Established in fall 2008 to support new musical works at various stages of development, the National Fund for New Musicals will support full productions of Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, which will be presented at the Adirondack Theatre Festival; as well as the Center Theatre Group production of Melissa James Gibson and Michael Friedman's musical Post Office.
Grants supporting a workshop or reading were awarded to The Emperor's New Clothes, with music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler and book by Dave Holstein, at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Band Geeks!, with a book by Tommy Newman and Gordon Greenberg, lyrics by Gaby Alter and Newman and music by Mark Allen, at Goodspeed Musicals; The Trimble Wars, with music by Sean Michael Flowers, book and lyrics by Patrick Vaughn, at the Human Race Theatre Company; and The Weird Sisters, with music by Ian Williams and book and lyrics by Aaron Jafferis, at the Old Globe.
The final grant, which supports early developmental work on a new musical, was awarded to The House by Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman, at the Ford's Theatre Society.
The National Fund for New Musicals is being supported by Stacey Mindich, the Shen Family Foundation, the Mackintosh Foundation, Dallas Summer Musicals, Theatre Under The Stars, Broadway Across America, the ASCAP Foundation Irving Caeser Fund, Charlie Fink, Dominic Chianese and the Lake Company Inc.
NAMT executive director Kathy Evans said in a statement, "We are pleased, especially in these economic times, to help these not-for-profit NAMT members in their work with such talented writing teams. We will continue to raise significant funds to grow the National Fund for New Musicals. We anticipate giving more grants annually and hope to make a lasting impact on the musical theatre field." Founded in 1985 and based in New York City, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre is a national service organization dedicated exclusively to musical theatre. Kathy Evans is the executive director for the organization with members sprinkled throughout 33 states and six countries.
For more information visit www.namt.org.
