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 |
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• 1 Ticket for all 3 Staged Readings | • Festival Dinner at Gelston House - $42 | |
• 3 Seminar Sessions* |
• Friday Cabaret - $15 |
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• Symposium* |
• Saturday Cabaret - $15 | |
• 2024 Terris Theatre Season Announcement* |
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• Meet the Writers Q&A* |
*Exclusive Package Event
Call the Box Office to order packages: 860.873.8668
STAGED READINGS
Students: $15
Book, Music, & Lyrics by Claudine Mboligikepelani Nako Concieved by Michael Bello & Jessica Kahkoska 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. Music by Claire McKenzie
Photosynthesis
Friday, January 12, 7pm
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 14, 7:30pm
Directed by Michael Bello
Research and Letter Curation by Jessica Kahkoska
Music Supervision & Direction by Patrick Sulken
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
The Snow Goose
Sunday, January 14, 1pm
Book & Lyrics by Scott Gilmour
Based on the novel by Paul Gallico
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 | 4:30pm - 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.
Saturday, January 13
TICKET DISTRIBUTION | 9am - 12pm | Gelston House Lobby •
SEMINAR SESSION I | 10am | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church •
Sessions to be announced
SEMINAR SESSION II | 11:15am | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church •
Sessions to be announced
SEMINAR SESSION III | 12:30pm | Location Gelston House & St. Stephen's Church •
Sessions to be announced
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: TBA | 4:30pm | The Goodspeed •
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.
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT | 7:30pm | The Goodspeed
NIKKI LYNETTE | 9:30pm | Gelston House
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.
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!
Contact Gloria Gorton at ggorton@goodspeed.org or 860-873-8664 x366 for more information.
2024 Friends of the Festival
Ron Benedict & Sandy Eichelberg |
Denise Bernardo & Eddie Muentes |
Jennifer Brown & Ian Ayers |
Anne Sullivan Calanquin |
Frank & Amy Campbell |
Don & Terri Coustan |
Ruth Ann C. Davis |
Susan F. Gonsalves |
Bill Gratz & Jay Bruno |
Ronald W. Jacobs |
Stu & Ellen Kazin |
Koen & Pat Loeven |
Dave & Judith Macri |
Sonya Morton Mangan |
Dr. Anne Rothstein & Ms. Jane Hellman |
Allyn & Karen Seymour |
Bert Silverberg |
Straighten Your Crown Productions |
Russ Tait & Lee Anderson |
George Vinick & Margaret Saxe |
