Deadline: December 2, 2022
The Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists is a juried cash and production grant given annually to support the early work and career of a deserving musical theatre librettist. It commemorates the life and work of playwright/librettist Eric H. Weinberger (1950-2017), who was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical (Wanda’s World), and the playwright/librettist of Class Mothers ’68, which earned Pricilla Lopez a Drama Desk Award nomination.
The winner will receive $2,000 to help with cost-of-living expenses. The winning musical will receive development assistance in the 2023 New Works Development Program of Amas Musical Theatre, culminating in an Amas Lab production with New York theatre professionals. Amas, which is administering the award, was the development home for several of Mr. Weinberger’s musicals, and which produced the World Premiere of Wanda’s World and the New York Premiere of Tea for Three.
With the many setbacks in the theatre industry over the past three years, we are grateful to be afforded this opportunity to continue making theatre and creating an impact in our community. Both our 2020 and 2021 winners, Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels, and Gabe Caruso and Sangwoo Lee received development workshops of their musicals Māyā and Settle Down this year. We are excited to begin work with our 2022 winners Charlie Roman and Will Wegner on their piece Onward & Upward, and welcome a new wave of inspiring voices to our musical theatre family.
Submissions open Monday September 19, 2022 and will close on Friday, December 2, 2022. All submissions must be sent through an online application that can be found HERE.
Only one submission per playwright/librettist will be accepted. The winner of the award will be announced spring 2023.
Amas Musical Theatre will not ask for any fees for entry or for any fiduciary involvement from the playwright/librettists at any point of the process.
APPLY HERE
Submission Requirements:
The musical must:
- Be a full-length show (at least 80 minutes)
- Have no more than seven actors (actors may play multiple roles, if so please include a suggested breakdown of role distribution)
- Be complete and ready for readings, workshops and/or productions
- Have a demo that is an accurate representation of the music and style of the show (at least five songs)
- Have full underlying rights clearance of any pre-existing material used in the script (music, source material, etc.)
- Not have had a full production or be published in any way, even if with a different name.
- All documents must be submitted as PDF files and they should be named with the part of the submission it refers to and the title of the show in the format of PART_TITLE, i.e.: for Tea for Three; BIO_TEA-FOR-THREE, SYNOPSIS_TEA-FOR-THREE, etc.
- Biography and resumes of all contractually attached people such as composer, director, producer to the project
- History of the submission’s development, and any previous titles it has gone through (if applicable, maximum one page)
- Brief synopsis (maximum 150 words)
- Brief artistic statement on the piece itself, including all source material, inspiration, goal, message, etc. (maximum one page)
- Proof of rights (if applicable)
- Demo and track listings (Demo selections to be posted as a Dropbox or Google Drive link)
- PDF document of the full-script and sheet music, if available (no writers named)
Guidelines for Materials
All submissions must adhere to the following or your application will be disqualified before reaching our selection committee.
PROOF OF RIGHTS
If the musical contains any copyrighted material, please submit a signed letter from the authors and/or underlying rights representative stating that underlying rights have been secured.
FULL SCRIPT
The full script must include:
Title page (which should only have the title on it and absolutely no other information)
Character breakdown (maximum one page)
The complete script with page numbers
For the anonymity of your submission, the full script and sheet music cannot include any information on playwright/ librettist or contractually attached people, previous casts, or any agents. All submissions will go through a blind evaluation process, any personal information you provide will only be available to Amas Musical Theatre staff.
Demo Tracks
The recording should be a significant representation of the songs in the show that accurately highlights the style and character of the score and lyrics.
Demo tracks should:
- Include at least one song from the first 25 pages
- Have at least five recordings available – they do not need to be professional or studio quality but they must be clear enough to hear lyrics, melody, and accompaniment
- Have singers of appropriate vocal types for their respective roles
- Be full songs only, no medleys of spliced songs
- For the anonymity of your submission, tracks cannot include any personal identifiers for playwright/librettist(s), the performers recorded, or contractually attached people.
Scripts will be read and evaluated through a blind submission process by Amas Musical Theatre’s literary team. A group of finalist plays will be read and evaluated by a selection committee, comprised of distinguished artists and playwrights, using a blind evaluation process. Committee members will not be given any additional information beyond the title of the show, the script and the demo tracks.
Any personal information you provide in the application is seen by the Amas Musical Theatre staff only, not the selection committee. Our process is based on the quality of the work submitted.
Round 1 (September-December)
Our literary team reads the first 25 pages of the book and listens to the demo for any track related to these pages.
The team fills out evaluations for each show, which determine the submissions that continue to Round 2.
If selected as a finalist, the show’s application primary contact is notified via email.
Round 2 (January-March)
The selection committee reads the scripts in full and listens to all demo tracks submitted.
Committee members discuss the finalists to determine which one is best suited for the award.
The winner will be announced in the spring of 2021
The application’s primary contact is notified and a development schedule is created with the winner.
We will not be able to provide feedback regarding why a particular piece was or was not selected.
The Winner
Will receive $2,000 to help pay for cost-of-living expenses.
Will receive development assistance in the 2023 New Works Development Program of Amas Musical Theatre.
Will have the selected show rehearsed and performed by New York theatre professionals in an Amas Lab production.
Must be present in New York City for the development process.
Must give the right of first refusal for a world premiere of the selected show that will expire 90 days after
Amas Musical Theatre presents the Lab production.