When 28-year-old Vermont-born dramatist Greg Turner learned one of his scripts won entry into this fall's prestigious New York Musical Theatre Festival, he started writing.

Revisions? No. Requests for money.

Dear family/friends/former teachers/anyone else who might remember me from the Rutland High School class of 1999, his letters began. Help me raise $23,000 and the annual festival deemed “the Sundance for musical theatre” will premiere my work, just like it did for this year's Tony Award-winning show “Next to Normal.”

The ending? With three weeks before the curtain is set to rise on a cast of Broadway actors, Turner's hoping for a happy one.

Growing up in the Green Mountains, the vice president of Rutland High's drama club first demonstrated his literary prowess by penning successful applications to New York University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in dramatic writing in 2003 and a master's degree in musical-theater writing in 2005.

As part of his studies, Turner authored a play titled “All Fall Down.” In it, a standout student named Ben Little heads to college, only to shatter his family's seemingly perfect world when he inexplicably jumps from his sixth-story dorm window.

The script caught the eye of Turner's hall mate, songwriter Selda Sahin. Upon graduation, she suggested they turn the play into a musical. Two years later, they're preparing for an Oct. 9 premiere and six-performance run at midtown Manhattan's 45th Street Theater.

“All Fall Down,” its publicity says, “is a journey that weaves past, present, fantasy and reality in comedic and heartrending episodes as Ben's story unfolds and the Littles try to find their way back to the family they once were.”

If penning a show is huge, putting it on is Herculean. Enter the not-for-profit National Music Theater Network, which presents an annual three-week festival that gives promising playwrights the chance to work in New York theaters with professional actors, directors and support staff.

As an official selection of the festival's Next Link Project for emerging writing teams, Turner's show has snagged two-time Tony nominee Mary Testa (“42nd Street” and “On the Town”) and Broadway actors Jenn Colella (“Urban Cowboy”) and Charlie Pollock (“9 to 5”).

The only thing missing: Money. The festival, whose supporters range from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, provides free theater space and publicity. But playwrights and their producers have to pay for everything else.

Turner and collaborators have convinced their four-person cast to accept $500 each for a month of rehearsals and performances. But add in the cost of hiring a team of professional directors and designers and the “All Fall Down” budget rises up to $23,000.

As a result, Turner and crew have launched a Web site, www.allfalldownthemusical.com, featuring a fundraising sweepstakes — give $10, get a chance to win a trip to New York. The cast will preview the show there Monday at a press conference and $100-a-ticket cocktail party.

“We are trying to find people with deep pockets to invite,” the playwright says.

In addition, he has sent requests for money to at least 50 people of more modest means back home.

“Aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles, old teachers as far back as sixth grade, my neighbors, my dentist, my mother's dentist …”

His former sixth-grade teacher, Mary Justin, donated.

“When Greg was in my classroom, he'd pass paper with some sort of doodles, and I could see his mind was on theatrics,” she recalls. “From then on, I said, ‘This guy's going to go someplace.'”

Dr. Francis D'Auria, his mother's dentist, gave, too.

“My daughter is an aspiring flutist, so we've seen a lot of artistic youngsters struggle with finances,” he says. “The community should support treasures that have real talent. It's fun to help a kid realize their dreams.”

Turner's crew so far has raised $10,000, all while working their regular jobs (he manages the box office at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre) and attending daily rehearsals. In the city that never sleeps, creativity doesn't either. Turner's now thinking of Vermont businesses that might advertise in a New York playbill.

“If we have to have the actors eating Cabot Cheese and drinking Magic Hat, I'm all for it.”

kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com