Lynn Ahrens, Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Baz Luhrmann, Zina Goldrich et al. Set for NYMF Special Events

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), which runs September 27-October 17, has announced additional special events, to be presented in conjunction with the festival.

The ASCAP Foundation will present a series of seminars at Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Triangle. The series will kick off with Story of My Life: The Inspiration Behind Autobiographical Musicals (September 28), moderated by Michael A. Kerker and featuring Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen ([title of show]), Stephen Cole and David Krane (The Road to Qatar), and David Hein and Irene Carl Sankoff (My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding). TheaterMania contributor Peter Filichia will moderate Our Turn: Women Who Write Musicals (October 5), with guests Lynn Ahrens, Susan Birkenhead, Deborah Abramson, and Amanda Yesnowitz. Zina Goldrich and Jonathan Spottiswoode will be the guests for Showtunes for Today: Modern Musical Influences (October 12), moderated by Isaac Robert Hurwitz.

ASCAP will also present a Songwriters Showcase at New World Stages (September 20) will showcase songs by a group of the industry’s brightest emerging writers. This one-night only event will also feature a master class with Theodore S. Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Writers Masi Asare, Daniel Maté, Chris Miller, and Nathan Tysen will participate.

Sh-k-Boom, TheaterMania and AP-Red.com, in association with New World Stages, will sponsor NYMF’s Next Broadway Sensation (September 26-October 10), a singing talent competition that seeks to find the newest musical theatre star. The winner will receive a special solo concert, co-presented by NYMF and Sh-K-Boom Records, and a private coaching session by renowned vocal coach Liz Caplan. This year’s competition will be musical directed by Alexander Rovang and directed by Eric Louie.

NYMF and Commercial Theater Institute will co-host the seminar “The Mating Game,” (September 24) which brings together NYMF writers and emerging producers to share ideas, explore common interests, and learn the fundamentals of forming and maximizing creative relationships. In addition to lectures and panel discussions, participants will form producer-writer teams and to take on the task of developing pitch presentations.

The previously reported master class with Baz Luhrmann will take place at the Paley Center on Semptember 30 at 7pm. Luhrmann, who is the festival’s honorary chair, also serves as host for the opening night celebration on September 27 at 9:30pm at Hudson Terrace.

A Choral Odes Workshop will be led by Fulbright scholar and director Ioli Andreadi, focusing on the use of music and movement in Classical Greek tragedy, which will be offered to local college students during the festival. It will take place at City Center Rehearsal Studio on October 9.

There will be a presentation of Cocaine: The Band – The Musical, with book by Maggie Levin, Colin Doyle and Celina Carvajal; music and lyrics by Colin Doyle; and concept by Colin Doyle, to be held at Urban Stages, on October 1 and 2 at 11pm.

The NYMF Closing Night Gala will be held at The Sky Room, on October 17 at 9pm.

For a full list of NYMF shows, click here.