ELIGIBILITY & GUIDELINES

Who can Participate?

• High School Students from all 50 States, Washington D.C. and U.S. territories are eligible.

Entry Requirements

• Each Participant can submit one original composition tailored for a musical theater production. The full musical does not need to be written, but the student will be asked to justify the song’s storytelling moment in the larger hypothetical work.
• Collaborative entries (up to three Writers) are accepted, but all members of the team must meet the age and schooling requirements.
• Limit of one solo entry and one collaborative entry per Participant.
• Entries must be the wholly original work of the entrant(s) and should not infringe on any copyrights or any other rights of third parties.

General Guidelines

• The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) advocate for creativity, originality and artistic expression. Any form of plagiarism will lead to disqualification.
• Submissions will undergo a rigorous review process. Feedback will be provided to all participants to foster growth and development.

SUBMISSION PROCESS & TIMELINE

The Songwriting Challenge has a two-part submission process. Draft 1 submissions will acquire feedback only. After receiving responses from industry professionals, students may then revise their submission for the Draft 2 competitive round. Students must submit a Draft 1 entry and incorporate that feedback in Draft 2 in order to be eligible for the Winners Weekend in NYC. 

Draft 1 Submission

Key Dates: Open August 1, 2024 | Close January 31, 2025

Receive Feedback

Once submitted, experts from the musical theatre industry will listen to your song and provide constructive feedback. All songs will be reviewed 4-5x.

Draft 2 Submission

Key Dates: Open March 21, 2025 | Close April 18, 2025

Competitive Evaluation

This time, our entire panel of NAMT Members, Educators, Alumni Artists and more will evaluate your song’s potential, originality and overall quality.

Winners Weekend

Key Dates: June 2025 for selected Songwriting Challenge winners.

• Draft 1 submissions will receive feedback only. Draft 1 submissions will be eligible to submit a second Draft incorporating feedback.
• Draft 2 submissions will be entered into the competitive round and will be considered for the NYC Winners Weekend & Mentorship prize.
• Students are not required to submit for the Draft 2 Round, but only songs that have been submitted to Draft 1, incorporated feedback, and resubmitted to Draft 2 will be considered for the Winners Weekend. 
• Students must have submitted Draft 1 by the posted due dates in order to be eligible to participate in Draft 2. 

What’s Not Allowed

• Remixes or covers of existing work.
• New works that sample or include stems/tracks from existing work.
• Adaptations of popular movies, books, TV shows and other pre-existing media.
• Songs promoting hate, discrimination or any form of offensive content.

Before you fill out this form, make sure you have thoroughly read all of the Submission Guidelines and FAQ page on our website.

In order to fill out this application you will be asked to sign-up for Submittable. Using this service makes the application process easier for you and the NAMT staff. Submittable allows you to save your form and return to it after you have begun filling out your information. Submittable is a secure form and will not share your information. Please note that once your application has been submitted, you will not be able to make changes.

PLEASE ADD SUBMITTABLE TO YOUR EMAIL CONTACTS (notifications@submittable.com). We will use Submittable to communicate with you throughout the submission process, so please take this step to ensure that our emails do not end up in your spam filter.

All of the information you need to provide in order to submit your musical to the Festival is listed on this page.

Please note the following deadlines:
 - December 17, 2024: Early Deadline for All Submissions
 - January 7, 2025: Late Deadline for All Submissions (late fees apply)

There will not be an extension to either deadline. 

Info sessions in November and December will be announced soon. sign up for updates on namt.org/get-connected.

If you have any further questions about the Festival or the submission process, please contact New Works Director Frankie Dailey at frankie@namt.org or (212) 714-6668 x14.