Academy of New Muscial Theater

Hello all,

Just a quick update. Ed is working hard on the next chapters of Secrets From a Lifetime on the Stage... and Off! but in the meantime has written another FULL LENGTH musical. I'll be reading it this weekend! We are also pursuing a new production of RICHARD CORY, a musical he wrote based on A.R. Gurney's play, based on the famous poem. It truly is an amazing piece and we hope to get it up in a larger venue than the previously award winning version we did at the NYMF festival in 2005.

If you happen to be in LA at the end of June I will be sitting on a panel at The BIZ OF THE MUSICAL THEATRE BIZ Conference that will take place June 27-30 at The Academy for New Musical Theatre and the Colony Theatre in North Hollywood. My panel will be discussing:

GETTING TO THE TOP OF THE PILE

Producers, artistic directors and agents talk turkey about why they pick a submission from out of the Pile, and why they leave others at the bottom of the Pile. If you register for the conference (or for the Sunday-Only pass), you’re entitled to submit one project to the Pile. It’s up to you what kind of package you submit: full artwork/DVD/script, or just a script, or even just a pitch. The panel will discuss candidly which projects in the Pile get their attention and why. To be considered, submissions must arrive at ANMT no later than 3:00 p.m. Sunday June 29th.

Confirmed Panelists: Tom McCoy (Executive Producer, McCoy Rigby Entertainment); Michael Michetti (Co-Artistic Director, The Theatre @ Boston Court); Michael Jackowitz (Director of New Works, The Rubicon Theatre); Hilary Genga (Producer); Arnold Margolin (Producing Director, Falcon Theatre); Nick Cavarra (Producer, Off-Broadway)
Invited Panelists: Karyl Lynn Burns (Producing Artistic Director, The Rubicon Theatre); David Hamlin (Producer, East of Doheny); Amy Levinson Millan (Literary Manager/Dramaturg, The Geffen Playhouse); Pier Carlo Talenti (Literary Manager of CTG); Steve Rabineau (William Morris Agency); Michael Shepperd (Incoming Artistic Director, Celebration Theatre)

Look forward to seeing you there!

Dreampeddler

First Regional Production of Fanny Hill

Kalliope Stage in Cleveland will be the first regional theatre to put up Fanny Hill. I am very excited to see Fanny start getting the exposure she deserves. As one of the original producers of the show in New York, it is very rewarding to see a show that we put so much hard work and care into start to have a life of its own. Our Fanny is growing up!

If you are in the area, go to the tickets page on the Kalliope Stage website and enjoy!

Opening night is Valentine's Day, 2008, exactly 2 years after our premiere in New York City!

As producing theater is a collaborative effort, one of the ways we get Fanny Hill out there for regional productions is through Miracle or 2 Productions. They have a catalogue of shows that they represent including Fanny Hill and another of Ed Dixon's shows that I produced, Richard Cory. I am going to interview the founders of Miracle or 2 soon so they can explain exactly what it is they do and how they develop relationships with all these great regional theaters.

Stay tuned and...

BREAK A LEG, FANNY IN OHIO!

dreampeddler

Strike 2.0, Now the Theatrical Stage Employees Union Local One and the League of American Theatres Battle it Out

So now we go into labor strikes with Local One and the League. Check out the link to Broadwayworld.com to get the summary but here is my take as an independent producer.

It seems one show a year gets to move from off-Broadway to Broadway. It seemed to be the model over the past five years to raise a smaller amount of money to get your show/musical up off-Broadway and then see if you get the kind of reviews that would merit investors/producers to move your show the Big Time, i.e. Rent, Urinetown, Spelling Bee, and most recently, Grey Gardens. I certainly tried to use that model with Fanny Hill, but although we got very good reviews, we were unable to get enough buzz going to move.

That being said, I believe the model of mounting your show off-Broadway is falling out of favor. Reason being: even that is too expensive! You simply cannot make a business case for spending up to 1 million bucks to mount a decent production off-Broadway just to roll the dice... unless you have some very rich friends or an Angel investor.

So what can you do? Well if you've got a musical, you need to submit it to the New York Music Theater Festival. This festival is basically the "Sundance Festival" for new musical works. If you are selected to participate in this festival, they will work with you in mounting a full-scale production over 6 to 8 performances over three weeks that will run in rep with over 30 shows. There is no other festival out there that has had the type of success they have had for a fraction of the cost of mounting a reading/performance yourself.

What makes them work is simply this, collaboration and sharing resources. Instead of 30 shows all trying to pay for 30 different theaters, advertising, lighting, etc., they have put in place a system in which everyone shares these costs. Basically they "shine a spotlight" and give great exposure to all the shows in the festival that each one would have great difficultly doing by themselves.

I produced Richard Cory there in 2005 and got great exposure for the show. Cory won an award for best musical and best actress. I'll post about that at another time.

Click here to submit.

By dreampeddler