American Theatre Wing Accepting Applications for 2012 SpringboardNYC

The American Theatre Wing (Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Heather Hitchens, Executive Director) is now accepting applications for the 2012 SpringboardNYC summer program, being held June 5 - 16 in New York City. Limited to 35 participants, SpringboardNYC provides financial aid and multiple scholarship programs to students who qualify.

“It’s a pretty remarkable opportunity, to get to workshop and train with a wide array of working theater professionals – casting directors, actors, directors,” SpringboardNYC mentor Neil Patrick Harris said about the program. “If I were in college, I would definitely try to attend.”

SpringboardNYC is the ideal transitional program, offering young adults information and contacts that would otherwise take years to develop, press notes state. Designed for serious students looking to take the plunge into the New York theater world, SpringboardNYC prepares the next generation of theater artists for working life 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 agents and managers, as well as intimate conversations with some of Broadway’s big names. 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 Bobby Cannavale (Tony® Award-nominee, The Motherf***er with the Hat), Billy Crudup (Tony® Award-winner, The Coast of Utopia), Edie Falco (Tony® Nominee, The House of Blue Leaves), Katie Finneran (Tony® Award-winner, Promises, Promises, Noises Off), Lauren Graham (Guys and Dolls), Jonathan Groff (Tony® Award-nominee, Spring Awakening), Allison Janney (Tony® Award-nominee, 9 to 5), Phylicia Rashad (Tony® Award-winner, A Raisin in the Sun), Paul Rudd (Three Days of Rain), Liev Schreiber (Tony® Award-winner, Glengarry Glen Ross); directors and choreographers Jerry Zaks (Multiple Tony® Award-winner, Guys and Dolls), Kathleen Marshall (Tony® Award-winner, Anything Goes), Rob Ashford (Tony® Award-winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), Jerry Mitchell (Tony® Award-winner for La Cage Aux Folles) and many more.

The Director of SpringboardNYC is Randy Ellen Lutterman, who founded the program. Now in its tenth year, many SpringboardNYC alumni are living their dreams of working in the theater, including: Brian Drummy, in the National Tour of Damn Yankees; Ilana Becker, currently serving as the Robert Moss Directing Resident at Playwrights Horizons; Gizel Jiminez, in the National Tour of West Side Story; Katie Postotnik, in the National Tour of Rock of Ages; and Ashley Marinaccio, whose work at Project Girl Performance Collective has been showcased at TedX Women and the United Nations.

Applications are being accepted now through April 1, 2012. 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.

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