Submissions Open for O'Neill Center's 2018 National Music Theater Conference

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today that is now accepting submissions for the 2018 National Music Theater Conference. Writers may submit their new musicals to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, November 10, 2017.

The National Music Theater Conference aims to provide a supportive and challenging environment in which emerging and established creative artists can take risks in order to refine and illuminate their work's vision during its formative stages. Selected writers will receive a two week residency during June or July with a stipend, housing, meals, and transportation to support an intensive rehearsal process and four script-in-hand public readings with a professional cast and creative team.

The Conference has been a launchpad for all styles and genres of music theater since its inception in 1978. Notable projects include: In Transit by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russell M. Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth; In The Heights by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda; Avenue Q by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, and Jeff Whitty; The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa; Violet by Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori; and Nine by Arthur Kopit, Mario Fratti, and Maury Yeston; The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin by Kirsten Childs; and - just last summer - Superhero by Tom Kitt and John Logan.

The 2018 season will be the first under the direction of Artistic Director Alexander Gemignani, who notes, "I am beyond thrilled to take the reins from Paulette Haupt, whose dedication to developing first-class new musicals is unparalleled. As NMTC begins this new chapter, I am looking for pieces that challenge, inspire, and grasp me by the heart. The next generation of music theater makers need to be diverse - both culturally and artistically - and bold enough to create fresh ideas and new ways of storytelling, while having respect for the American musical tradition. With that in mind, I encourage writers with every level of experience to apply: seasoned pros as well as those who have never applied to NMTC or anywhere else. Additionally, it is my sincere hope to address the need for gender and racial parity in the field of music theater by diversifying our reader pool and increasing outreach to women and writers of color. Our readers this year are all new readers to NMTC and represent a vast array of artists and administrators who are hungry to be a part of the next generation of groundbreaking musicals developed at the O'Neill. I cannot wait to get started."

Open Submissions is a key element of the National Music Theater Conference's mission to develop diverse voices and new works for the American stage, requiring neither agent submission nor previous experience. Both original and adapted works are accepted; written rights to any material not in the public domain must be included with application and materials submitted. Projects that have already been produced by a professional company are not accepted. View the readers for NMTC here.

SUBMISSION DETAILS:

- Apply at www.theoneill.org

- The submission fee is $35 and covers the cost of the process.

- Early submissions are strongly encouraged.

- We encourage women and artists of color to submit.

- No agent is required.

- Both electronic and hard copy applications are accepted.

Visit www.theoneill.org for application and guidelines. Please direct any questions to the Literary Office at (860) 443-5378 ext. 227 or litoffice@theoneill.org.

Additionally, the O'Neill will host two online sessions about the process on Facebook:

- October 25th at 7pm Q&A with Carrie Chapter (dramaturg for NMTC, 2012-2017)

- November 8th at 7pm, Open Office Hour with Lexy Leuszler (O'Neill Literary Manager)

The O'Neill continues to build an endowment to support Open Submissions. Initiated in 2006 with donations made in honor of O'Neill playwright Wendy Wasserstein, interest income helps support the submission and selection process.

Founded in 1964, the O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater, and named in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at theaters around the world. O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute - which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The O'Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards and National Medal of Arts. www.theoneill.org.

Actor, musical director, composer/lyricist, and educator, Alexander Gemignani is currently performing as King George III in the Chicago company of Hamilton and will be soon be seen in Carousel on Broadway this spring. Additional Broadway acting credits include: Violet, Chicago, LES MISERABLES, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, The People In The Picture, Sunday in the Park With George. Off-Broadway: Road Show at the Public, Headstrong at EST, and Avenue Q at the Vineyard Theatre. Favorite Regional: The Three Sisters (Cincinnati Playhouse), Oklahoma! (THE MUNY), The Boys From Syracuse (Shakespeare Theatre Company), and Saint-Ex (The Weston Playhouse). Concerts: Encores! 1776 at New York City Center, the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl, and Lincoln Center's American Songbook. He has premiered solo shows at the Kennedy Center (Barbara Cook's Spotlight), The Sheen Center, Birdland, and Feinstein's. TV/Film: Empire, Homeland, Chicago Fire, The Good Wife, Empire State, and The Producers. As a composer/lyricist, he is currently developing four new musicals and has composed the incidental music for several plays. As a musical director, he is in development for productions with The Public Theatre and Roundabout Theatre Company. He has served on the faculty of the National Theater Institute and NYU. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a proud graduate of the University of Michigan.

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