The National Fund for New Musicals is a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. The recipients were selected by a panel moderated by Gigi Bolt, the former director of theatre and musical theatre at the National Endowment for the Arts.
National Fund grants of $10,000 to support full productions have been awarded to: Goodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, CT) for The Circus in Winter by Ben Clark, Hunter Foster and Beth Turcottte and The Public Theater (New York, NY) for The Fortress of Solitude by Itamar Moses and Michael Friedman. Both productions have support from Stacey Mindich Productions.
National Fund grants of $4,000 to support a workshop or reading have been awarded to: The 5th Avenue Theatre (Seattle, WA) for Beautiful Poison by Brendan Milburn, Duane Poole and Valerie Vigoda; Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago, IL) for Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Gunter by Will Aronson, Hannah Kohl and Daniel Maté; and Village Theatre (Issaquah, WA) for Jesus in My Bedroom by Melanie Burgess, Tim Symons and Brian Yorkey.
Additionally, the National Fund for New Musicals has awarded $500-$1,000 in Writers Residency Grants over the past year to several organizations. In New York, NY, to Ars Nova, CAP21 and Playwrights Horizons and in Minneapolis, MN, to Theatre Latté Da.
The National Fund for New Musicals has supported the development of many musicals over the last 6 years, including Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon, Far From Heaven by Michael Korie, Scott Frankel and Richard Greenberg at Playwrights Horizons and The Memory Show by Sara Cooper and Zach Redler at The Transport Group among many others. NAMT Executive Director Betsy King Militello stated, “We are honored and excited to support our member theatres as they work with this inspiring group of writers to develop these innovative and provocative new musicals. With these grants, we have now awarded 66 grants totaling $269,500, all made possible by our generous funders including Stacey Mindich Productions, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation, The ASCAP Foundation and Kathryn and Raymond Harbert."
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