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Needless to say, episodic storytelling reigns supreme in 2014. Sundance, as announced earlier, has opened up its storied Labs program to include the first-ever Episodic Story Lab.  Now Sundance has named the 10 writers who will participate in the Lab. Every applicant for the program was required to submit a spec pilot and series overview. The writers are: Desiree Akhavan ("Switch Hitter"); Peter Biegen ("Small Change"); Nate Crocker ("Scar Tissue"); Katori Hall ("The Dial"); Barry Jenkins ("Radical"); Nick Keetch ("Borderline"); Lisa Kron ("The Schaeffers"); Crystal Liu ("The White Sheep"); Heather Marion ("Bury Me") and Matt Young ("Still"). Under Michelle Satter, Founding DIrector of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, writers will work closely with seasoned...

The seventh annual New York Musical Theatre Festival has announced its lineup, which includes 27 musicals, a developmental reading series, and special events. The festival, which runs Sept. 27–Oct. 17, will team up with South Korea's Daegu International Musical Festival for one production and will feature performances by participants in Rosie O'Donnell's arts program Rosie's Broadway Kids and by students from the Marquez Charter Elementary School in Los Angeles. Nymf has premiered more than 200 musicals since it began in 2004, and more than 60 of them have gone on to award-winning productions across the U.S. and in several countries. Festival alumnus "Next to Normal" won three Tony Awards after opening on Broadway last year, as well as the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in drama.Isaac Robert Hurwitz, the festival's executive director and producer, said in a written statement, "We are extremely excited with the unique variety of this year's festival offerings. It is essential...