National Conference for Musical Theatre Writers Now Available Online

Did you miss the national conference for musical theatre writers last summer? New Musicals Inc. is launching an online conference for musical theatre writers, focusing on business issues such as contracts, fundraising, copyright, how to approach producers (and how not to approach producers).

Every other year, NMI hosts a national conference live in Los Angeles. The online version features 19 videos of highlights from many of the conference panels.

"If you weren't able to attend our conference in person, you missed a lot!" says NMI's Executive Director Scott Guy. "It was a jam-packed three-day weekend of musical theatre panels, schmoozing, learning, eating, drinking, and networking."

The August conference featured writers, attorneys, producers, artistic directors, actors, composers, and other theatre artists and industry experts. One of the keynote speakers of the 2016 conference was Ken Davenport of Davenport Theatricals (Spring Awakening, Grease, Altar Boyz, Daddy Long Legs, etc.) Davenport gave lots of practical advice, insights and strategies to writers about producing, fundraising and marketing new musicals. The online conference excerpts five of Davenport's hottest topics, and two "case studies" from among conference participants he advised for everyone to hear.

Entertainment attorneys Gordon Firemark and Michael Blaha gave us thousands of dollars' worth of advice about the legal aspects of musical theatre including topics such as collaboration agreements, permissions and rights, and merger in three excerted videos.

NMI's artistic director Elise Dewsberry says that NMI has been contemplating creating an online version of the conference since its inception in 2008. "We always hope writers will attend in person, because the networking is so fantastic. Writers get to rub shoulders with producers, directors, writers, entertainment attorneys, money-raisers, and dramaturgs...it's an experience you can't duplicate online. But for those writers who can't attend in person, we're hoping the online version is the next best thing."

Online viewers will miss the opportunity to present their musicals directly to producers; but two of the online videos are from the panel with producers giving advice how to approach them. Producers Daniel Henning, Michael Blaha, and Michael Michetti represent the Blank Theatre, Edinburgh Festival and Boston Court Theatre.

An additional set of seven videos feature tips and tricks from the screenwriting and television world, presented by Scott Guy (Disney, Warner Bros., NBC, PBS, etc.).

The online conference costs $195, which is a third of the cost of the full live conference ($595). The NMI website features two free videos for visitors to sample before committing to the purchase of the entire online conference.

To see the free videos and register for the online conference, visit nmi.org, or the direct link: http://nmi.org/develop/conference/2016-panel-videos-login/

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