The only honor of its kind in the country…

The Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award supports the creation of a 30-minute demo CD 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.

2020 Winner: HALF THE SKY
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. It 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.

Two FREE public concerts of Half the Sky will be held at Walker Farm on Saturday, March 7 at 4pm and 7pm. Reserve your tickets now!

Details
The creators, a music director, and up to five 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. The creators receive 100 copies of the resulting 30-minute CD.

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.