Meeting
The 6 prize winners will be invited to present their works in short lectures with sound and video excerpts at the international convention of Music Theatre NOW in Rotterdam in May 2024 in the frame of O. – Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre.
This meeting has served as a forum for professionals for many years. Practitioners and presenters from all over the world will be in attendance. Music Theatre NOW Award winners are winning a unique opportunity for international exposure and invaluable networking opportunities and advice from other professionals.
Travel, accommodation and meals for the winning artists will be provided by the host organisation (at least one person per team) and they will be invited to actively take part in workshops, panels and networking events.
Members of the MTNow Network will continuously take opportunities to promote the winning projects at several occasions. Showcase sessions for MTNow had for example taken place at Opera America New Works Forum, Scenenkonstbiennalen Sweden or Beijing Music Festival.
GUEST PERFORMANCES
Prize winners will also qualify for additional prizes in the form of invitations to perform at partner venues throughout the world, depending on size and content of the production.
O. – Festival for Opera. Music. Theatre. (Rotterdam)
O. breaks open the dramatic art form of opera and believes it has a powerful resonance and relevance to a broad and diverse audience. It strives to be the most ground-breaking opera festival in the world.
O. is an international festival for opera, music, and theatre that runs at various locations across Rotterdam. It aims to open up the art of opera and make it meaningful to the lives of a large and diverse audience.
Depending in the size of productions O. Festival has proposed to invite 1-3 works as guest performances within their regular program as for example in the previous years Chornobyldorf, (And/Or/Pro/methe) or Shifting Ground.

Further Opportunities
Several other festivals and institutions have signaled their serious interest in inviting and/or streaming winning productions in 2024 and 2025. Among them Prototype Festival (New York), NOA Festival (Lithuania) and several others.
* all online / streaming presentations will be adequately financially compensated
Archive
Music Theatre NOW is not just a competition and platform for innovation, but also a growing archive for contemporary music theatre which is open to students, scholars, artists and anyone interested from all over the world. This is an invaluable recourse, providing insight into the production of music theatre.
MTNOW offers the opportunity for all competition entrants to be included in this fantastic archive which already contains more than 1500 new productions of music theatre from the 15 years.