New York Musical Festival Seeking Submissions for 2018 Next Link Project

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) is now accepting submissions for the 2018 Next Link Project.

The Next Link Project is the cornerstone of NYMF's Programming. Submissions are open to any writer, produced or unproduced, with or without agency representation. Next Link shows receive entrepreneurial training, networking opportunities, and dramaturgical support, culminating in a subsidized production in the Festival. To submit a show, you must have a finished script and at least 75% of the songs recorded. All entries undergo double-blind evaluations by members of NYMF's reading committee, with finalists reviewed by our Grand Jury of industry professionals. Approximately 10 shows are chosen each year.

The 2018 Next Link Project submissions are now open. Submissions will be accepted through Wednesday, November 1 at 11:59 PM EST. Those who submit materials by Wednesday, October 11 will receive an early bird discount of $20 off the standard $75 application fee. The submission fee for students is $25 with a valid Student I.D. For more information or to submit a show, visit www.nymf.org/nextlink.

The Grand Jury is responsible for making final selections for the Next Link Project shows with the Producing Artistic Director. The 2018 NYMF Grand Jury will include Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris (Fun Home), OBIE and Drama Desk Award winner Donna Lynne Champlin (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Tony Award-winning producer Jane Dubin (An American in Paris), Two River Theater Literary Manager Anika Chapin, West Hyler (Paramour), Jenny Koons (Burn All Night), Lorin Latarro (Waitress), Public Theater Literary Associate Jack Phillips Moore, Saheem Ali (Public Theater Mobile Unit's Twelfth Night), LCT3 Associate Director Natasha Sinha, Theatrical Literary Agent at Abrams Artists Katie Gamelli, and Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee Sergio Trujillo (On Your Feet!) More to be announced.

Dan Markley serves as NYMF Executive Director & Producer and Rachel Sussman serves as Producing Artistic Director.

In 2017, The Village Voice joined as an Elite Festival Sponsor. Returning Elite Festival Sponsors included The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, PRG, TheaterMania and Clear Channel Outdoor. NYMF also partnered with Sobieski Rye Vodka as Official Liquor Sponsor, and Finca Hispana as Official Wine Sponsor of the 2017 Festival. In addition, global brand experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide partnered with NYMF in 2016 to provide pro bono branding support for the organization.

To keep up with NYMF, visit the NYMF website at NYMF.org where you can also subscribe to the NYMF Newsletter.

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New York Musical Festival (NYMF) nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theater.

Now in its fifteenth year, the Festival is the premier musical theater event in the world. 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 theater fans. More than 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theater, ensuring the future of this essential art form."

New York Musical Festival is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, by public funds from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and by The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.