Disney With New Musicals Inc. Seek New Musical Theatre Writers

If you're under the age of 26, and you're writing for musical theatre, Walt Disney Imagineering and New Musicals Inc. would love to hear from you. New Musicals Inc. in Los Angeles is sponsoring its third annual New Voices Project, in which young playwrights, composers and lyricists receive workshops and concerts of their work, with feedback sessions from executives from Walt Disney Imagineering and New Musicals Inc. Selected finalists will have their work presented as part of the prestigious Stages Musical Theatre Festival in Los Angeles in Summer 2015.

Writers are encouraged to submit up to three selections, either from a single work, or separate works, for a total of 20 minutes of material. The staff of New Musicals Inc. selects up to a dozen writers' works to present to executives at Walt Disney Imagineering. The finalists' work will be presented in concert at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, as part of a showcase, "got musical," which features highlights of musicals in development at NMI.

Following the showcase, writers will receive feedback on their work, with an opportunity to rewrite and resubmit in time for inclusion in Stages Musical Theatre Festival.

"We're looking for writers in whom we see potential," says NMI's Executive Director Scott Guy. "We're not pigeon-holing that potential: this is, we're not looking for 'Broadway musical' writers per se, or 'ground-breaking' or 'commercial' or 'avant-garde'. We're looking for writers who are exploring their voices through the blend of music and voice. The stronger your voice and vision are, the more likely we're going to respond to your work."

Three writers were selected in 2014: Danny Bernstein, Santino DeAngelo, and Zack Zadek. Bernstein's musical, Far From Canterbury, earned him Cornell University's Undergraduate Artist of the Year. Zadek's musical, 6, was featured as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. DeAngelo's musical has recently been selected as a 2015 Next Link production in the New York Musical Theater Festival. Previous winners in 2013 included Amar Benkhoukha, Ion Constantine, Nick Jester, Christopher Byron Pratt, and Noah Reece.

"I'm really excited about the structure of our third season, which will give writers an opportunity to revise their work before it gets presented at the festival," says Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry. "So many of the workshop opportunities available right now present writers' original material and then ask the writers to sit through a critique without having the chance to respond with a revision. The support of the Disney organization will allow us to lengthen this process and give the writers a chance to respond to feedback.."

Writers may apply online at http://nmi.org/develop/new-voices-project/

There is no application fee. NMI is hopeful that funds will be available to fly the winning participants to Los Angeles for the STAGES presentation in August, but such funding is not yet secured.

For more information, consult either the link to the project, or contact Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry at admin@nmi.org; www.nmi.org; 818.506.8500.