Home   |  
Search
2024 Festival of New Musicals

2024 Festival of New Musicals

January 12-14, 2024

STAGED READINGS  |  FESTIVAL PACKAGES & TICKETS  |  SCHEDULE  |  COVID SAFETY  |  FESTIVAL ARCHIVES

Don't miss your chance to see the next big hit at Goodspeed’s 18th Festival of New Musicals! The Festival has launched more than 50 new musicals into the universe, sending them across the country, to Broadway, and around the world! Join us for a weekend filled with insider events, seminars, cabarets, and three staged readings of brand-new works as the brightest writers and performers collaborate to create the future of America's greatest art form.

FESTIVAL PACKAGES & TICKETS

We're giving you the flexibility to choose exactly what your weekend will look like. Just order a base package (which includes exclusive Package events) and then select which add-ons you want. It's that easy!  

FESTIVAL PACKAGE | $100

    

PACKAGE ADD-ONS

• 1 Ticket for all 3 Staged Readings   Festival Dinner at Gelston House - $42
• 3 Seminar Sessions*
  • Friday Cabaret - $15
• Symposium*
  • Saturday Cabaret - $15
 • 2024 Terris Theatre Season Announcement*
 
• Meet the Writers Q&A*
   

*Exclusive Package Event

Call the Box Office to order packages: 860.873.8668


STAGED READINGS

Single Tickets: $30
Students: $15

Photosynthesis

Friday, January 12, 7pm

Book, Music, & Lyrics by Claudine Mboligikepelani Nako
Music Direction by Christie Chiles Twillie
Directed by Christopher D. Betts

Nika is an extremely talented floral artist and the sole owner and operator of Miss Nika's Awesome Blossoms. As Nika feels pressure to maintain the facade of "thriving" as a Black female business owner and community role model, she increasingly resents that she makes a living delivering joy to other people while she can't seem to hang onto any for herself. When her rickety old Volkswagen Beetle breaks down it sends her into a breakdown of her own. Nika discovers that her own broken parts may need repairing as well.

Letters to the President

Saturday, January 13, 7:30pm

Concieved by Michael Bello & Jessica Kahkoska
Research and Letter Curation by Jessica Kahkoska
Featuring Songs by Ari Afsar & Candace Quarrels, Preston Max Allen, Simone Allen, Dr. Dawn Avery, Nick Blaemire, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Elliah Heifetz, Anna K. Jacobs, Naomi Matlow & Teresa Lotz, Madeline Myers, Ronvé O’Daniel & Jevares Myrick, Rona Siddiqui, Mark Sonnenblick, Will Van Dyke & Jeff Talbott, Ben Wexler, & Zack Zadek
Music Direction by Matt Deitchman
Music Supervision by Patrick Sulken
Directed by Michael Bello

Since George Washington took office in 1783, writing letters to the President has provided citizens of all ages, races, political parties, and backgrounds an outlet to express their most personal concerns, hopes, and dreams for America. Letters to the President reimagines this historic canon of letters as a multi-composer musical event, with each song inspired by an individual letter from the archive. This presentation features brand-new material that has been written, created, and developed after the powerful cabaret at last year’s Festival. 

The Snow Goose

Sunday, January 14, 1pm

Written by Scott Gilmour Claire McKenzie
Based on the novel by Paul Gallico 
Music Direction by Adam Souza
Directed by Emily Reutlinger

Based on the novella of the same name, The Snow Goose tells the story of the unlikely friendship that forms between Rhayader, an outsider who has retreated from the world, and a young girl, Fritha, when they rehabilitate an injured snow goose. As they nurse the bird back to flight, their friendship grows as the threat and horror of an impending world war looms. Though the pair come from very different experiences, their paths seem destined to join in the face of a changing.



SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

• Exclusive Festival Package Event

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12

TICKET DISTRIBUTION | 5:00pm - 6:45pm | Porch Bar, The Goodspeed 
All package holders will be able to pick up their tickets before Friday's staged reading. Seminar tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis so arrive early to get your top choices!

PHOTOSYNTHESIS | 7:00pm | The Goodspeed

NEVADA LOZANO | 9:30pm | The Goodspeed 

Nevada Lozano is a musical theater composer and lyricist, as well as a professional music director, arranger, orchestrator, and pianist. He has served as music assistant for several Broadway productions, including: Oklahoma!, The Sound Inside, and Sea Wall/A Life. Most recently, he served as music assistant for Bard SummerScapes’s production of The Most Happy Fella and as assistant sound effects designer for Suffs at the Public Theater.

His musical, The Carol of the Bells is also an animated Christmas musical — one with the heart of holiday classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas, but the irreverent humor of contemporary musicals like Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.

Nevada is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (Advanced) and received their Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. He was a finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant and has participated in residencies at Goodspeed Musicals, Yaddo, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.
Buy Tix

Saturday, January 13

TICKET DISTRIBUTION | 9am - 12pm | Gelston House Lobby 

SEMINAR SESSION I | 10am | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church 
Choose one of the following:

  • Where Are They Now? |Gelston House Dining Room We’ve premiered 6 new musicals between our two stages since we reopened our doors in 2022. Join Artistic Director Donna Lynn and some of the producers of these Goodspeed hits to hear about some exciting developments and future plans!
  • Breaking the Binary | Gelston House Red Room 
    Non-binary and trans artists have existed in theatre for decades, but with the latest national conversations about the gender spectrum, we’ve seen an explosion of work centering on their voices. George Strus, the Artistic Director of Breaking the Binary Theatre is joined by local East Haddam educator and host of the podcast Transqat Clare McCarthy for a conversation about uplifting trans voices in the theatre. 
  • Look, I Made a Hat: The Actor & New Work | St. Stephen's Church
    New musicals can’t happen without the actors who bring them to life. These shows are often built on an actor’s specific abilities and talents. With an all-star panel of Goodspeed favorites including Veanne Cox (Summer Stock), Etai Benson (The 12), and others, hear how actors feel about developing new work alongside writers and how they contribute to the creative process. 

 

SEMINAR SESSION II | 11:15am | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church 
Choose one of the following:

  • If You Build It: The Nuts & Bolts of Constructing a Goodspeed Set | Gelston House Dining Room
    A surprising number of Goodspeed audience members don’t know that we build all of our sets right here in East Haddam. The Goodspeed production team will detail just what it takes to build, load in, and eventually load-out, large-scale scenery for our intimate venue.
  • Utilizing the Black Mirror: Social Media for Theatre | Gelston House Red Room
    Cutting through the noise on social media can be next to impossible – but Broadway shows are finding that TikTok and Instagram are crucial to the maintaining consistent ticket sales for long-running hits. Hear from Grace Aki & Jake Lebowitz of AKA NYC about how they are succeeding in the digital landscape.
  • Look, I Made a Hat: The Actor & New Work | St. Stephen's Church
    New musicals can’t happen without the actors who bring them to life. These shows are often built on an actor’s specific abilities and talents. With an all-star panel of Goodspeed favorites including Veanne Cox (Summer Stock), Etai Benson (The 12), and others, hear how actors feel about developing new work alongside writers and how they contribute to the creative process.

 

SEMINAR SESSION III | 12:30pm | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church 
Choose one of the following: 

  • Speak the Speech: Accents & Dialects in Theatre | Gelston House Dining Room
    Ever wonder how actors learn different accents for roles? Dialect Coach Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer breaks down some of the tricks and techniques of this unique art form.
  • Don’t Touch That Dial: Creating Goodspeed’s Television Commercials | Gelston House Dining Room
    Are you one of the many Connecticut residents who learned about a show at the Opera House through a TV commercial? Get a peek behind the curtain and learn what it takes to produce the commercials for each show!
  • Trustee and Me: Board Development | St. Stephen's Church
    Boards of Directors are fundamental parts of non-profit organizations across the country. From finances to long-term planning – what do they actually do? Harold Wolpert, David Byrd, and Goodspeed’s Board President, Hila Rosen chat about the responsibilities and duties of a theatre’s Board.

 

2024 TERRIS THEATRE SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT | 3:30pm | The Goodspeed 
Festival-goers will be the first to find out which shows will be in our 2024 Terris Theatre Season. You'll hear from members of the creative teams, and may even be treated to a live performance!

SYMPOSIUM: Getting to Know Maggie | 4:30pm | The Goodspeed 
Get to know the new musical Maggie, which will be the third show in Goodspeed's 2024 Season. Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton will host a panel discussion with the show's writers Johnny Reid and Matt Murray, Director Mary Francis Moore, and commercial producer Michael Rubinoff. There will even be a special live performance of some of the songs from the musical. And don't forget to come prepared with your questions! 

FESTIVAL DINNER | 5:30pm | Gelston House 

Enjoy a three-course meal with fellow Festival-goers at the Gelston House, located next to The Goodspeed (view menu). 
Please note that Gelston House is the only dinner option within walking distance of Goodspeed.
Buy Tix

LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT | 7:30pm | The Goodspeed  

NIKKI LYNETTE | 9:30pm | Gelston House 

Nikki Lynette

Nikki Lynette is a social impact artist who fuses mental health activism into her performances, filmmaking, and visual art. She is the writer and creator of Get Out Alive, an autobiographical afrogoth musical which raises mental health awareness through the lens of an underground concert. Featuring music that is equal parts punk, hip hop, alternative rock, and pop, Nikki’s true story shows that when life leads us to a bad place, we can always make it out alive.

With Get Out Alive, she made history as the first black female playwright to be produced by American Music Theatre Project and the first AMTP work to debut at Steppenwolf in addition to being featured in the NAMT Festival of New Musicals in 2022.

In addition to selections from Get Out Alive, Nikki will be debuting songs from her new documusical Happy Songs About Unhappy Things, which just finished filming and she is currently adapting into a live theatrical experience.
Buy Tix

Sunday, January 14

THE SNOW GOOSE | 1pm | The Goodspeed

MEET THE WRITERS Q&A | 3:30pm | The Goodspeed 
The Festival weekend culminates in a question-and-answer session with some of the writers and creative teams behind Photosynthesis, Letters to the President and The Snow Goose


Become a Friend of the Festival!

Would you like to be a Friend of the Festival? Friends of the Festival are listed in all Festival programs, enjoy VIP seating for all Festival events, attend an exclusive brunch on Sunday morning, and have the opportunity to join the writers for champagne during performance intermissions. But most importantly Friends of the Festival provide crucial support that helps to make the Festival a premier showcase for new musicals in the country. With a gift of $500 you can be a part of this exclusive group.

Contact Yz Jasa at yz@goodspeed.org or 860-873-8664 x333 for more information.

2024 Friends of the Festival

as of 1/12/24

Ron Benedict and Sandy Eichelberg
Denise Bernardo and Edwin Muentes
Jennifer Brown and Ian Ayres
Anne Sullivan Calanquin
Frank and Amy Campbell
Steven and Cindy Chao
Terri and Don Coustan
Ruth Ann Davis
Sue Frost and Dan Renn
Susan F. Gonsalves
William Gratz and James Bruno
Ronald Jacobs
Stu and Ellen Kazin
Nancy Kline and James Trail
Pat and Koen Loeven
Jon Lukomnik and Lynn Davidson
Dave and Judith Macri
Sonya Morton Mangan
Paul & Betsy McIlvaine
Mark Planner
Will Rhys
Jeff Riley and Mary M. Wilson
Hila and Saul Rosen
Dr. Anne L. Rothstein and Ms. Jane Hellman
Kathleen Sauer
Margaret Saxe and George Vinick
Allyn & Karen Seymour
David Shimchick
Bert Silverberg
Larry Starr
Straighten Your Crown Productions
Russell Tait and Lee Anderson
Carl Thompson
John Voege and Geoffrey Paul
Tracy Weed
E. Marie Wilson 

Interested in becoming a Friend for the 2025 Festival of New Musicals? Please contact Yz Jasa at yz@goodspeed.org


Festival Sponsors