Our Purpose
Founded in 2021, New Works/New Voices (NW/NV) is an initiative at the Department of Drama supporting the development of new musicals by writers and composers whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented in the musical theater canon.
At its core, NW/NV is a creative laboratory—pairing professional creators with students and faculty from the Department of Drama to develop new musical works in an environment grounded in curiosity and collaboration.
Take a look inside the NW/NV developmental process.
Watch the videoOur Process
Each year, NW/NV launches a worldwide call for submissions and receives over 150 submissions from writers and composers at all stages of their careers, from emerging artists to Broadway, Off-Broadway and West End professionals. One musical is selected annually by a team of faculty and student readers for development on campus.
The selected work receives a staged reading at the Department of Drama, directed and music directed by faculty and performed by department students. The work’s creators collaborate hands-on, participating both in an in-person residency in Syracuse and virtually.
The process culminates in public presentations of the work, followed by facilitated audience talkbacks—giving creators the opportunity to see how their musical resonates with an audience.
Our Impact
NW/NV provides a space where both new musicals and students can learn, experiment and grow.
Each year, students gain hands-on experience through NW/NV in roles across performance and production, including actors, stage managers, dramaturgs, assistant directors and music directors, and script and music assistants. This experience builds practical skills, deepens artistic insight and strengthens their understanding of how new musicals are created, incubated and refined.
The creators whose musicals are developed through NW/NV similarly build on what they learn in the process and carry that knowledge into the wider theater world. Recent NW/NV works have been selected for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Festival of New Musicals and the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, as well as other industry development pathways, including residencies, readings, workshops and world premiere productions.
