FNAM & UC Irvine Launch ShowSearch for New Musicals

The Festival of New American Musicals and the University of California, Irvine a nnounce the launch of a nationwide search for new, short musicals created by writers between the ages of 14 - 23. The Festival produced a pilot of ShowSearch in 2013 in Los Angeles. Its success in attracting creative responses from young writers representing over 40 states has led to this new cooperative relationship between FNAM and UC Irvine Department of Drama.

The Festival and UC Irvine Drama will welcome entries for the next four months, with entries due no later than June 15th. For submission guidelines, visit www.lafestival.org/showsearch.html.

Six musicals will be chosen as finalists: three from high school writing teams (age 14 - 17) and three from college writing teams (age 18 - 23). Each team of finalists will be paired with a professional mentor to help develop their musical. 2015 mentors will include Adam Gwon, David Zippel, David Shire, and Jeff Marx.

In August, finalists will be flown to Southern California where they will participate in rehearsals and receive further career mentoring in the form of master classes and industry meetings. The finalists will also receive financial scholarships to continue their development as writers.

The final six musicals will be presented as staged readings at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor Theatre in August 2015. The presentation will feature direction by Richard Israel, casting by Festival board member Michael Donovan and will be produced by Hunter Bird. Bob Klein, Linda Shusett and Ruslan Idiyatov serve as Executive Producers for ShowSearch. Dr. Daniel Gary Busby, Chair of the Department of Drama in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine, serves as a judge and advisor to the event.

Dr. Busby stated, "The campus is thrilled to have ShowSearch ensconced at UC Irvine; it fits well with Chancellor Howard Gillman's Arts & Culture Initiative called I lluminations which is aimed at connecting UC Irvine to the larger community outside the campus borders. Additionally, it builds on the Department's 50 year history of producing top rate musicals (and training Broadway caliber musical theatre performers)."

Added Hunter Bird, "We're so excited to offer young composers, book writers, and lyricists a substantial opportunity to develop as creators and have professional presentations of their musicals."

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