In the wake of the Broadway triumph of the Tony Award-winning musical hit MEMPHIS, theater bigwigs from across the country gathered at TheatreWorks last weekend to see what new works the nationally acclaimed theater of Silicon Valley is laying its hands on next. Member companies congregated for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Summit, where visitors included Nancy Gibbs of 321 Theatrical Management, whose Broadway, Off-Broadway, and National Tour credits include Wicked; Next to Normal; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; the revival of Man of La Mancha starring Brian Stokes Mitchell; the revival of The Graduate starring Kathleen Turner on Broadway; and Bat Boy: The Musical, among many others. Former Managing Director at TheatreWorks Randy Adams of Junkyard Dog Productions, producer of the smash Broadway hit musical MEMPHIS, was also in attendance, alongside representatives from nationally celebrated theater companies including 5th Avenue Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Goodspeed Musicals, and La Jolla Playhouse, among many others.
These industry insiders gathered at TheatreWorks' rehears
Al Halls on Friday to discuss the process of producing a musical on the West Coast and to learn the TheatreWorks model for developing and nurturing new works from infancy to main stage premieres. Additionally, they explored the role creative producers play in bringing a new musical to the stage in a discussion lead by
Greg Schaffert of
321 Theatrical Management and Tony Award-winning playwright
David Henry Hwang about their efforts on Great Wall, one of the musicals in development at TheatreWorks' New Works Festival. On Saturday, MEMPHIS producer
Randy Adams of
Junkyard Dog Productions and
Nancy Gibbs of
321 Theatrical Management lead a round-table discussion about commercial production, offering insight to participants on how to bring a production from its nascent stages to widespread professional production. Additionally, artists, producers, and theater representatives had the opportunity to mix, mingle, and network at a wine reception Friday evening.
Throughout the weekend, NAMT members had the opportunity to see presentations of TheatreWorks' ninth annual New Works Festival including a developmental production of Fly By Night, a new musical by Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael Mitnick about one man's experience during the 1965 New York City blackout; a staged reading of Red Clay by Scott Ethier and Jeff Hughes, a soaring gospel and soul musical about Rosa Parks; a staged reading of Great Wall with book by Kevin Merritt and lyrics by Kevin So, with story consultation by
David Henry Hwang, about an Asian American's experience trying to break into the music industry; a staged reading of How to Write a New Book for the Bible, the latest work from
Bill Cain of Equivocation fame; and a staged reading of Variations on a Theme by
Anna Ziegler, a story of love found, lost, repaired, repressed, and rekindled.
This is the second time TheatreWorks has played host to the National Alliance of Musical Theater Summit. The first time was in 2002 at TheatreWorks' first New Works Festival, which presented the first staged reading of the Broadway hit musical MEMPHIS.
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