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 18^th 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!  

Call the Box Office to order packages: 860.873.8668

STAGED READINGS

Photosynthesis

Friday, January 12, 7pm

Book, Music, & Lyrics by Claudine Mboligikepelani Nako

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

Concieved by Michael Bello & Jessica Kahkoska
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

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

Music by Claire McKenzie
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

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!

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 Gloria Gorton at ggorton@goodspeed.org or 860-873-8664 x366 for more information.

2024 Friends of the Festival

as of 11/17/22

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

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