CO New Musical Fest

We are a call to all Composers and Writers!

 

This festival was founded in 2020 by Kelly Bidstrup Graham, a local musician, writer, and director, who has seen the terrible lack of opportunities available to Colorado musical theater composers. There are open mic nights for singer songwriters and there are tons of opportunities to submit plays for staged readings all over Denver. But there are few to no places where a musical theater writer can workshop their work. Most new musicals are self funded readings or full productions, limiting who gets their voice heard to those with resources and money.

 

We are changing that.

 

We are looking for musical theater works in progress. Whether you're on draft 1 or draft 50. We want to see it! Whether it's only a few scenes and a song so far, a one act, or a full length show. We want to see it. This is an open call to musical theater creators in Denver and beyond! Show us what you've got!

 

We want to give composer/writers the chance to get their work in the hands of actors and musicians and in front of audiences so they can figure out what works and what doesn't, and gain some following and hopefully funding to help their show go farther.

 

This call is open to all ages. We would like to have a selection of adult work as well as a selection of teen/kids work. We want composers and writers of all ages to have a chance to tell their story. One of the reasons this festival was born, was because of a show Kelly wrote, Not Just Anything (Featured as part of the festival in 2020) Is all about the disparity in musical theater between stories that are told and stories that need to be told. The work that prodominantly gets published is overwhelmingly white and male, but our world is a rainbow of ages, genders, ethnicities, and powerful stories that don't fit into the mold set by the shows we see at the Tony's each year. We encourage EVERYONE who has a musical story to tell to share it, and for this festival we are especially interested in stories from underrepresented and unique perspectives.

 

If your piece is selected: You will work with a director/and or music director. As a team you'll cast what you need for your work. There will be a short rehearsal process before these go up for their staged readings. As part of the rehearsal and performance process there will be many opportunities for feedback and editing as needed. The goal being your work leaves this process better than it came in.

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If your piece isn't selected: You will have the option to recieve feedback. As we read these works we take notes and are happy to share those notes and thoughts and ideas so that even if we don't feature your work, it can still grow and continue to improve.

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Check out just some of the amazing humans we worked with in 2020!