Program areas at Nautilus Music Theater
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT: Ongoing training and development of music-theater artists including writers, composers, performers and directors. These programs usually include our 3-week long Wesley Balk Institute, our Composer-Librettist Studio, and selected educational activities. In FY 2023, we held our 40th Balk Institute, and our 67th (in St Paul) and 68th (in Washington DC) Composer-Librettist Studios. We also held multiple working sessions on a proposed film documentary about American musical storytelling.
COMMUNITY COMMISSIONS: Projects initiated by or commissioned for specific communities, such as arts organizations, academic institutions, or human service organizations. Projects for FY23 included in-person master classes with Yale University and Boston Conservatory; workshop projects on BLUESTEM; a collaboration session with Opera America; two touring concert readings of MOONLIT WALK HOME; and other short-term consultancies.
ROUGH CUTS: A series of public presentations of work-in-progress dialogues between artists and audiences, and explorations of the creative process, focused on new works and emerging artists. After our four virtual Rough Cuts presentations in FY22, we reinstated our full in-person series in April 2023, followed by additional presentations in May 2023 and July 2023.
PRODUCTIONS: Opportunities (sporadically) for artists to present fully-staged productions of music-theater works, including premieres of new work we have developed and supported, or innovative productions of existing operas and musicals. After our two postponed fully-staged productions: STATIONS OF THE HEART and MOONLIT WALK HOME in FY2023, we held developmental sessions on ANGEL FACE and A SONG AT TWILIGHT, but no fully-staged productions were held.