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Monday, July 29, 2019

University of the Arts Polyphone Festival of New and Emerging Musicals 2020

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DUE MONDAY AUGUST 12, 2019 11:59pm

WHAT IS POLYPHONE?

Polyphone Festival of New and Emerging Musicals s a nationally recognized festival of the emerging musical at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. For the last five years, we’ve brought composers, librettists, directors, choreographers and music directors from the field onto the campus of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at UArts to work with student casts and creatives on never before produced musicals.

Each year we program four new musicals. Each musical is cast from around 150 auditioning students, workshopped and rehearsed for six weeks, and teched for three days. During the festival week, each musical receives three performances. The final presentations are off-book, staged concert productions with a full band and lighting design. The process allows the authors to make changes over the rehearsal period and see a musical on its feet for the first time. On the last day of the festival, we perform all four shows in a 12-hour marathon on two stages. This year Polyphone will be housed in the Philadelphia Arts Bank Theater and The Wilma Theater on S. Broad St.

Each year Polyphone plugs over 100 undergraduate theater students into the process of new musical development. In the process we support emerging artists with a paid opportunity to make their work, give students on-the-ground training in the creation of new work, and give adventurous new musicals time and space to develop, free from the pressures of commercial interests, producing theaters, or reviews.

AS A POLYPHONE AUTHOR YOU RECEIVE:

  1. Artistic Fee.
  2. (for Non-Philadelphia artists) housing stipend, travel reimbursement to Philadelphia.
  3. Paid professional director, music director, and choreographer. If a project has an attached director, music director, or choreographer, we will work to bring them on board.
  4. Student cast, band, and creative assistants.
  5. Dramaturgical, logistical and technical support from the festival creative leadership and the UArts community.


ELIGIBILITY:

  1. We are looking for original musicals that are in development with a cast of 7 or more characters. (A cast of 10-15 is ideal.) We define a musical as a performance in which music is a primary mode of storytelling. This can include ensemble-based, devised, experimental and/or operatic work.
  2. The musical should have a completed first draft (electronic copies only in PDF form, no hand-written scripts will be accepted) and must have been read at least once in a workshop or concert setting.
  3. Authors and lead creatives must be based in the NYC or Philadelphia regions during the rehearsal and festival period. Non-Philadelphia artists are housed for weekend rehearsals, tech and festival weeks. There is no housing for the full 6 week rehearsal period.
  4. Lead creative team members should be available for rehearsals Friday Nights, Saturdays and mid February – March 31, 2020. And for three tech rehearsals between April 1-6, 2020. And for at least one show during festival week April 7-11, 2020.
  5. Artists that are current graduate or undergraduate students are not eligible with the exception of UArts students and MFA students at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training.

Please Note:
Polyphone is a hybrid educational and creative opportunity. Polyphone guest artists are asked to play the role of educator and artist during the rehearsal period.

Polyphone Festival performances employ minimal costumes and props, and no scenic design.

Authors may submit no more than two musicals, each as a separate application.

The festival staff is especially motivated to program voices and stories that are traditionally underrepresented in the musical theater canon.

APPLICATION:
DUE AUGUST 12, 2019 11:59pm
Complete the following two steps to submit for Polyphone 2020:

Complete the following online form: SUBMISSION FORM
Send CVs of Authors and script of the musical being submitted in an email to Jen Jaynes, Submission Administrator: jjaynes@uarts.edu, Subject Line: Polyphone Submission 2019: [Title of Show]

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