AMAS Announces THE GLORIOUS BOUQUET PROJECT

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff/Producing Artistic Director) is announcing the launch of a new developmental showcase for musicals, The Glorious Bouquet Project.

The Glorious Bouquet Project is a juried competition of new musicals by emerging minority composers, lyricists and librettists, and creators of musicals exploring minority experiences. New musicals that feature stories and casts that are emblematic of the diversity of our emerging cultures, both American and global, are welcome.

Excerpts of musicals selected by a Glorious Bouquet Project panel will be presented live for the public at an evening event in late June, 2011. An onstage panel of judges will discuss each show and select one to receive the 2011 Amas Glorious Bouquet Award, which includes a full, public staged reading in the 2011-12 Amas Musical Theatre Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab Series and a $1,000 stipend to the winning writers.

The Glorious Bouquet Project is being launched as part of a series of events commemorating the Centennial Year of the company's late Founder, Rosetta LeNoire (1911-2002). She was often quoted as saying "My world is as God created it, all colors ... it's a glorious bouquet!"

"The Glorious Bouquet Project is an exciting new way for us to further the mission of Amas Musical Theatre", says Donna Trinkoff, Amas Producing Artistic Director. "From Rosetta's founding days to the present we have been dedicated to exploring minority themes and perspectives, celebrating diversity and multiculturalism, and nurturing emerging artists. The moment Kelvin Moon Loh proposed the Glorious Bouquet Project to us I was committed to doing it. It's a fresh and fun approach to the development of new work and artists, offering a new platform for exposure and support. I'm so glad he's joining us as Project Director."

The Glorious Bouquet Project seeks to help foster a new generation of minority writers who create musicals that celebrate the minority experience, and writers who create musicals specifically for minority performers. For this program Amas defines minority as based on race, gender identity, sexuality, and religious or spiritual background.

Project Director Kelvin Moon Loh is a young actor, singer, musician and director whose work has been seen in numerous regional and New York theatres. Recent projects include roles in Heading East, starring B. D. Wong for the Asia Society, and Miss Saigon at Houston's Theatre Under the Stars. He also appeared in Phillip George's Nellie Beezer's Melting Pot Follies of 1922, part of the Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab Series in Fall of 2010. Loh graduated from NYU with degrees in Music and Theatre.

Full details on the Amas Glorious Bouquet Project, including Submission Requirements and Timeline, are available at www.amasmusical.org. Deadline for Submissions is March 28, 2011.

The Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab is an ongoing development series for writers, lyricists and composers to mount staged readings of their new musicals free to the public. These readings are by industry professionals and receive 29 hours of rehearsal per guidelines established by Actors' Equity Association. The Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years building strong, creative communities in New York's 62 counties, and by the ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Barbara Bell Cummings Foundation, the Dramatists Guild, and the Edith Meiser Fund, and through the generous support of many individuals. Amas Musical Theatre also receives General Operating Support from numerous foundations and individuals.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Producing Artistic Director) -- New York City's award-winning pioneer in diversity and multi-ethnic casting in the performing arts since 1968. Amas ("you love" in Latin) is devoted to the creation, development and professional production of new American musicals through the celebration of diversity and minority perspectives, the emergence of new artistic talent, and the training and encouragement of under-served young people in the New York area. In recent years, Amas has emerged as a leading not-for-profit laboratory for new musicals, including AESOP & COMPANY, SIGNS OF LIFE, WANDA'S WORLD, SHOUT! THE MOD MUSICAL, Lone Star Love, FROM MY HOMETOWN, ZANNA, DON'T!, 4 GUYS NAMED JOSE, and STORMY WEATHER: IMAGINING Lena Horne. Amas education programs include the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy, the Living Art Museum for elementary and middle schools, the Immigration Experience for middle and high schools, and Lens on Live Theatre. Visit www.amasmusical.org.

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