Academic Opportunities

Colleges and Universities provide some of the best opportunities for getting started in musical theatre and getting your shows mounted. In addition to the programs listed here, other theatre departments sometimes allow student productions.

Pace New Musicals - Annual Reading

Pace University's musical theatre performance program invites submissions of new musicals each year for a full reading with their students at their campus. Their fully accredited BFA program includes around hundred students majoring in Music Theater.

From their announcement in 2011: Because of the short rehearsal time, we are looking for completed scores and scripts. Pace New Musicals will provide the space, the performers, a stage manager, a light board and light operator, and a director and music director. If there is already a director and/or music director attached to the project and wants to continue that association, then it is up to the creators whether or not to use them for this reading.

FOR 2012: January 3-22
Schaeberle Theater at Pace University, 41 Park Row, 10th Floor (across from City Hall Park), New York, NY 10038

Deadline is October 7th. PLEASE SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING (If you would like your submissions returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your application):

• CD or mp3 files of three songs with sheet music (lead sheets are acceptable)
• A brief description of each song as to its plot placement
• A brief synopsis of the musical including time period and number of scene locations
• A character breakdown including age, sex, approximate vocal part and a short description of each character.
• Biographical information for each composer, lyricist & book writer. (Please include address/phone number/email)

SEND YOUR PACKAGE TO:
Robert Meffe
Pace New Musicals
c/o Pace University Department of Performing Arts
41 Park Row, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10038

or if submitting electronically:

pacenewmusicals@gmail.com

Our objective is to nurture the creation of new musical theater in New York City and to provide an invaluable educational opportunity to our students to work directly with top professionals in the field.

Under the guidance of its founder, Amy Rogers and music director, Robert Meffe, the program is preparing the next generation of Broadway performers.

Boston Music Theatre Project

Suffolk University, Boston, Massachussetts

cas.suffolk.edu Forging the future of the American Musical through productions of new work. The Boston Music Theatre Project (BMTP) is a program of the Theatre Department at Suffolk University. BMTP nurtures new work of exceptional promise in its formative stages through readings and workshop productions.

The American Music Theatre Project

Northwestern University,Evanston, Illinois

www.amtp.northwestern.edu/ The American Music Theatre Project is a new initiative of Northwestern University dedicated to "developing and producing new musicals in cooperation with some of music theatre's top writers, composers and directors."

Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing

New York University, New York City

gmtw.tisch.nyu.edu The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program is a master's degree program specially designed for the major collaborators in the creation of new musical theatre and opera. Students and faculty include composers, lyricists, and bookwriters--those who put their individual talents together to write works for the musical stage.

The program's aim is to give students the skills to be able to wed form to content in original ways that best fulfill their unique artistic visions. Each year, 22 full-time students embark on a two year course, participating in ongoing writing workshops that emphasize craft, the art of collaboration, rewriting, developing the student's original voice, storytelling, and content (putting ideas on stage) ....The program culminates in the thesis musicals: the creation of full-length original works.

AUDIO CLIP of talk by Mel Marvin, Theatre composer, director, and head composer of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Shop Talk

Goodspeed Musical Theate Institute

East Haddam, Connecticut

http://www.goodspeed.org Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in the Musical Theater announces the birth of Goodspeed's Musical Theatre Institute.

The Musical Theatre Institute creates a bridge between emerging writers and early career performers with seasoned performers and professional artists and together they experience the process of creating a new musical. The 2005 winter program of the Institute includes the New Writers' Residency, in collaboration with the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University: Tisch School of the Arts as well as the newly formed New Artists Program.

More listings

List of other schools with various related graduate programs