New Works in Progress: THE TROUBLE WITH DOUG at TheatreWorks

An interview with TheatreWorks’ Director of New Works, Meredith McDonough, about their upcoming developmental production of 2010 NAMT Festival show The Trouble with Doug, by Will Aronson and Daniel Maté, as part of the New Works Festival this August.

The Trouble with Doug is a contemporary comedic reimagining of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Thrust together awkwardly under the same roof, Doug, his family and his fiancée all struggle to understand and respond to Doug's transformation into a giant talking slug.


What drew TheatreWorks to The Trouble with Doug? 
When we saw the presentation in the NAMT Festival two years ago, our whole artistic team was crying with laughter.  I couldn't wait to read the full script and was so pleased to see how moving the second act is.  It's that balance of humor and heart that I am always looking for in new work.


Why are you presenting the show as a developmental production vs. a reading?We had offered them a slot in last summer's New Works Festival, but they had such an exciting opportunity to work on the piece in the United Kingdom with [NAMT member] Royal & Derngate.  When I read the new draft following that reading, I could clearly see that the writers were ready to see the piece on its feet and not behind music stands again!


What is the team hoping to work on during the process?

Sharing Ideas and Putting Them Into Action

I got one of my favorite kinds of NAMT emails last  week, from Sean Kelly at The 5th Avenue Theatre and Kristin Buie and  Nena Theis at North Carolina Theatre.  At the recent Spring Conference,  several  members talked about promotions where subscribers' seats were tagged with  renewal requests when they attended a show, to engage them while they were  actually in the theatre. At The 5th, for renewing early and on the spot, they  were given a bottle of wine to take home and free parking. Kristin and Nena thought this was an easy enough project to initiate  quickly (not that it didn't require a fair amount of work, identifying  subscribers and their seats, for example), and low cost enough (thanks to deals  to the theatre on the wine and the parking) to be basically risk-free, so they  gave it a shot. I'll let Kristin tell you how it went:

"Our goal was to bring in $100,000 during the  ten-day show run (this is how much we brought in during the first ten days of  our renewal period last year by doing our standard renewal mailing). Well, we  brought in over $100,000 in the first four performances alone...Our  grand total was $536,747.50, including donations from brand new supporters and  44 new subscribers. Our patrons really appreciated the personal attention and  convenience to take care of it on the spot at the show.”

Where Kristin, Nena and Sean dream of subscription  renewals, I dream of stories like this. One of NAMT's main goals with our  conferences is to send attendees home with ideas they can use, as quickly as  possible. We stress adaptability, so what worked for a $21M organization in  Seattle can be scaled for a $3.5M organization in North Carolina, or even  further for a $5,000 budget with a volunteer staff of two. And of course that  works in both directions, taking a grass-roots idea and growing it into  something that will work for a larger organization.

I love that Kristin and Nena got something so  concrete out of the Spring Conference so quickly, and I love that they shared  their success story with Sean and me. It's proof of the power of this network,  and a great reminder of how well risks can pay off, something I'll definitely  be keeping in mind as we plan the 2012-2013 conferences (about which more  soon!  Watch this space!).

National Fund for New Musicals recipients announced!

Congratulations to the 7 member theatres selected to receive grants from 
our National Fund for New Musicals this year. In the last 4 years, the Fund has given out 45 grants totaling $197,000. 

Production Grants of $10,000 have been awarded to:
Diversionary Theatre (CA) for Harmony, Kansas by Bill Nelson & Anna K. Jacobs
Playwrights Horizons (NY) for Far From Heaven by Scott Frankel, Richard Greenberg & Michael Korie ('89–Blanco)
TheatreWorks (CA) for Wheelhouse by Gene Lewin, Brendan Milburn ('04–Striking 12, '11–Watt?!?) & Valerie Vigoda ('04–Strking 12).

Project Development Grants between $2,000-$3,000 have been awarded to:
American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern University (IL) for The Verona Project by Amanda Dehnert.
Center Theatre Group (CA) for a new musical about urban superheroes by Matt Sax.
Dallas Theatre Center (TX) for Stagger Lee by Justin Ellington, Will Power & Daryl Waters.
Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre at University of Oklahoma for Something Wicked This Way Comes by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill (both, '07–The Story of My Life).

A special thanks to all of our National Fund for New Musicals donors including Stacey Mindich Productions, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation, The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund and everyone who contributed in honor of our former Executive Director Kathy Evans.
If you are interested in contributing to the National Fund, please contact Executive Director Betsy King Militello. Donations of all sizes help grow the Fund and provide more grants to new musicals across the country.


Congratulations to all of the members and artists involved in these exciting projects! 

New Works In Progress: HERO

An interview with Terry James, Executive Producer of The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, IL, about their upcoming world premiere of Hero by Aaron Thielen (’10–The Bowery Boys) and Michael Mahler (’09–How Can You Run With a Shell On Your Back?), playing June 20-August 19. For more information, visit www.marriotttheatre.com.


Hero is a quirky and poignant new musical that explores those extraordinary moments in ordinary life. It’s the story of Hero Batowski, a 28-year-old struggling comic book artist, living anything but a superhero life. After a life-changing event his senior year in high school, Hero still finds himself living at home with his dad, Al, who runs the family comic book shop in Milwaukee. Things start to change for him when he bumps into an old girlfriend, and with the encouragement of his dad and his best friend and cousin, Kirk, Hero finally has a chance to realize his own dream. Hero features a contemporary pop/rock score that is fresh and exciting.


Why is Hero a good fit for your season? 
For more than thirty years our subscribers have enthusiastically embraced new works. Hero provided an opportunity to give them something unique. From a business point of view it makes sense—a small cast size and a 5-member pop-rock band is certainly appealing! When long-time Marriott director David H. Bell agreed to come on board, I knew we had a formidable and exciting team in place. Hero has also given us a chance to explore the new world of online marketing by collaborating with website and comic book designer and illustrator Charles Riffenburg of Grab Bag Media. For the comic book aficionado that wants more, Charles and Aaron have created a really exciting website, www.heromusical.com, which accompanies the show. It offers audiences an in-depth look into the creation of the show and the world through Hero's eye, following the entire creative process of bringing this new work to the stage, complete with audio, videos and a blog.


What was the genesis of Hero? 

FROM THE NEW WORKS DIRECTOR: Festival Questions Answered

As part of the strategic plan, we are conducting a full evaluation of the Festival.  Many thanks to those of you who provided detailed input, which is invaluable to the future of the Festival!  I’d like to try to clarify two murky areas that came up repeatedly in your comments: 

How “blind” is the process?
As blind as it can be. The Festival Committee’s review materials do not include any writer information or production history; however, some of the committee members are very involved in developing new musicals and may already be in-the-know.  At the committee meetings, we speak carefully about each show, to avoid revealing writer genders, developmental histories or the like (it is not an easy language to speak!).  We discuss our excitement and the possibilities for the future of each submission.  The blinders are typically lifted during the last hour of the last committee meeting as we are about to make our final decisions.

Who is on the committee? 
The committee changes every year, with at least 1/3 of the committee rotating off to include some new voices in the mix.  I work with the co-chairs to compose a committee of 12-13 people that represents the spectrum of the membership.  Each member serves for 2-3 years.  It is not an easy committee—members read a lot of shows and put in countless hours outside of their actual jobs to choose the Festival every year.  

In addition to highlighting these two areas of confusion, the Festival feedback gave us a wealth of insight.  You were overwhelmingly supportive but also had great ideas to make our members’ experience at the Festival even better, which a special task force and I are working to develop and implement.  I value your input; if you ever have questions about the Festival or an idea (small to crazy, love them both), never hesitate to contact me.  As most of you know, I love talking about the Festival!

New Works in Progress: ASCAP

An interview with Michael A. Kerker, Director of Musical Theatre at ASCAP, about their Musical Theatre Workshop, which recently included the musicals Costs of Living by Timothy Huang, Dora: Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria by Larry Bortnik, Hardcore West Virginia by Mike Pettry & Claire Karpen and Single Girls Guide by NAMT Fest alumni Tommy Newman & Gordon Greenberg.

The ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop is a development program for new musicals. The workshop is led by its artistic director, Stephen Schwartz (NAMT Fest '96–Children of Eden) and is coordinated by Kerker. Their goal is to nurture new composers and lyricists and to help them shape and focus their projects in the early stages of development. The annual workshop is held in New York, usually in the early spring, and the Los Angeles workshop (presented in partnership with DreamWorks Animation) is held in February.

How do you select the musicals to be presented in the workshops?
Writers are asked to submit 4 songs from their musical, a copy of the lyrics with plot placement information and a brief synopsis of the libretto. We receive approximately 125 submissions for each workshop. I listen to all submissions and usually send a dozen or so of the more promising ones to Stephen Schwartz. He then listens to these finalists and ultimately we select 4 projects for presentation in the workshop.

Festival Show Update: PREGNANCY PACT

An interview with Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald, the writers of Festival 2011 show Pregnancy Pact, as they prepare for the show's world premiere this August at the Weston Playhouse Theatre Co. in Weston, VT.

Pregnancy Pact is a pop-rock musical about a group of teens who make a pact to become single mothers together. 15-year-old Maddie is devoted to her three best friends and they are to her. So when Brynn gets pregnant, the friends all plan to have children, raising them together in a dream of a perfect life. Their pact grows as other girls find out and want in. The bubble finally bursts when their secret is revealed, leaving each of the girls to face the hard realities of love, responsibility and growing up


The show was fairly young when it came to the Festival. What was it like to put it up in front of the membership and industry at such an early stage?
Having only had one staged reading of the show before the Festival, it was thrilling to be able to share our work with such a large and enthusiastic audience. Beyond the thrill, the process of preparing for the Festival was immensely helpful. Since we chose to present an abridged version of the full piece, we were tasked with condensing the show down to its most important elements. It gave us a very clear idea of what story we are telling, which has helped us greatly as we continue to refine and reshape the piece.