FROM THE ROAD: A Coast to Coast Summer

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting the chance to visit our members around the country.  There is no better way to take the pulse of the industry and help discover new ways for us to serve our members than to meet them on their home turf, see their shows and meet their staffs.  Summer is the busiest travel time for the NAMT staff because it is when the number of shows skyrocket in our member theatres.  My summer was filled with 10 productions (7 of them premieres),  2 workshops and 6 readings from New York to California, from Vermont to Tennessee.  We a few Festival shows and National Fund for New Musicals (NFNM) grant recipients along the way. 

Here is the quick rundown (NAMT member theatres and Festival shows are bolded blue):

MAY

Los Angeles, CA- World premiere of Los Otros at Center Theatre Group 
San Diego, CA- World premiere of Nobody Loves You (NAMT Fest '12, past NFNM Project Development Grant) and Scottsboro Boys at The Old Globe, world premiere of Hands on a Hardbody at La Jolla Playhouse, and the chance to sit in on a rehearsal for Harmony, Kansas (NFNM Production Grant, past Writers Residency Grant) at Diversionary Theatre.
New York, NY- World premiere of February House (past NFNM Project Development Grant) at The Public Theater, reading of Suprema (NFNM Writers Residency Grant) at Ars Nova and Speargrove Presents (NFNM Writers Residency Grant) at New York Theatre Barn

JUNE

Connecticut- Readings of When We Met and String at The O'Neill Theatre Center, production of Mame at Goodspeed Musicals

JULY

New York, NY- Production of Triassic Parq (by Festival alumnus Marshall Pailet) produced by Amas Musical Theatre and New Musical Development Foundation at SoHo Rep  
East Haddam, CT- Final dress of Carousel at Goodspeed Musicals

Poughkeepsie, NY- Workshop of Murder Ballad (by Fest alumna Julia Jordan) at Vassar Powerhouse

AUGUST

Rhinebeck, NY- Reception for Beatsville (NAMT Fest '08) at Rhinebeck Writers Retreat

Palo Alto, CA- TheatreWorks Festival of New Works with readings of Being Earnest and Triangle (NAMT Fest '12) and a developmental production of The Trouble With Doug (NAMT Fest '10)

SEPTEMBER  

New York, NY- Reading of notes to MariAnne (NAMT Fest '11) at New York Theatre Workshop

Weston, VT- World premiere of Pregnancy Pact (NAMT Fest '11) at Weston Playhouse Theatre Co.  

Crossville, TN- Regional premiere of Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge (NAMT Fest '11) at Cumberland County Playhouse
New York, NY- Broadway Bound concert at Merkin Hall featuring songs from Watt?!? and The Dogs of Pripyat, both from the 2011 Festival 

And I am pretty sure I am missing a few. 

I got a lot more out of these trips than a wallet full of receipts and slight confusion as to my time zone.  I was fortified in my belief that our members and alumni are creating, producing and exploring the best musical theatre in the country.  They are continually engaging, challenging and building audiences through their great work.  They are not resting on their laurels but pushing forward.  

It is very hard to find a show today that does not have the NAMT stamp somewhere on it...and that makes me very proud to be just a small part of any show that adds to the crazy tapestry of musicals across the country.  The great work continues all over the country, and I'm the lucky one who gets to take in at least a fraction of it.   

FROM THE ROAD: A weekend in Connecticut

For the past 4 winters, I have spent a January weekend in Connecticut catching a show at The Spirit of Broadway Theater and attending Goodspeed Musicals' Festival of New Artists. It is one of my favorite annual excursions to see great new musicals and catch up with members and writers.

I started out my trip with a visit to see The Spirit of Broadway's production of the new musical The Boy in the Bathroom by Michael Lluberes and Joe Mahoney. This beautiful and touching production was directed by Brett Bernardini. The three-person show tells the story of a young man who chooses to live locked in the bathroom of his mother's house while he finishes his dissertation. It is a quirky story rendered wonderfully in this production. The show is running through February 5.

It was then off to Goodspeed's 7th Festival of New Artists

in partnership with The Hartt School and Boston Conservatory. This year there were 3 staged readings of new musicals, 2 cabarets and a sneak peak at one of the new musicals Goodspeed will present this season. The readings this year were:

Harmony, Kansas by Anna K. Jacobs and Bill Nelson (a past recipient of a NAMT Writers Residency Grant at Barrington Stage Co.)

Not Wanted on the Voyage by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill (the writers of NAMT Fest '07 show- The Story of My Life)

The Dogs of Pripyat (NAMT Fest '11) by Jill Abramovitz, Aron Accurso and Leah Napolin.

Also in residency that weekend working on other shows were Jeremy Desmon (NAMT Fest '04-The Girl in the Frame) and Jeff Thomson, NAMT Fest '11 (Dani Girl) writers Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond, and the team of Marcy Heisler, Zina Goldrich and Hunter Bell working on The Great American Mousical which was the special sneak peak musical that weekend.

As you can see, there were a whole lot of NAMT connections throughout the weekend with Festival alumni involved throughout. I had seen previous incarnations of all of the shows and was really excited to see all of the great work the writers have done on them. All of the shows have grown so much, and I hope that they all find great futures across the membership.

Post-show evenings were spent in cabarets in which the uber-talented writers listed above would entertain us with other songs from shows they are working on. Goodspeed knows how to pack a weekend with the perfect amount of art, fun, music and cocktails!

I love my January trip to Connecticut each year. I get to chat with members, see work from alumni and other great writers, but, most of all, I get a chance to spend a great weekend immersed in a community of new musicals. Not a bad way to spend a cold winter weekend!

FROM THE ROAD: Chicagoland

When the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, IL (about 40 minutes north of Chicago) announced that they would be presenting the world premiere of For The Boys, it was quickly added to my list of destinations as I had not yet had a chance to visit them. The show uses songs from the WWII era and has a book by Aaron Thielen (co-creator of The Bowery Boys from our 2010 Festival) based on the Bette Midler-James Caan film. It is always great to make that first trip to a NAMT member and finally see their artistic home. I really enjoyed the show and the audience thoroughly embraced it! The Marriott is in the round so I know that they are now looking for a proscenium theatre for the next step. Terry James, Marriott Theatre’s Executive Producer, and his team are working closely with the USO on the production, which is a brilliant partnership. The show is a love letter to the USO!

I then took the train down to catch the evening production of Murder For Two at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. The show is by Kellan Blair and Joe Kinosian, whom I met last summer at Northwestern University and ASCAP’s Mercer Project. Chicago Shakes’ Creative Producer, Rick Boynton, and I met beforehand and he said the show was doing very well and keeps on extending. That is because the show was a laugh riot and brilliantly done! With only two actors and piano, it is a tour-de-force murder mystery in 90 minutes. One actor is the detective and one actor is everyone else. The audience went crazy during it! Rick and his team did an amazing job and I know that this is a show that will be around for a long time.

Both shows are running until October 16, so there is plenty of time to plan your trip to the Greater Chicago area to catch these two exciting new musicals!

FROM THE ROAD: VT and CT - Hurricane Irene Edition!

Like the postman, I will brave all weather for the sake of musical theatre and NAMT, but thankfully Irene held off long enough so I could swing by the Weston Playhouse Theatre Co., in Weston, VT and see the opening night of the world premiere of Saint Ex, by Sean Barry and Jenny Giering (Festival

Alumna from Princess Caraboo). The Weston Playhouse received a $15,000 grant from our National Fund for New Musicals for this production, so I was honored to represent NAMT on opening night. It was a beautiful production of a sweeping and touching musical about the life of the man who wrote The Little Prince, directed by Kent Nicholson. Resident Producing Director Steve Stettler and his team did a wonderful job of nurturing this show and bringing it to life. The night was capped off with the late-night cabaret performance downstairs from some of the cast and staff entertaining the elated crowd.

After a quick stop by the Vermont Country Store for cheese and maple syrup, it was off to see the matinee of The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown at Goodspeed Musicals. I was

supposed to see the evening performance but with Irene in Virginia, I thought it would be best to catch an earlier show so I could get home and avoid the hurricane. Sam Brown is by Brian Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan and is about a young woman on the morning of her first day of college who can’t decide between school and finally doing what she wants. It was a great production and the small audience, of those willing to brave a storm for art, loved it!

Sadly, the actualities of the storm started to set in after that show. It was supposed to be Sam Brown’s third-to-last show, but because of Irene…it became their last show during the performance. They had a great run but it was sad to hear that they and the audience would be deprived of the final two performances.

After Irene passed, the effects of the storm really hit home when I heard that the Weston was flooded, halting their production of Saint-Ex until the theatre was cleaned up and what was able to be saved was salvaged. As the photos on their Facebook page started to come in, it became clear that while flood was horrible, the Weston staff, volunteers and actors were resilient and wouldn’t let a little water and mud get in their way. By the end of the week, the show was back up (modified to embrace some necessary changes); an amazing feat! And I know that, storm or not, Saint Ex will fly again at many theatres around the country!

FROM THE ROAD: Pacific Northwest Tour- Part 2: Seattle/Issaquah

Portland was just a warm-up for the next few days in Seattle and Issaquah for the Village Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals. But before Issaquah, there was an exciting pit stop to spend a night in the W hotel in Seattle,our home for the Spring 2012 Conference. Adam has chosen very well and the hotel was amazing. I can’t wait for the conference (and that hotel!). Look at the photo of the lobby to the right...beautiful and comfortable!

This was my 2^nd time at the Village Festival, the first being for the 2009 New Works Summit, and they never disappoint. Under the leadership of Steve Tomkins and Robb Hunt, the Village is one of the leaders in new musical development. This year, their Festival felt very “NAMT” all around. They presented staged readings of:

The Giver and Lizzie Borden from our 2010 Festival, Hello! My Baby by two Festival Alumnae (Georgia Stitt and Cheri Steinkellner), Sundays at Tiffany’s with book and lyrics by Festival Alumna Susan DiLallo, and Trails. They also presented a breathtakingly beautiful production ofCloaked by Danny Larsen and Michelle Elliott, who also wrote The Yellow Wood from our 2008 Festival. The whole Festival was fantastic and it was amazing to see so many of our alumni all in one beautiful place! Also at the Festival were Greg Schaffert from 321 Theatrical Management, Laura Little from Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre, and David Ira Goldstein from Arizona Theatre Company, who did a great job directing The Giver.

It was a perfect NAMT trip filled with new musicals and our amazing alumni and members. This is why we should all travel around to see each other’s work…you expand your horizons, get to see a different part of the country, and be inspired!

FROM THE ROAD: Pacific Northwest Tour- Part 1:Portland

Some trips are quick little excursions to see a new musical and visit a couple members. But every once in a while, the stars align and I get the opportunity to see a lot of everything in a short period of time. In my recent trip to Portland and Seattle, I was able to see 4 members, 6 shows, 11 Festival alumni; all while enjoying 3 planes, 2 rental cars (which included a free upgrade from a compact to a new mustang!), and 1 train. These are my favorite trips, even though they are quite exhausting. Nothing makes me happier at NAMT than getting out to support our members’ new musicals and seeing them in action on their home turf.

Up first was Tigard, OR (just outside Portland) to catch the world premiere of Ripper at The Broadway Rose Theatre. Ripper was in our 2009 Festival of New Musicals and is written by Duane Nelsen. Luck would have it that when I was out there, Duane was back in town to see the show so I got to have dinner with him and Sharon Maroney, Producing Artistic Director of The Broadway Rose, pre-show. The dinner gave us a chance not only to catch-up but also to talk about the process for both Duane and Sharon. This was Broadway Rose’s first large-scale new musical and world premiere—a bold and brave undertaking since Ripper is not a small show. If you want to start producing new work, definitely call Sharon (listed in your Little Black Book) as her company learned a lot in its first go-around. The production was really great and fully realized…what more could any writer ask? The production was not only educational for the theatre but also for Duane who was able to learn so much about his show that he was not able to glean before from just readings. Now, Duane is ready to work on the script while looking for the next-step production, and Broadway Rose can start the hunt for their next new musical, both wiser from the experience!

The next morning, it was off to Portland’s Union Station to take a train up the coast to Seattle and Issaquah, WA for the next stop on my Pacific Northwest Tour…