NYMF '06 Next Link Picks To Be Announced at May 21 Party

On Sunday, May 21, 2006, the New York Musical Theatre Festival will host UNLEASHING THE NEXT LINK, a celebration to kick-off the new theater season and to announce the 18 new musicals selected for this year's NYMF Next Link Project, as well as a peak at many of the invited works. UNLEASHING THE NEXT LINK will take place at the New World Stages theatre complex (340 W. 50th St.) beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Attending will be representatives from the selected shows, NYMF past producers and authors, NYMF Grand Jury Members and many of NYMF's celebrity friends, including the casts of TARZAN and [TITLE OF SHOW].

"We're glad to be joined by cast members from some of the new musicals on and off-Broadway this season, as we celebrate some of the promising shows we hope could become the hits of the future," said Kris Stewart, NYMF Executive Director.

Isaac Robert Hurwitz, NYMF Executive Producer, adds, "It's going to be an electrifying third season for NYMF – we've got an excitingly diverse group of terrific new musicals on tap, chosen from more than 300 submissions. We're kicking off with a real community-building event, where the authors can meet each other – as well as potential creative and producing partners."

Admission to the event is $20 at the door, and includes hors d'ouvres, open bar and entertainment. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is a three-week celebration highlighting the next generation of musicals and the vibrant community of writers and artists working in musical theater today. The 2006 Festival will take place September 10 through October 1, 2006 at various Off-Broadway theatres throughout Manhattan.

Now in its third year, NYMF exists to provide a launching pad for emerging musical theatre writers, composers, lyricists and performers, and to bring a new generation of work to new and diverse audiences. Each year, 18 of the festival's selections are chosen by a jury of theater luminaries from open submissions to the Festival's Next Link Project. This year's seven-member jury includes seven-time Joseph Jefferson Award winner Gary Griffin, Tony winner David Henry Hwang, three-time Tony winner Tom Meehan, Pulitzer Prize winner and two-time Tony winner Marsha Norman, Drama Desk nominee Anthony Rapp, Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad and Tony-winning producer Michael Rego.

By creating an lower-risk infrastructure based around an economy of scale, NYMF is able to provide artists with professional and creative resources they would not be able to afford or access – including professionally equipped Off-Broadway theaters, full technical and design support, marketing opportunities and press exposure, industry introductions and more – enabling new musicals to break through the "glass ceiling" between the developmental process and full production.

Sold-out festival runs and strong reviews have led to commercial options for many past NYMF shows, and off-Broadway productions of Altar Boyz, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Captain Louie and most recently [Title of Show] and Shout!.

Kevin McCollum, producer of The Drowsy Chaperone, Avenue Q and Rent, hailed the New York Musical Theatre Festival as "a wonderful booster rocket to musical theatre lovers everywhere. With the greatest concentration of creative theater professionals in the world, New York has been in desperate need of an organization that brings emerging musical theatre artists to audiences. In the theatre the audience doesn't lie, and when a musical works everyone present feels it. When it doesn't, it's best for the artists to get that information directly from an audience, and in real time."

In addition to The Next Link Project, the 2005 Festival included almost twenty additional productions invited from around the world; a series of panels and seminars featuring industry leaders; numerous readings, concerts and cabaret performances; as well as an array of umbrella events co-presented with other musical theater organizations around the city.