2015 Stage Rights/NYMF Publishing Award Winner Announced

Stage Rights announced this week that Acappella is the recipient of the 2015 Stage Rights/NYMF Publishing Award. Roger Bean, President and Founder of Stage Rights, presented the award to book writer Vynnie Meli, who accepted on behalf of the entire Acappella team. Stage Rights and The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) created the publishing award in 2013, and it is presented annually to one or more of the musicals taking part in the festival. Performance rights for Acappella will be available through Stage Rights in spring 2016.

Acappella: A Musical About Finding Your Own Voice is Conceived by Greg Cooper, with Book by Vynnie Meli, Music & Lyrics by The Acappella Company, and Arrangements by Evan Feist. Sung entirely without instrumentation, Acappella follows a young gospel singer who leaves his home in rural Georgia to join a successful boy band. Going from the music of praise to the music that pays takes its toll, leaving him jaded. When he returns home, he finds that his family, friends, and the woman he loved have all moved on. Can the soulful gospel music of his past help him to rekindle the passion he's lost and find his own voice again? The New York Times praised the production, "Gospel music is the glorious soul of Acappella. First rate."

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) exists to revitalize musical theatre culture by discovering and promoting new musical theatre artists, producers, and projects; nurturing a vibrant and innovative artistic community; and connecting one of America's greatest art forms with a diverse, contemporary audience. Now in its thirteenth year, the festival is the largest musical theatre event in America and the preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre fans. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and in 2013 NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition for its cultivation of new musicals.

NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. For more information, please visit: www.nymf.org.

Based in Los Angeles and founded in 2000, Stage Rights is one of the foremost independent theatrical publishers in the United States, providing stage performance rights for a wide range of plays and musicals to theater companies across the country and internationally. Their guiding principle as a licensing agent is to combine high-quality rehearsal materials with top-notch customer service in an ongoing effort to provide each producer the tools they need for financial and artistic success. Stage Rights maintains a dedication to the future of live theatre through their special programs that champion new theatrical works.

Joining Acappella in the 2016 Stage Rights catalog are: Lend Me A Tenor: The Musical, Book & Lyrics by Peter Sham & Music by Brad Carroll; Princess K.I.M. The Musical, Created by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Adapted for the stage by Maryann Cocca-Leffler & Toby Tarnow, Lyrics by Andrew Cass, & Music by Andrew Cass & Premik Russell-Tubbs; Application Pending and Craving for Travel, both by Greg Edwards & Andy Samberg; The Fried Meat Trilogy (Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Rd., A Fried Meat Christmas, and The Unfryable Meatness of Being) by Keith Stevenson; Naughty/Nice, Conceived & Written by Kenneth Jones & Gerald Stockstill, Lyrics by Kenneth Jones & Music by Gerald Stockstill; Camp Rolling Hills, Book & Lyrics by David Spiegel & Stacy Davidowitz, Music & Lyrics by Adam Spiegel; Bartenders by Louis Mustillo; Dinner With The Boys by Dan Lauria; and Up to You!, Book & Music by Eric Rockwell & Lyrics by Joanne Bogart; amongst other new plays and musicals.