New American Theater Opens Curtain At Tampa Bay Area's Baywalk

New American Theater Moves Into BayWalk

Tampa Bay Area's new professional musical theater company, New American Theater, through a partnership with CW Capital and Ciminelli Real Estate Services, will be opening their doors at BayWalk. The theater will occupy the former Ann Taylor store
and will use the space for their educational workshops and classes, rehearsals and company offices.

NAT will host an open house at the BayWalk location on August 14, 2010 from 3-6pm. The public is invited to come and meet the instructors and staff, and learn about the classes NAT Academy will be offering. Classes are available throughout the year, and
include acting, improvisation, vocal training, musical theater, dance, and stage management - available for ages 2 thru adult.

"Our goal with the Academy is to grow the talent pool in our area," said Brian Becker, NAT's Founder and Producing Artistic Director. "We want to use our local talent as much as possible and these classes will help the actors move to the professional level."

The Academy's signature class is called "act up!!!", and it is structured for high school students. In the class, students have the opportunity to write their own musical from start to finish, while learning advanced techniques in all related disciplines. "act up!!!" recently performed their original musical "Remembering Putca" in the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center.

NAT's instructors include Alison Burns, Nancy Garma, David O'Hara, Karol Desort and Karla Hartley.

In addition to classes, NAT will be performing their inaugural season of professional
musical theater at the Palladium starting October 1. The inaugural season showcases a
variety of styles in musical theater, including "Pump Boys and Dinettes," the
Tampa/St. Petersburg Area Premiere of "A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline," the uniquely
abstract "Songs for a New World," and the Tony-Award winning audience favorite, "The
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."

NAT, a non-profit company, is currently in the midst of a membership drive to
get the funds needed for their first production. "Professional musical theater is very
costly to produce. We are hopeful the community and local businesses will support us,"
said Becker. The production budget for their first show is $57,000, of which they still
need about $30,000. The NAT Founders Club is a special incentive program for
memberships sold prior to their first production.

Additional information on memberships, corporate sponsorships, classes and shows is
available on their website www.newamericantheater.org.

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