National Alliance for Musical Theatre has launched the 15-Minute Musical Challenge, calling for writers to create new works as America self-isolates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NAMT is calling for submissions of 15 minutes of brand-new material by May 15, 2020. This can be either a complete musical short or 15 minutes of a new full-length project. Submitted musicals must have been written after March 19 to be eligible. Winning submissions will receive a cash prize through the support of the Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation.
“We believe that musical theatre has the power to elevate the human experience and uplift each other,” said NAMT. “While we recognize the current crisis will be on our collective minds, this is a call for musicals about absolutely anything and everything. We hope we can offer a bit of an inspired incentive by inviting you to use this socially distanced time as an opportunity for musical theatre creativity.”
Writers should send a PDF of the new material and a few demos for consideration. This will be a blind review process, and the script and demos cannot include writer information. For more information and the application, visit NAMT.org.
NAMT isn’t the only group to respond creatively to the mass shut down of theatres. Countless celebrities are answering the call for online content and many theatre companies are creating live streams or sharing recorded performances.
