Stage Directions: The Regional Arts Commission has awarded Stages St. Louis with a $43,000 grant to fund the creation of American Musical Creative (AMC) division. The program will work to “establish St. Louis as a hub for the creation of new American musical theater productions.” The grant will support the addition of staff and scheduling onsite visits to regional theatres, universities and national orgs that specialize in developing new musicals. Stephen Bourneuf, Stages’ new associate artistic director will head up this new division at Stages St. Louis.
2 comments:
This grant looks to be amazing for the development of new musicals, and I will be curious to see the structure that they adopt (residencies vs. production grants, full productions or workshops and readings, assembly of musical theatre teams or the sponsoring of existing teams). Doing some research on the company, they are a summer producing theatre who do about 5 musicals each summer, most of them classic (currently). I wonder if these productions out of the AMC division will augment their traditional season or perhaps replace it (or extend their season into the year instead). That's an important artistic and financial decision for the theatre to make when taking on a new venture like this. All the best to them!
Seems that all a bunch of cities are currently looking to be the hub for new musicals. First we were hearing about Boston, and now St. Louis. I think this really does make sense for St. Louis though, because its industry has been failing as of the past several decades. Historically, the way industry has been revived is through the moving in and production of art. I will be interested to see where this pursuit takes the city. I know several major musical production companies already exist in St. Louis, so it will be interesting to see whether or not they take up this mission as part of their future seasons. I would like to see the city rebuilt as a hub for musical theatre, and wish them all the best in their endeavors.
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