Festival of New American Musicals Ends SHOW SEARCH, Final Deadline Today, 9/1

FNAM (The Festival of New American Musicals) has released the nationwide entry response to their newest initiative, the 2012 SHOW SEARCH: a nationwide online search for the best new high school and college aged musical composers. Darren Criss, of the hit TV show Glee, serves as the Official Spokesperson for the Festival of New American Musicals Show Search initiative.

The nationwide response to the 2012 SHOW SEARCH has been incredible, as anticipated. Submissions have been received from OVER 50 high schools & colleges across the nation, with more than 70 teams entered with ages ranging from 13-25, and a total number of entrants exceeding 100! States represented in the SEARCH are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington DC, Washington State, and Wisconsin.

Entrance to the initiative is now closed. Entrant submissions will be uploaded to Show Search's YouTube channel with a final submission deadline of today, September 1, 2012. Each entrant is asked to submit a 10-minute original musical, and the accompanying book, which will be judged on storytelling, musicality and originality.

A SEARCH panel of musical theater professionals will review all submissions. There will be two TOP TEN lists of selected semi-finalists based on these age groups - one 13-17 years of age and one 18-25 years of age, and the public will vote for their favorites. A celebrity jury will select three finalists from each age category. They will then be given the opportunity to have their musical performed in a live concert presentation in Los Angeles as part of FNAM's New Musical Staged Reading Series, along with the opportunity to be mentored by a top Broadway composer.

SHOW SEARCH is one of the FNAM initiatives planned this year. Soon to be officially announced, FIRST LOOK is a 10-day Festival of New American Musicals period of Staged Readings taking place in various theater venues in Hollywood, Calif.

About the Festival of New American Musicals: Since 2008, the Festival of New American Musicals has curated an annual festival of new musicals throughout Southern California, performed by Professionals, Communities, and Schools.

FNAM's Mission: To entertain audiences in Southern California with exciting new musical theatre To EDUCATE the next generation of theatre goers, creators, and performers, to develop new shows for American Musical Theatre.