding member of the organization since its inception thirty-six years ago, and praises 'our continued efforts on its behalf that help cement the relationship between the two not-for-profits.'

National Alliance for Musical Theatre presents the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS. The Festival will take place tonight, October 27 and tomorrow, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

New York, New York: National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce the first round of casting for the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Today, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival will kick off on Wednesday, October 26 with its celebrated concert, The 46th Minute, which features songs from Festival shows you will not get to hear in the 45-minute presentation.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) has announced the full cast for the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS. The Festival will take place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

New York, New York: National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce the first round of casting for the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival will kick off on Wednesday, October 26 with its celebrated concert, The 46th Minute, which features songs from Festival shows you will not get to hear in the 45-minute presentation.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced the directors for the 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

The Dramatists Guild Fund presented new work by its graduating 2015-2016 Fellows at Playwrights Horizons in New York on Monday, September 19, hosted by co-founders of the Fellows Program Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!

The Dramatists Guild Fund will host Annual Presentation of New Work by DG Fellows at Playwrights Horizons in New York on September 19, 2016 at 7:00 PM.

The Dramatists Guild Fund (DGF) announces it will continue expanding the Fellows Program through collaboration with the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) has announced the line-up of new musicals for their 28th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28, 2016 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues).

An innovative reimagining of film techniques for live performance, You Can't Kiss a Movie features performer Shelley Farmer, whose passionate (obsessive?) love of French movies from the 1960s New Wave is the seed for an original story about an ill-fated love affair, told through the songs and dialogue of those movies. With a spirit of youthful immediacy inspired by the films themselves, this bilingual cabaret playfully tweaks the films' themes and gender roles while continuing their investigation into the costs and virtues of emotional engagement in art and life. You Can't Kiss a Movie is an exuberant, affecting show for both film buffs and newcomers.

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 200 year-old working organic farm in Brewster, New York announced its 2016 season for The Working Farm, Family Residency, Creative Solutions Symposium and Artistic Residency programs at The Players Club. In attendence were Josh Charles, David Bar Katz, Michael Urie, and Marsha Norman, as well as 2016 SPACE residents Cusi Cram, Daisy Foote, Adam Rapp, and recipients of the inaugural Relentless Award--Clare Barron and Sarah DeLappe.

Founding Executive Director Kathy Evans announced the 19 writers and 9 new musicals selected for this summer's Rhinebeck Writers Retreat residencies.  For nine consecutive weeks beginning June 26, each writing team will have a weeklong residency in Rhinebeck, New York to write their new musical. This year's writers include New York Drama Critics award winner Brian Crawley, Tony nominee Hunter Foster, 2016 Kleban award winner Daniel Goldstein, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist Michele Lowe, Arlen award winner Georgia Stitt, Fred Ebb award winner Adam Gwon, and New Dramatists Loewe Award winner Sarah Hammond. The 9 musicals were selected from among 95 applicants by a distinguished panel: Kent Nicholson of Playwrights Horizons, Donna Lynn Hilton of Goodspeed Musicals, Barbara Pasternack of Theatreworks USA, Steve Stettler of Weston Playhouse, Mara Isaacs of Octopus Theatricals, Drama Desk nominated composer Neil Bartram, and Robert Zukerman, former Director of Theatre at the New York State Council on the Arts. 

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center enters its final week of open call for new musical theater projects. Submissions will be considered for development and presentation during the 2016 Summer Season.

The Dramatists Guild Fund to host annual presentation of new work by DG Fellows at Playwrights Horizons (416 W 42nd St) in New York on October 19, 2015 at 7:00 PM. The presentation features excerpts from work by the 2014-2015 class including Naveen Bahar Choudhury, Camille Darby, Sophie Jaff, Dana Levinson, Kristine M. Reyes, Tim Rosser, Charlie Sohne, Mark Sonnenblick, Aurin Squire, Kathleen Tagg, James A. Tyler, Stacey Weingarten and Ben Wexler.

The Dramatists Guild Fund and Program Chairs Michael Korie, Laurence O'Keefe, and Diana Son are proud to announce the 2015-2016 Class of Dramatists Guild Fellows. Five playwrights and eight musical theater writers were selected from over 150 applications.

Hailed as the launchpad of the American theater, the two-time Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center responsible for developing more than 1,100 new works for the stage as well as thousands of artists through the semester-long training programs of the National Theater Institute, recently announced the 2015 summer season of plays, musicals, and other works in development through the National Theater Institute, National Puppetry Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Playwrights Conference, and the Cabaret & Performance Conference.

Selected from almost 300 submissions, the three new musicals that will be developed at the 2015 National Theater Music Conference have been anounced. The conference will hold public staged readings June 28-29 and July 2 and 4.