Victoria Clark, B.D. Wong Among Starry Panel to Select 2007 NYMF Musicals

The New York Musical Theatre Festival NYMF has announced the Grand Jury panelists who will select 18 musicals that will be featured at the fourth annual festival, to be held September 17-October 7. The jury will include five Tony Award winners—actress Victoria Clark The Light in the Piazza, Encores! Follies, actor B.D. Wong M. Butterfly, Pacific Overtures, TV's Law & Order: SVU, librettiest Rachel Sheinkin The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and producers Margo Lion and Adam Epstein Hairspray—and two-time Tony nominee Casey Nicholaw The Drowsy Chaperone, Spamalot, Encores! Follies.

The Grand Jury's selections are made through a blind evaluation process, and the 18 musicals the panel chooses make up two-thirds of the musicals presented during the Festival. The judges will make their selections from an anticipated 400 candidates submitted to NYMF through its annual open submissions program, the Next Link Project. The deadline for submissions to NYMF's 2007 Next Link has been extended to March 8.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival, the largest musical theater event in America, is billed as "the Sundance of Musical Theater." NYMF has presented more than 90 musicals in its first three years, including the hit shows Altar Boyz, [title of show] and The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Already this season, two musicals from past Festivals, The Big Voice: God or Merman NYMF '04 and Gutenberg! The Musical! NYMF '06 have launched successful runs off-Broadway, and a third, Nerds://A Musical Software Satire, is running at Philadelphia Theatre Company.

All submitted shows should be considered ready for production as well as for the widespread exposure to the New York theater community NYMF provides. The submission process involves completing an online submission form at www.nymf.org, paying the application fee and mailing in materials synopsis, 15-page script sample, demo CD of any quality, complete script and any applicable proof of rights or notice of reviews, awards, grants or letters of recommendation. Applicants are welcome to submit more than one show; each show requires a separate application and fee.