Serious Development for New Plays & Musicals
CreateTheater helps playwrights and musical theater writers move new work through a clear development-to-presentation pipeline — from private writing, to guided development, to public-facing opportunities in NYC.
The Prism Stage Company and Cate Cammarata Present
The Stein family gathers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to celebrate an engagement. But when their youngest son arrives with an unexpected guest, the joyful occasion begins to unravel—revealing old wounds, buried secrets, and divisions that may be impossible to overcome.
As a mysterious blue violinist watches over them, three generations must confront what it means to remain a family when the people they love no longer see the world in the same way.
Inspired by the spirit of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye, The Blue Violinist Over West End Avenue is a funny, provocative, and deeply moving new play about family, faith, identity, and the enduring—and sometimes fragile—power of love.
The Blue Violinist Over West End Avenue
will run October 28 – December 5, 2026
at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street.
The CreateTheater Development Pathway
“I’m still working on my script.”
Get the structure, feedback, and accountability to strengthen the work.
“I have material and need to test it in front of an audience.”
Move the work off the page and into the room.
“I need an industry-facing presentation.”
Build the producing strategy, team, budget, and presentation plan to move toward NYC visibility.
For Writers Ready to Move Beyond “Just Writing”
You may have:
a promising draft
a musical in progress,
years of rewrites,
great feedback but no traction,
or uncertainty about where your work fits professionally.
CreateTheater helps writers bridge the gap between creative work and professional development.
Programs
Get Your Script Ready
Writing Groups
Musical Workshops
Musical Writing Lab
Develop the Work
Cabaret Lab
2-Day Script Workshop
Table & Industry Readings
Present the Work
NYC Producer Lab
New Works Festival
Showcase Productions
Current Opportunities
Production-Ready Writers Groups
Looking for a professional community? Ongoing groups for writers developing new work.
The Cabaret Lab
The Cabaret Lab is a 3-month spring where you put your songs in front of a real audience in NYC in 90 days.
The NYC Musical Development Workshops #2: Conflict, Obstacles & the Act One Finale
Sign Up to Present or Observe on Sunday, July 26th
Recent Blog Posts
Making Money as a Playwright Part 2
I think that many artists feel the winds of change happening regarding the arts in America. We look around at states defunding the arts. We see major non-profit and “successful” theater companies laying off staff and divesting themselves of their theaters.
Be Specific
Do you know your character’s favorite color? Favorite dish? The street they lived on as a child? What was the game their mother played with them when they were five? Why do they keep an item in their pocket and when do they take it out and stroke it? What memories does it provoke? What emotion does it conjure in your character?
Details. From the larger, to the smaller, and from the smaller to the larger, details make the character specific and unique.
Making Money as a Playwright Part 1
The playwright Robert Anderson famously said in the late 50’s early 60’s that “one can make a killing in the theatre, but not a living.” The late Tim Kelly, a very prolific playwright for the school and community theater markets who passed away in 1997, published over 350 plays in his life, and would have about 6,000 performances of his plays every year, all over the world. His pieces were translated into dozens of languages. He adopted Anderson’s quote and paraphrased it for the amateur theater market: “You can make a living, but you can’t make a killing”….
What Are Your Writing Goals?
Goals are a means to an end, plain and simple. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment….