Musical Theatre Festivals
New York Festivals
The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC)
WHEN: August
The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues "that's a total of more than 1300 performances! FringeNYC generates an atmosphere of extreme excitement, and our energy is contagious! They do include musicals.
New York Musical Theatre Festival
WHEN: September
In an annual event spanning three weeks in September, NYMF produces more than thirty new musicals in the theatre district, and presents numerous more around New York City. NYMF's programming breaks down into three main areas: full productions, special events, and educational events.
ABOUT NYMF: The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to provide a launching pad for emerging musical theatre writers, composers, lyricists and performers, and to bring a new generation of work to new and diverse audiences. By creating an lower-risk infrastructure based around an "economy of scale," NYMF is able to provide artists with professional and creative resources they would not be able to afford or access "including professionally equipped off-Broadway theaters, full technical and design support, marketing opportunities and press exposure, industry introductions, and more "enabling new musicals to break through the "glass ceiling" between the developmental process and full production.
NYMF was created in 2004 as a program of the National Music Theater Network, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated since 1984 to securing the future of new musicals. Over the past twenty-two years, the Network has presented 120 new works, primarily through its Broadway USA reading series.
Several shows presented at NYMF have been optioned by commercial producers or are planning off-Broadway runs." These include ALTAR BOYZ, THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL, SHOUT!, LIKE YOU LIKE IT, THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN and [TITLE OF SHOW].
NYMF 2006 NYMF 2006 will feature 312 performances, including the premiering of 34 new musicals and 84 musical theatre events and a broad range of programming that will include full productions, developmental works, concerts, seminars and panels, partner events, commissions and, for the first time, the NYMF Dance Series.
http://www.nymf.org/ The main site
Midtown International Theatre Festival
http://www.midtownfestival.org/
WHEN: Summer
The Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF) is the brainchild of John Chatterton, publisher and editor of OOBR ("the off-off-broadway review"). Chatterton started the MITF as a way to present the finest Off-Off-Broadway talent in convenience, comfort, and safety. For eleven seasons, oobr has been passing judgment on Off-Off-Broadway theatre; now, as he says, he is putting his money where his mouth is....
Our philosophy is based on a paradoxical combination of selectivity and diversity.
We select productions carefully and don't make the Festival any bigger than it needs to be to pay its way. We do everything we can to select projects that are pleasing to us as well as to their audiences. (We also recognize that not all plays appeal to all audiences.) We don't stuff the Festival with zany productions whose chief recommendation is a long title or one with "sex" in it. Last year we had 47 shows, including the Studio Series (see below), and a bunch of staged readings; this year we aspire to 60+ shows, not including staged readings.
We encourage diversity because theatre itself is diverse.
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest arts festival. The Festival Fringe Society (commonly known as the Fringe Office) does not produce any of the shows, does not invite anybody to perform and pays no fees to performers. But anyone can bring their performance to the festival by following their guildlines for use of venues, etc. See the "perform at the fringe" section or How To Take Part in the Fringe
http://www.edfringe.com/ official site.
National Alliance for Musical Theatres.
NAMT is something that organizations join, such as theatre groups, and then members can attend events.
NAMT sponsors a festival of new musicals that has helped a number of musicals get started.
WHEN: Fall - often in October
Among the many musicals launched by NAMT's annual Festival of New Musicals are Thoroughly Modern Millie, Children of Eden, HONK!, The Drowsy Chaperone, Ruthless!, Flight of the Lawnchair Man, Princesses, Songs for a New World, and many others!"
http://namt.org/ National Alliance for Musical Theatre, according to their website, is committed to serving member organizations, and to pursuing our mission to nurture the creation, development, and recognition of new and classic musical theatre.
"After our commercial producers dropped their option we were left with little prospects. Brian Crawley suggested we apply to NAMT on a hunch that if we got accepted we could put our show back on the map. That is indeed what happened. ....I was extremely satisfied. I feel everything we did was effective in communicating what our show is, is about, and can be."
- Andrew Lippa, A LITTLE PRINCESS (2005)
PRODUCER WRITER INITIATIVE (PWI) GRANT: NAMT launched the PWI in 2004 to foster the development of new work and build relationships between writers and producers. Grants of $3,000 each are awarded every year to six NAMT members, in order to subsidize a writing team''s residency during a reading, workshop, or production of a new musical at a NAMT member theater. For an article on 2007 recipients see Playbill
“A New International Festival for Mini-Musicals”
Good news from Down Under for veterans of the BMI Workshop, Raw Impressions and anyone else with a ten-minute musical stuffed into a desk drawer. There’s finally another venue that’s eager to present them! Australia’s Short & Sweet – the self-dubbed “Biggest Little Play Festival in the World” – has launched Short, Sweet & Song, an offshoot festival that showcases short original musicals.
Short, Sweet & Song’s initial outing this past February consisted of ten mini-musicals culled from as far off as the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The musicals were presented as a group for a seven-performance run at the Parade Playhouse in the Kensington district of Sydney, Australia. And though Mark Cleary, the Artistic Director of its parent organization, confesses that S, S & S didn’t exactly turn a profit, enthusiastic audience response has encouraged him to clear space for more of the teeny tuners in next year’s schedule.
Cleary, who bears a passing resemblance to actor Jonathan Pryce, is an energetic
fellow with an eager glint in his ink-dot eyes. We met while he was in New York City promoting his festival and, over dinner, he filled me in on his plans for “world domination…ten minutes at a time.” And, if Cleary brings half the vigor to global expansion that he did to consuming his Shepard’s Pie, he’ll make it happen!
In six years, Short & Sweet has gone from a means of keeping Cleary’s 100-seat Newtown Theatre active to a six-week, ninety play, international extravaganza. “It’s like a virus,” he said, with a laugh, of the festival’s rapid growth. Cleary’s next step is to create versions of Short & Sweet for New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom and the United States, in addition to producing the festival’s Sydney, Melbourne and recently launched Singapore editions.
As of this writing, Short, Sweet & Song will remain solely a part of the Sydney festival, overseen by Cleary’s associate Avigail Herman. Herman is a cabaret and musical theater performer who was in the original Australian cast of CATS, and she serves as head of the Music Theater program at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. “New work is one of my passions,” said Herman, adding that she joined the festival “to create an energy about an art form which, in Australia, has not had the nurturing it deserves.”
Submissions to Short, Sweet & Song are short-listed by the festival’s staff and then sent to a stable of participating directors who select the final program. The musicals are fully staged and choreographed in spare, but smart-looking productions with a five-piece band. They are also eligible for Judge’s Choice and Audience Choice awards given out on the last evening of the festival. Last year’s winners were an American entry, BUILDING A WING, book & lyrics by Amanda Yesnowitz (2001 Jonathan Larson grant recipient), music by Michael Ficocelli (Judge’s Choice) and “A4 2 A3 – LOVE IN A PHOTOCOPY STORE” book & lyrics by Tom Taylor, music by Simon Barlow (Audience Choice).
Musical theatre writers interested in having their ten-minute works considered for Short, Sweet & Song 2008 should submit one copy of the libretto (lyrics included), as complete a demo recording as possible and the festival application form. (The form hasn’t been posted on their website as yet, but our understanding is that it will ask for such basic information as the cast size and male / female breakdown.) There are no restrictions on the style or theme of the musical. The festival will accept submissions from now until late October. (No closing date has been posted as yet, but last year entries had to be in before October 27.) Send your entry to:
Short, Sweet & Song Entries, P.O. Box 462, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia
For the latest details about the festival visit their website www.shortandsweet.org and click on the Short, Sweet & Song icon found on the home page.