Theatre Now Awarded NAMT Writers Residency Grant

Theatre Now New York has been awarded a Writers Residency Grant through the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT). This grant will support the development of the new musical Kusama by Theatre Now Musical Writers Lab members Andrew Strano and Yuriko Shibata and will culminate in a private reading in June.

Kusama is a bold and evocative song cycle inspired by the life and work of contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama. Created by Japanese composer Yuriko Shibata and queer Australian writer Andrew Strano, the piece blends music, storytelling, and immersive performance to explore themes of isolation, identity, and cosmic acceptance through the lens of two immigrant artists. "Theatre Now is honored to partner with NAMT to support this exciting and vital new musical," said Theatre Now Artistic Director Tom Morrissey.

Founded in 2013, Theatre Now New York (TNNY) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development, production, publication, and circulation of short and long-form musicals. TNNY produces developmental productions of new works as well as the annual SOUND BITES Festival of 10-Minute Musicals, now in its twelfth year. Published in 2019, The 10-Minute Musical: an Anthology from the SOUND BITES Festival collects 25 short musicals from the festival, all of which are licensed for production through an ongoing partnership with Music Theatre International (MTI). TNNY recently hosted public Master Classes with Andrew Lippa, Susan Birkenhead, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, and Anna K. Jacobs and just launched a monthly cabaret series, Verse Intro Cabaret, at SoHo Playhouse. Visit www.tnny.org for more information.

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals has provided over $900,000 of funding to new musicals over the last 15 years, including A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson at Playwrights Horizons; Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori at Center Theatre Group and The Public Theater; The Band’s Visit by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses at Atlantic Theater Company; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs at Playwrights Horizons and Dallas Theater Center; Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon at Adirondack Theatre Festival; and The Circus in Winter by Ben Clark, Hunter Foster and Beth Turcotte at Goodspeed Musicals; among many others.