American Music Theatre Project Announces 2019-2020 Workshop Series

The American Music Theatre Project (AMTP) at Northwestern University has announced the 2019-2020 workshop series of projects by award-winning music theater creators, which are directed by regional theater directors and performed by students in the AMTP program.

The series includes "Cherry Orchard," Nov. 24, 2019, by 2019 Larson Award winner Emily Gardner Xu Hall; "A Mother's Song," March 14 to 15, 2020, written by Finn Anderson and directed by Tania Azevedo; and folk-rock biography "The Battlefields of Clara Barton," May 29, 2020, co-written by acclaimed playwright Suzan Zeder and Jennifer Hartmann Luck.

The staged readings will be presented at Northwestern's Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free and it is open to the public. Performance times and venue information will be available on the AMTP website.

Led by Artistic Director David H. Bell, Northwestern's Donald G. Robertson Director of Music Theatre, Associate Artistic Director Ryan Cunningham and Producing Director Brannon Bowers, AMTP matches leading artists in music theater with Northwestern faculty, staff and students to develop new musicals. The program bridges the educational and professional worlds through uniquely tailored new work processes.

AMTP also will partner with Theatreworks USA to begin development on a new musical by 2019 Larson Award winner Ben Wexler, and for the fourth consecutive year will commission, develop and produce two new musicals for the 2020 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

AMTP workshopped musicals include "Found," "Hero," "Next Thing You Know," "Michael Collins" and "Scotland, PA" by Adam Gwon and Michael Mitnick currently running Off Broadway at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre. Last season's "Get Out Alive," written and performed by Nikki Lynette, will be featured in Steppenwolf's LookOut series Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, 2020.

Past AMTP artistic collaborators include Andrew Lippa, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Lonny Price, Alexander Gemignani, Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham, Michael Friedman, Michael Greif, Sheldon Harnick, Hunter Bell, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil.

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