National Alliance for Musical Theatre Announces 2015-16 Grant Recipients

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announces nine awards granted from their National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its seventh year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $46,000 to ten organizations across the country.

NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated, "We are honored and excited to support our member theatres as they work with this inspiring group of writers to develop these innovative and provocative new musicals. With these grants, we have now awarded 77 grants totaling $315,500. These projects will join a growing list of important new musicals added to the canon with support from our National Fund for New Musicals."

National Fund grants of $5,000 to $10,000 to support full productions have been awarded to:
Ars Nova (New York, NY) for Futurity by César Alvarez and The Lisps.

Diversionary Theatre (San Diego, CA) for The Boy Who Danced on Air by Charlie Sohne and Tim Rosser with support from Kathryn & Raymond Harbert. This project was previously presented in NAMT's 2013 Festival of New Musicals and also received a Writers Residency Grant for its development at New York Theatre Barn.
Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, NJ) for Ever After by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich with support from Stacey Mindich Productions.

Transport Group Theatre (New York, NY) for The Blonde Streak by Dan Lipton and David Rossmer with support from The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation. Both writers are NAMT Festival alumni for notes to MariAnne (Fest '11) and Joe! The Musical (Fest '00).

National Fund grants of $4,000 to $5,000 to support a workshop or reading have been awarded to:

The 5th Avenue Theatre (Seattle, WA) for Dutch Master by Marc Acito and Jeffrey Stock with support from Stacey Mindich Productions.
La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) for The Hunter S. Thompson Musical by Joe Iconis and Gregory Moss with support from The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund. Iconis is a NAMT Festival alumnus for his show Bloodsong of Love (NAMT Fest '11).

This is the seventh year of grants awarded from the National Fund of New Musicals, a fund created by NAMT to help support every stage of development for new musicals. The recipients were selected by a distinguished panel, moderated by Gigi Bolt, the former Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts. The panelists were Kathy Evans, Founder of the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and honorary NAMT Board Member; Bud Franks, President of Franks & Associates and NAMT Founding Member; Maria Goyanes, Associate Producer at the Public Theater; Adam Gwon, three-time past NAMT Festival writer; Steve Stettler, Producing Artistic Director of Weston Playhouse Theatre Company; and Tom Viertel, Tony Award-winning producer.

Additionally, the National Fund for New Musicals has awarded $500 to $1,500 in Writers Residency Grants over the past year to the following member organizations, with support from Kathryn & Raymond Harbert:
Ars Nova (New York, NY) for K Pop by Teddy Bergman, Helen Park and Jason Kim

Kent State University (Kent, Ohio) for My Heart Is the Drum (NAMT Fest '13) by Phillip Palmer, Stacey Luftig and Jenny Redling

New York Theatre Barn (New York, NY) for The Boy Who Danced On Air (NAMT Fest '13) by Charlie Sohne and Tim Rosser

Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) for The Enlightenment of Percival Von Schmootz by Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond, both NAMT Festival alumni for Dani Girl (NAMT Fest '11) and The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes (NAMT Fest '14)

Theater Latté Da (Minneapolis, MN) for The Last Queen of Canaan by Rebekah Greer Melocik, Harrison David Rivers and Jacob Yandura

The National Fund for New Musicals has supported the development of many musicals over the last 7 years, including The Fortress of Solitude by Itamar Moses and Michael Friedman at the Public Theater; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson at Dallas Theater Center, which was performed at The Public Theater in New York last season; Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon which is now licensed through Rodgers & Hammerstein after an Off Broadway run at Roundabout Theatre Co., Far From Heaven by Michael Korie, Scott Frankel and Richard Greenberg at Playwrights Horizons in New York; The Memory Show by Sara Cooper and Zach Redler which recently ran Off Broadway at The Transport Group; The Circus in Winter by Ben Clark, Hunter Bell and Beth Turcotte at Goodspeed Musicals; among many others.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Our mission is to advance musical theatre by nurturing the creation, development, production and presentation of new musicals, and to provide a forum for musical theatre professionals to share resources and exchange information. Our 200 members, located throughout 34 states and abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers. Among the over 200 musicals launched by NAMT's annual Festival of New Musicals are Thoroughly Modern Millie, Children of Eden, Honk!, The Drowsy Chaperone, Songs for a New World, I Love You Because, Striking 12, Vanities, Ordinary Days and many others, representing over 400 writers.