Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award

The Award

The Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award supports the creation of a professional demo of a new or substantially revised full-length musical. Preference is given to emerging or established composing teams of exceptional promise who lack the resources to create a professional demo.

Details

The creators, a music director, and Equity/AFTRA actors travel to Weston for 3 - 4 days of rehearsal and a free public concert, followed by an invite-only concert in NYC and a recording session with Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records. All artists are paid on union agreements and all travel expenses (Vermont travel, housing, and meals) are covered.

Selection

From nominations only by the American Music Theatre Project, ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows, Feinstein’s 54 Below, Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, New York Music Theatre Festival, O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, the Playwrights’ Center, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and Sundance Institute Theatre Program.

2020 Tidtaya Sinutoke & Isabella Dawis, HALF THE SKY
2019 Jenny Giering, Adam Gwon & Karen Hartman, ALICE BLISS
2018 Aryanna Garber & Benjamin Velez, BORDERLINE
2017 Zack Zadek, DEATHLESS
2016 Kirsten Childs, BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE
2015 Katya Stanislavskaya, RESIDENT ALIEN
2014 Sarah Hammond & Adam Gwon, STRING
2013 Ryan Scott Oliver & Brett Ryback, DARLING
2012 Sara Cooper & Zach Redler, LOVING LEO
2011 Gordon Leary & Julia Meinwald, PREGNANCY PACT
2010 Sean Barry & Jenny Giering, SAINT-EX
2009 Aron Accurso & Jill Abramovitz, THE DOGS OF PRIPYAT
2008 Liz Duffy Adams & John Hodian, THE LISTENER OF JUNK CITY
2007 Kyoung-Ae Kang & Sean Keogh, BE LIKE JOE

The only honor of its kind in the country.

2020 Winners

The writing team of Tidtaya Sinutoke (music) and Isabella Dawis (book & lyrics) have won the 14th Annual Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award for their new musical, HALF THE SKY.

HALF THE SKY follows Aurelie, who sets out to fulfill her childhood dream of summiting Mount Everest, together with a group of hopeful mountaineers from around the world and a precocious teenage Sherpa. As she grapples with the grueling demands of the mountain, Aurelie finds she must also confront her Thai American family's past and the rift that separates her from her younger sister. Borders between countries and cultures, past and present, and waking and dreaming begin to blur. Half the Sky was an inaugural 2019 First Draft Commission by the 5th Avenue Theatre, with additional development at Theater Mu's New Eyes Festival and Theater Latté Da's NEXT Festival.