We will present joint work with Spyros Kamvissis, Ken McLaughlin, and Peter Miller, on semiclassical asymptotics for solutions of the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Here is a brief outline of the presentations we hope to give. 1. Introduction and setup     - soliton ensembles with no reflection coefficient     - WKB spectral data     - formulation of the inverse problem as a Riemann--Hilbert problem.     -outline of asymptotic calculation       A. seeking a g function: conditions for asymptotically viable Riemann--Hilbert problem.       B. Riemann--Hilbert problem for the error.       C. New variational problem     - seeking a g function: genus 0 calculations relate to elliptic problem.     - asymptotic results 2. Local problem at z=0,variational problem, and construction at t=0. -- analysis at z=0.      A. asymptotics for jump matrix at z=0.      B. local model problem      C. existence of solution to local model problem. -- Details about variational problem -- construction at t=0 3. Existence of contour and analysis of g function     - existence of the contour for small time.     - computation of the contours     - conditions for first failure of genus 0 problem     - onset of higher genus behavior       A. equivalence with degenerate genus 2.       B. perturbation theory for gap opening.