Farewell from Executive Director Kathy Evans

I have come to the end of a fantastic 9 years as Executive Director of NAMT. I left corporate America to work with talented and smart people like you, and I am so happy to have gotten to know so many of you personally. I still pinch myself that I get to do my job in something I love as much as musical theatre. Doesn’t it feel like an exciting time? Between the very entertaining Tony’s,Glee, and TV’s singing and dancing contests, there is a beautiful vortex of activity circling this art form we all love.

I feel like those Tony winners who don’t have enough time to thank everyone… there isn’t enough space here to thank everyone who has helped make my time here so inspiring. However, I must thank all the Presidents under whom I worked, in chronological order -- Sue Frost, Michael Jenkins, John Breckenridge, Denny Reagan, and Marilynn Sheldon. Without their leadership, we wouldn’t be this strong and have so many exciting new programs like the National Fund for New Musicals today. By the way, I’m consulting for NAMT until the new Executive Director is here, and I am on NAMT’s Board, so I am not going far!

Please stay in touch with me in my new incarnation as Founder of the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. I will be giving writers working residencies in upstate New York inthe summer and will be back in New York City in the fall. The best way to reach me is: RhinebeckWriters@gmail.com. I will miss you all beyond words. Thank you for everything you have done for me and for NAMT.

How Far We've Come!

As we prepare to head to San Francisco for our Spring Conference, my head is immersed in our five-year strategic plan. The Board and staff have been working together over the past eight months to create a valuable framework to help the National Alliance for Musical Theatre grow. The Board will be discussing the final version at our board meeting next week, and our President Marilynn Sheldon will share some of the highlights with conference attendees.

I have been struck, during this process, by how far NAMT has come. In the past five years, our membership has grown from 130 to 150 organizations; we launched a new website with many more features; and our conferences, Festival of New Musicals, and New Works Summits have helped spawn a myriad of new musicals across the country. I am particularly proud of the National Fund for New Musicals, which has awarded 31 grants totaling nearly $150,000 to support producers and writers in new work development. There is much more we plan to do for our membership with new granting programs. We'll have to use some of the fundraising ideas we learn at the conference to help NAMT grow! Details to come...stay tuned!

NAMT's New Strategic Plan

After a long year of work, the Board of Directors approved a five-year strategic plan in March. The process was thorough and incorporated valuable input from many stakeholders, including the membership. 50% of you completed a survey last fall -- a remarkable result. I was particularly pleased to see that 90% rated NAMT membership as having either High Value or Very High Value– a wonderful stamp of approval for the impact of this organization.

The strategic plan has 3 Key Goals, incorporating the stakeholders’ belief that NAMT become a primary resource for best practices among musical theatre producers; make a bold commitment to growing our funding programs; and evaluate and strengthen our programs in ways that assure even greater impact. This plan will serve as the roadmap for our future, starting with the search for the new Executive Director. We are happy to share the plan with all of you. A summary will be mailed to all the members in the coming weeks, and you can review it online now at namt.org/plan. We remain committed to our mission, our membership, and this art form that we all love.

Have you heard of the controversy surrounding Rocco Landesman's remarks at last week's new play convening at Arena Stage? To simplify, Rocco questions the increase in arts institutions in the last 20 years, when audience participation in the arts has decreased, begging the question -- Is there too much supply and not enough demand? You can read his blog post and comment as well on the NEA's site.

The NAMT Board is about to embark on our strategic plan retreat. One of the key questions raised by our members in the survey you completed in December mirrors the issues addressed by Rocco: audiences. How can we keep current audiences and attract new audiences to the theatre? What innovative methods can we find, as a field, to bring audiences to musicals? What role does new work play? These are big questions. I am excited to tackle these issues with our dedicated board members. Our goal is to have the final plan approved by the Board for our Spring Conference in San Francisco, to present to the membership. NAMT is in a strong position today, as an organization, and we look forward to great things to come.

Join Op4G and Help NAMT!

Do you like to give your opinion? Do you like pocket money? Would you like to help NAMT support the development of new musicals? Now you can do ALL THREE! Last week we told you about our new relationship with Op4G, and I wanted to mention it again because I am so excited about its potential to help you and NAMT. In my long career of hearing businesses tout "win-win" scenarios, I believe this truly is! Op4G is a market research company partnering with not-for-profits to find a select demographic base for their corporate clients. If you join, you get paid for giving your opinion on surveys and a portion of your payment is donated to NAMT. It's easy to join. Go to www.Op4G.com and click on the orange "Join Op4g" button. When asked to "select your non-profit", select National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Indicate how much of your payment you want to donate to NAMT - between 25% and 100%.

Please spread the word by sharing this link. If we can get lots of people to join Op4G and choose NAMT as their not-for-profit, we could create a donation income stream to help writers and producers that will last for years.