ATW Extends Deadline for SpringboardNYC Program Applications Thru 4/15

The American Theatre Wing has extended the deadline to turn in applications for its 2009 SpringboardNYC Program, to be held on June 1 - 12, 2009 in New York City. Due to an overwhelming amount of interest, the American Theatre Wing will now accept applications through April 15.

At this two week college-to-career transition program, students have the opportunity to participate in training sessions and workshops in preparation for finding jobs in the New York theatre community while living in New York. Taught by industry professionals, sessions include on-your-feet audition training with directors and casting directors and seminars with the industry's leading agents and managers, as well as intimate conversations with working actors.

The program is the ideal transitional program, offering young adults information and contacts that would otherwise take years to develop. Designed for serious students looking to take the plunge into the New York theatre world, SpringboardNYC prepares the next generation of theatre artists for working life in New York. Sessions are held with a variety of the theater industry's major "behind the scenes" players, including general managers, press agents, company managers and more, giving participants the advantage of better understanding the world into which they are entering. Participants also get to attend several Broadway and Off Broadway shows (with special talkback sessions), as well as the dress rehearsal for The Tony Awards.

SpringboardNYC mentors and speakers have included: actors Cynthia Nixon (Tony Award-winner, Rabbit Hole), Billy Crudup (Tony Award-winner, The Coast of Utopia), Jonathan Groff (Tony Award-nominee, Spring Awakening), Liev Schreiber (Tony Award-winner, Glengarry Glen Ross), Anika Noni Rose (Tony Award-winner, Caroline, Or Change), Paul Rudd (Three Days of Rain), Neil Patrick Harris (Assassins, Emmy Award-nominee for How I Met Your Mother), Michael Emerson and Martha Plimpton (Tony Award-nominee, Coast of Utopia); directors and choreographers Kathleen Marshall (Tony Award-winner, The Pajama Game) Rob Ashford (Cry-Baby, Tony Award-winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie), Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Tony Award-winner for La Cage Aux Folles) and John Rando (Tony Award-winner, Urinetown); and Tony Award-winning composers Jason Robert Brown (13, The Last Five Years) and Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx (Avenue Q).

EXTENDED: Applications are being accepted now through April 15, 2009. The program, which accepts 35 participants per session, is open to college students who are currently in their junior or senior year. Other admissions may be possible by special arrangement on a case-by-case basis. Because the American Theatre Wing is committed to making the program accessible to everyone, need-based financial scholarships are available. The Director of SpringboardNYC is Randy Ellen Lutterman, who founded the program at Musical Theatre Works.

Visit www.americantheatrewing.org/springboardnyc for application materials and more information.

The American Theatre Wing (Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman of the Board of Directors; Howard Sherman, Executive Director) is best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards®, which it presents annually with The Broadway League. In addition to SpringboardNYC, The Wing's other activities, dedicated to recognizing excellence and supporting education in theatre, include "Working in the Theatre," now in its 30th year of telecasts on CUNY TV in New York and on other national cable outlets; "Guides to Careers in the Theatre," a video series developed for schools and libraries; a grants and scholarship program to New York City schools and not-for-profit theatre companies, which has awarded nearly $3 million since its inception and the Theatre Intern Group, a career development program for young professionals. Visitors to www.americantheatrewing.org can view or download an archive of "Working in the Theatre" and the career guides and listen to archive episodes of the hour-long interview series "Downstage Center", all as free, on-demand streaming audio and podcast.

For additional information about SpringboardNYC and all American Theatre Wing programs, go to www.americantheatrewing.org.