With support from the California Arts Council FNAM will be able to manage the increased costs connected with offering Pathway residencies: actor and technical personnel costs have doubled in the past two years, and Pathway Teaching Artists have not had an increase in their hourly rate for more than four years. Costs for ShowSearch have similarly increased. Finally, funds generated from Musi-Cal, FNAM’s cabaret 4-5 times/year presentation of musical theatre works in progress have been reduced by nearly 75% as venue and other costs have increased.
The Pathway provides the first high school in-school show writing programs. Pathway provides in-school multi-week musical theatre show writing residencies in which student teams write 10-minute musicals — book, lyrics and music — that are performed in a showcase done by industry professionals. ShowSearch is a juried competition and mentoring opportunity for high school and college age writing teams. Musi-Cal provides a bi-monthly showcase opportunity for SoCal writing teams to present works-in-progress to a live audience to better inform their process.

