Composer/Bookwriter

New Musical Project is seeking new musical theater works for our 2027 project. Utilizing community actors, we mount semi-staged productions of 30-minute segments from three new works. We prioritize early- to mid-career and emerging writers. NMP is currently housed within Parlando School of Musical Arts, a community music school serving over 650 students in the Boulder/Denver area weekly. We draw actors from our student population, local universities, and community actors from all over the Front Range.

Writers/writing teams will submit as much of their show as they can to be considered. We value intergenerational/all-ages programming as well as stories from traditionally marginalized communities. If selected, writing teams will choose the 30-minute segment they’d like to present, to be confirmed with the producers. Teams must be present for the project in Boulder from Thursday-Sunday July 29-August 1, 2027; travel stipends are provided (historically $1,000 per writing team).

New Musical Project provides directors, casting, a band, and a venue. Composers will receive a travel stipend and a percentage of ticket sales (typically $200-300 per team). 

To apply, please submit the following:

• A 30-page (minimum) segment of your libretto
• 3 (minimum) audio recordings of songs from the work. Any quality recording is fine!
• Sheet music for songs submitted (if you have it)
• Cast breakdown
• 100-word Synopsis

You will collect those materials in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, and then submit the link via our New Musical Project 2027 Submission Form. Submissions are FREE through Nov. 1, 2026, 11:59pm Mountain Time; there is a $30 fee to apply between 11/2-12/1. Please direct any questions to info@newmusicalproject.com. Notifications regarding the status of your application will be sent out mid-January 2027. 

We are committed to providing opportunities for creatives of all races, socioeconomic statuses, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, cultural backgrounds, and abilities – including neurodiversities. Applicants  from traditionally marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply. We recognize that we have work to do to prioritize and center racial equity and representation among our faculty, our programming, our educational practices, and our resources. We commit to the time, energy, resources, funding, and long term institutional changes this will entail – we intend to show and not tell.

 We’d like to acknowledge and recognize we are meeting on land that sits in the territory of the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples. We would like to recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations historically tied to the lands that comprise Colorado. We see and affirm the ties these nations have to their ancestral homelands and all the Indigenous people who thrive today. We also hold space and acknowledge the painful history of ill treatment and forced removal that has had a continuing negative impact on Native nations. We honor the Indigenous people here and thank the ancestors of this place. [Acknowledgement written by Alex Alvarez]

www.newmusicalproject.com | @new_musical_project | www.parlando.org