MainStreet Welcomes Festivals!
Over the years, since the founding of NMTN, the organization has experimented with programs intended to promote the progress of worthy new musicals towards Development and then on to Production. One type of program seemed to achieve more results than others. That program was - and still is - FESTIVAL.
Festivals have certain characteristics that work well in favor of the mission. First of all, Festivals have beginnings and endings. Interested people can be made aware of its approach (COMING SOON TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD) and busy people can be warned of its approaching end (ENDING SOON. YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS IT!)
Additionally, it involves participants in exciting and encouraging ways. If a show proves to have potential, a producer might option it, cast local celebrities and launch it into communities with attractive advertisements and the promise of enjoyable evenings for locals who might have little else to keep them entertained.
In 2004, National Music Theater Network – MainStreet’s corporate parent – launched the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) which almost overnight became the darling of the theater-going community. Every year until 2019 when it went under, NYMF brought an average of 30 shows to public venues for short runs that sometimes got extended and bumped up into longer commercial engagements.
We don’t produce Festivals anymore but MainStreet – because of our Evaluation Program – is a significant resource for any Festival-maker out there who sees the need in their local community for good live entertainment.
And it should really be obvious that College and University Theater Departments might see the Summer Festival as a way of providing excellent experience to their students.
SO BRING 'EM ON!