Theatre Now Launches Musical Theatre Workshop For Young Writers

Theater Now New York (TNNY), an artist service organization dedicated to the development, production, publication, and circulation of short and long-form musicals, will bring a Musical Theatre Workshop for Young Writers to New York City public high schools this fall. The after-school program will teach the craft and artistry of musical theatre writing to students, who will write and present 10-minute musicals that express the stories and ideas they want to share with the world.

This fall's pilot program begins in partnership with the Louis D. Brandeis High School campus, a group of four schools on Manhattan's Upper East Side with a theatre program led by arts liaison Sean Turner, PhD. Students will learn the basics of storytelling, musical composition, and lyric writing from members of Theatre Now's Musical Writers Lab. The program faculty, helmed by Theatre Now's Associate Artistic Director Jason Aguirre, includes Jonathan Eric Foster, A.J. Freeman, Kenny Harmon, and Jonathon Lynch, each of whom is a professional writer with experience teaching musical theatre. The program will culminate in a public performance of the student-written 10-minute musicals.

According to Theatre Now Artistic Director Thomas Morrissey, "It is our intent that this program will expose students who come from diverse backgrounds to musical theatre. These students may have a proclivity for music, poetry or dramatic writing, but may not yet realize theatre could be an avenue for their talents and their expression. With the training of new writers through a program like this, authentic new stories are available to the stage."

Adds Managing Director Colleen Harris, "We hope young writers will feel encouraged to express their voices and tell stories that otherwise would remain hidden and silent. We believe that programs like this can be a catalyst of change, creating theatre for everyone."

Theatre Now is an artist service organization dedicated to the development, production, publication, and circulation of short and long-form musicals, by providing ongoing support for writers and their work in order to nurture voices and forms that push the boundaries of musical theatre. The Musical Theatre Workshop for Young Writers is supported in part by the Innovation & Exploration Fund, a program of National Alliance for Musical Theatre, with funding from Starhawk Productions and the Capdevilla Gillespie Foundation -

www.namt.org.