Record-Breaking Number Of Open Submissions To The O'neill's National Music Theater Conference

January 9, 2006

David White, Literary Manager of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, announced that submissions to the O'Neill's 2006 National Music Theater Conference set an all-time record. The Theater Center received 137 submissions, compared to the previous record of 125 submissions in 2002.

Paulette Haupt, co-founder and Artistic Director of the National Music Theater Conference, describes the open submission policy as Œthe heart of our mission.' ³ Maury Yeston, Tan Dun, Jeannine Tesori, Kirsten Childs, Andrew Lippa, among hundreds of other artists, all came to our attention through the open submission process. At the time they sent us their work, they were unknown. We take great pride in having enabled them to receive the attention they deserved at an early point in their careers. Our selection process is as open as our submission process. I look forward each year to the probability of discovering creative artists whose careers have not yet taken flight, and being able to support them in furthering their work and their vision.²

The submission period for the National Music Theater Conference was from October 1 to December 12, 2005. Projects selected will receive a developmental residency at the O'Neill's Waterford campus in the summer of 2006, with the collaboration of professional staff and actors.

Founded in 1978, the National Music Theater Conference has developed more than 100 new works for the musical theater, more than two-thirds of which have gone on to full productions worldwide. The Conference has nurtured the talents of composers, librettists and lyricists including Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston, (NINE), Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty (AVENUE Q), Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori (VIOLET), Andrew Lippa (THE WILD PARTY), Kirsten Childs (THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN), Wally Harper and Sherman Yellen (SAY YES), Rachel Sheinkin and Joel Derfner (BLOOD AND OTHER HUMOURS), Marsha Norman, David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr. (TAKE FLIGHT), Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes (IN THE HEIGHTS).

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, is America's premiere developmental laboratory for new work and new voices for the American stage. Through its flagship programs, the National Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference, it has provided scores of artists with collaborative developmental residencies, with the objective to nurture, support and challenge both the artist and the art form. Many of those artists have gone on to make significant contributions to the theater, garnering every prestigious theatrical award.