National Alliance for Musical Theatre Announces Grant Recipients for 2023-2024 Frank Young Fund Production & Development Projects + Impact & Exploration Initiatives

Published by New Jersey Stage
08/26/2024

(NEW YORK, NY) -- The National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced the 12 Award Recipients for the 2023-2024 Frank Young Fund for New Musicals Project Development & Production Grants and the 7 Award Recipients for the 2024-2025 Impact & Exploration Fund.

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals (FYFNM) 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 Impact & Exploration Fund (I&EF) is designed to help NAMT member theatres pilot new capacity-building programs to advance their missions and build a library of practices and procedures from which other members can learn. During the 2024/2025 season, the Funds are awarding $105,000 in grants to NAMT member organizations.

“We are thrilled to witness the unwavering commitment and innovation demonstrated by this year’s grant recipients,” says Betsy King Militello. “These projects highlight the transformative power of musical theatre, pushing the boundaries of creativity and accessibility in ways that resonate deeply with producers, audiences and artists alike. The Frank Young Fund and the Impact & Exploration Fund are crucial for ensuring that new voices and groundbreaking ideas continue to thrive, gaining both momentum and traction in our field.”

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals has awarded each of the following member organizations $5,000 to $10,000 to support full productions: Aurora Theatre (Lawrenceville, GA) for King of Pangea (Fest ’22) by Martin Storrow; Diversionary Theatre (San Diego, CA) for TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix (Fest ’21) by EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn; Goodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, CT) for Little Miss Perfect by Joriah Kwamé; Olney Theatre Center (Olney, MD) for Long Way Down by Dahlak Brathwaite and Khiyon Hursey; Philadelphia Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA) for Night Side Songs by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour; TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (Redwood City, CA) in partnership with Center Repertory Company (Walnut Creek, CA) for Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical by Min Kahng; Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre (Chicago, IL) for Never Better by Preston Max Allen

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals has awarded each of the following member organizations $2,000 to $5,000 to support a workshop or reading: Ars Nova (New York, NY) for Satellites by Zack Zadek; La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) for Untitled Quiet Project by Sam Chanse, MILCK (AKA Connie Lim), AG (AKA Adrianne Gonzalez) and Jess McLeod; MCC Theater (New York, NY) for MISS STEP by Melissa Li and Kit Yan; Prospect Musicals (New York, NY) for The Oscar Micheaux Project (Fest ’23) by Alphonso Horne, Jesse L. Kearney, Jr., Peter Mills and Cara Reichel.

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals is overseen by NAMT New Works Director Frankie Dailey, and the recommended Grant Recipients for the Production and Project Development Grants are selected by a distinguished panel of industry leaders, moderated by Gigi Bolt, the former Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts. The panelists for the 2024-2025 cycle are Charles Vincent Burwell, NAMT Festival of New Musicals Alumni Writer for Cubamor (Fest ‘14); Braley Degenhardt, Director of Marketing, Atlantic Theater Company; Dan Knechtges, Artistic Director, Theatre Under The Stars; Søren Møller, Artistic Director and Creative Producer, GosOmeter Copenhagen/Østre Gasværk Teater; Dámaso Rodríguez, Artistic Director, Seattle Rep; Sushma Saha, Performer and Songwriter, notably of the Broadway revival of 1776; Aaron Sanko, CEO, UIA Talent Agency; Beatriz Westby, Arts Administrator and Event Producer.

Recipients of Writers Residency Grants, also part of the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals, will be announced later this year.

The Impact & Exploration Fund, with generous funding from the Capdevilla Gillespie Foundation, has awarded each of the following member organizations $2,000 to $5,000 to support their projects: The 5th Avenue Theatre (Seattle, WA) for Expansion of The 5th's ASL Interpreted Performances; Diversionary Theatre Productions Inc. (San Diego, CA) for Diversionary Goes Green: Roofing & Solar Panel Installation; Ogunquit Playhouse (Ogunquit, ME) for Education and Community Programs Assessment; The Old Globe (San Diego, CA) for Breaking Bread: Family Edition; Philadelphia Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA) for PTC & Art-Reach Strategic Accessibility Initiative; Pittsburgh CLO (Pittsburgh, PA) for their Removing Barriers Initiative; ZACH Theatre (Austin, TX) for their Website Redesign.

The Impact & Exploration Fund is overseen by NAMT Member Services Director Adam Grosswirth, and the recommended Grant Recipients are selected by a distinguished panel of industry leaders. The panelists for this year's cycle were Kerry Candeloro, Access Coordinator at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Victor Cervantes, Jr., Founder and CEO of LA Mission Project; Aislinn Frantz, a producer, dramaturg and playwright based in Chicago; Tad Fujioka, Marketing Associate at Musical Theatre West; Nancy Gibbs, a principal at 321 Theatrical Management and a Producer, General Manager and Company Manager on Broadway; and Katie Pelkey, Managing Director of Aurora Theatre.

The Frank Young Fund for New Musicals has provided over $900,000 of funding to new musicals over the last 15 years, including A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson (NAMT Fest ’19) at Playwrights Horizons; Oratorio for Living Things by Heather Christian (NAMT Fest ’22) at Ars Nova; Eight-Sixed by Sam Salmond and Jeremy J. King at Diversionary Theatre; Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori at both Center Theatre Group and The Public Theater; Renascence by Dick Scanlan (NAMT Fest ’96) and Carmel Dean at Transport Theatre Group; The Band’s Visit by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses (NAMT Fest ’12) at Atlantic Theater Company; When We’re Gone (fka Mortality Play, NAMT Fest ’16) by Alana Jacoby and Scotty Arnold at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs (NAMT Fests ’98 & ’12) at Playwrights Horizons and Dallas Theater Center; Ordinary Days (NAMT Fest ’08) by Adam Gwon (NAMT Fests ’08, ’11 & ’14) at Adirondack Theatre Festival; Far From Heaven by Michael Korie, Scott Frankel and Richard Greenberg at Playwrights Horizons; The Circus in Winter (NAMT Fest ’12) by Ben Clark, Hunter Foster and Beth Turcotte at Goodspeed Musicals; and Southern Comfort (NAMT Fest ’12) by Julianne Wick Davis (NAMT Fests ’12 & ’19) and Dan Collins (NAMT Fest ’12) at all three grant levels, at Playwrights Horizons, CAP21 and Barrington Stage Company; among many others.

The Impact & Exploration Fund (formerly the Innovation & Exploration Fund) has provided over $130,000 of funding since 2017, for projects in areas of technology, accessibility, artistic innovation, and more. Past recipients include: Constellation Stage and Screen's Rural Community Access to Tickets Initiative; Music Theatre Wichita for Child Protection Trainings; Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s integration of a Deaf performer into their production of Fun Home; Ars Nova for the creation of an exploratory childcare fund for artists in production; Theater Latté Da to support “Artists Intersecting with Audiences” and “Dramaturgical Cabarets;” TheatreWorks Silicon Valley to expand sensory sensitive performances in their season; Playwrights Horizons to support the Artist Financial Literacy Program; and more. Grant recipients’ final reports, along with supplemental materials such as video interviews, are shared with NAMT members in a growing online library, The Innovation and Exploration Guide, allowing other theatres to learn from and adapt these programs and advances.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization serving the musical theatre community. Its mission is to be a catalyst for nurturing musical theatre development, production, innovation and collaboration. Their 125 organizational members and 55 individual members, located throughout 31 states and six countries abroad, are some of the leading producers of musical theatre in the world and include theatres, presenting organizations, higher education programs and individual producers. Among the over 300 musicals launched by NAMT's Annual Festival of New Musicals are Come From Away, Lempicka, The Drowsy Chaperone, Lizard Boy, Teeth, Gun & Powder, King of Pangea, Benny & Joon, Darling Grenadine, Ordinary Days, It Shoulda Been You and Thoroughly Modern Millie, among many others, representing 575 writers. Last season, nearly 150 students from 33 states participated in the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with NAMT.

NAMT thanks the following foundations, government agencies and organizations for their ongoing support of their programs: The Alhadeff Family Charitable Fund, ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, BMI Foundation, Wendy Gillespie (Capdevilla Gillespie Foundation), The Giving Bee Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Hollywood Pantages, Lucille Lortel Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Ted Snowdon Foundation, and Anonymous donors.