2nd Annual Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival Seeks Submissions, Kicks Off in August

Founder and Executive Artistic Director Benjamin Davis has announced that submissions are open and rolling in for the Second Annual Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival (AMTF), to be held in August in Atlanta.

Performances will be open to the artistic community, the public, and the press. Submissions are being accepted now for work to be presented at the festival (details below). The deadline to submit is February 1, 2017. Selections will be announced April 1, 2017. Tickets to the Festival will go on sale in spring 2017.

The inaugural Festival held in August 2016 was a huge success. Via four productions presented over two days to full houses, approximately 400 patrons witnessed these new works. The organization expects to grow its audience and its offering this year. Davis is in conversations with venues and sponsors and dates and locales will be announced soon.

"I was so blown away by the reception the Festival received from the arts community and the city," said Executive Artistic Director Benjamin Davis, "it was a total success on every level. And I am very proud of the group of artists who so boldly shared their new works. I can hardly wait to see what this years' submissions look like and I look forward to seeing some great new pieces next summer."

The Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival was born out of a desire to motivate local artists to continue to write musical theatre. After participating as a Producer in the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2015, Founder Benjamin Davis saw an opportunity to nurture the local writing population. The AMTF is designed to take new work a few paces further, via work with the Festival's Artistic Advisory Team, to its presentation point at the Festival. The goals are many: that the piece will grow and evolve in this process; that the artist might learn a new part of the creative process; that a producing theatre or director might become interested in the piece, or the playwright, or an actor; that there are new connections and networks formed. The mission of the AMTF is to "cultivate the next generation of theatre artists by mentoring talent, propelling new musicals forward, and celebrating the community in a supportive, nurturing, and creative environment."

The Festival gratefully requests financial support and accepts donations and sponsorships. All donations are tax-deductible, and various levels of sponsorships and coordinating benefits will be available. Details on sponsorship levels are available at www.TheAMTF.com and www.C4Atlanta.com.

Submissions deadline is February 1, 2017, and selections will be announced April 1, 2017. Format requirements for submissions, and more information, can be found on the AMTF website: www.TheAMTF.com; select "2017 Submissions".

The submissions will be reviewed by the Selections Committee, five veteran theatre professionals: Ann-Carol Pence, Clifton Guterman, Bill Newberry, Jeff McKerley, and Theo Harness.

About Benjamin Davis, Founder, Executive Artistic Director - Benjamin graduated cum laude from The University of Georgia with a B.A. in Theatre and a B.S. in Psychology. He is also a graduate of Aurora Theatre's Apprentice Company. In addition to Aurora, Ben has appeared on stages at ALLIANCE THEATRE, Actor's Express, Theatrical Outfit, Horizon Theatre, Arís Theatre, Dad's Garage, Stage Door Players, Warehouse Theatre, and Synchronicity. His Film & TV credits include The Fat Boy Chronicles, Fun World, The D.U.F.F., and "Dream Writers." He has also appeared in commercials for the Georgia Lottery, The DVI Group, Top Flite, Zaxby's and RaceTrac. Recently, Ben was seen in Big Fish (Theatrical Outfit) and Urinetown (Warehouse Theatre, Greenville, SC). Since 2008, Ben has been involved with the Broadway Dreams Foundation as a production assistant, lead intern, performer, and student under the direction of Annette Tanner, Nicholas Rodriguez, Matt Lenz, and Stafford Arima among others. Ben serves as the Head of Theatre Division for Phoenix 4 Productions where his credits include Associate Producer for Breathe: The Prequel and The Run Saga: Breathe. He was also an Associate Producer for The Last Time We Were Here, an official selection of the 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

About Jessica DeMaria, Director of Development - Jessica is an Atlanta-based performer, writer, educator and Arts Administrator. Jessica serves as the Marketing Director at Stage Door Players and was previously on the staff at Actor's Express as Development Director, and, for two seasons, as the Young Playwrights Festival Coordinator at Horizon Theatre. She has taught acting, improv, puppet making, playwriting and collaborative arts with ALLIANCE THEATRE, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Actor's Express, the Center for Puppetry Arts and currently teaches 2nd through 5th grade students at Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville. Jessica is the co-writer and co-performer of The Last Time We Were Here, an original work, which was produced at the New York Musical Theatre Festival this past July. Her current writing project is a new musical, What's Past, written with Chase Peacock. She has appeared in many productions and projects around Atlanta, and was most recently seen in The Threepenny Opera at 7 Stage, and The Sleepy Hollow Experience with Brian Clowdus Experiences in Old Sturbridge Village, MA. Jessica is a proud graduate of Oglethorpe University.

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