From Script to Stage: IN THE HEIGHTS (NMTC 2005)
In the fall of 2004 Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes submitted IN THE HEIGHTS to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference. Through the open submissions policy, a key element of the O’Neil’s mission to develop diverse voices and new works for the American stage, requiring neither agent submission nor previous experience.
In July of 2005 Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes developed the work at the O’Neill’s National Music Theater Conference. Joined by director Thomas Kail; music director Alex Lacamoire; and a cast that included Natalie Cortez, Janet Dacal, Robin DeJesus, Huey Dunbar, Christopher Jackson, Doreen Montalvo, Javier Muñoz, Rick Negron, Sheena Marie Ortiz, Matt Saldivar, Monica Salazar and Nancy Ticotin; Bill Sherman was co-arranger and Doug Hinrichs served as percussionist.
Three years after the O’Neill’s four developmental readings, IN THE HEIGHTS opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in a production that won four Tony Awards and a Grammy.
The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference has been a launchpad for all styles and genres of music theater, including operas and hybrid works since its inception in 1978, having previously launched such notable projects and artists as In Transit by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russell M. Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth; In The Heights by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda; Avenue Q by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, and Jeff Whitty; The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa; Violet by Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori; and Nine by Arthur Kopit, Mario Fratti, and Maury Yeston; and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin by Kirsten Childs.
The National Music Theater Conference aims to provide a supportive and challenging environment in which emerging and established creative artists can take risks in order to refine and illuminate their work's vision during its formative stages.
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