Theatre Now New York

OUR MISSION

Theatre Now New York is a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, development and production of new musicals by offering ongoing support to writers in order to nurture voices that push the boundaries of musical theatre.

OUR VISION

Theatre Now seeks to create a vibrant community of early and mid-career musical theatre artists who have the support they need to thrive while producing quality presentations of new musicals. Our vision is to be a champion for innovative writers throughout their careers, guiding their musicals from creation through development to production, publication, and licensing, and introducing audiences to diverse voices. We are dedicated to shaping the future of musical theatre, one transformative story at a time.

PROGRAMS

SOUND BITES

Our flagship program is the annual SOUND BITES Festival of 10-minute Musicals, now entering its thirteenth year. Through an open submission process, ten 10-minute musicals are selected to be presented as a one-night event in NYC.

Musical Writers Lab

The centerpiece of our organization is our Musical Writers Lab, which contains a New York Group and an International Chapter, each with 10 diverse writing teams who meet weekly to develop new musicals. These writers and composers are provided resources as needed such as mentoring, studio space, casting assistance, office resources, and legal services. There is no fee to apply for the Lab, and there are no required fees or costs associated with Lab membership.

Developmental Productions

From the musicals developed in our Lab, we produce developmental readings, workshops and off-Broadway productions at no cost to our writers. These presentations require the majority of our resources and represent the culmination of the developmental process of our Lab. They are intended to get our writers out of the writers' room and allow the public the opportunity to experience new works of musical theatre performed by high-caliber talent.

Publication and Licensing

We also help our Lab members and alumni of SOUND BITES get their shows published and licensed through an ongoing relationship with Music Theatre International (MTI), often for the first time in their careers. Published in 2020, our book The 10-Minute Musical: an Anthology from the SOUND BITES Festival is the first of its kind on the market and includes 25 shows that are part of our licensable collection available through MTI. To date there have been over 1,000 productions of these mini-musicals nationwide. Many have also all been translated into Spanish and performed in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. We recently licensed an additional 22 short titles as well as 2 full-length musicals through MTI and plan to add more titles bi-annually.

Cabaret Series and Industry Nights

The remainder of our programming is designed to foster our writers' growth, present their work publicly, and give them networking opportunities. Our cabaret series, Verse Intro Cabaret, plays monthly at SoHo Playhouse, and our monthly Industry Nights feature special events including public Master Classes for our writers with prominent musical theatre creators including Tony winners and nominees like Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, Rachel Sheinkin, Lisa Lambert, Andrew Lippa, Adam Gwon, Susan Birkenhead, Mindi Dickstein, Anna K. Jacobs and many others.