NMTN Presents The First Stage

THE FIRST STAGE is an exciting new initiative to jumpstart the development of new works for the stage by connecting writers with performers, musicians, and audiences. These dynamic concerts invite you up close as songwriting, theatre, and music combine to create something brand new, and you get the first look! FETCHING WATER Book and Lyrics by Leslie Becker Music by Michael Hunsaker When Jack and Jill meet Dick and Jane, all hill breaks loose. In this funny and nostalgic tale, adult audiences will see these iconic childhood characters in a whole new light while remembering their own moments of innocence lost…and found. YETI OR NOT: A BIGFOOT MUSICAL Book, Music, and Lyrics by Brandon Marks, Sean Richards, and Derek Hughes With Additional Material by Abby Nelson Henry Clark has spent five years stuck behind a desk, chasing a corner office instead of the childhood dream he shared with his late father: finding Bigfoot. When his mom sends him a box of his dad’s old research, Henry discovers a map, a pattern, and an excuse to finally leave the city behind. Armed with nothing but his father’s notebook, a persuasive stranger named Chip Bauer, and a girl back home he’s too scared to ask out, Henry heads into the Pacific Northwest woods to chase a myth, a memory, and something real. What he finds isn’t just a cryptid (with surprisingly good rhythm), it’s a reckoning with grief, fatherhood, and what it actually means to put your best foot forward. Funny, heartfelt, and just a little bit weird, this jubilant new musical asks whether the proof we’re chasing is ever really the point, and reminds us that sometimes the sunshine really is just behind the rain.