Can a Team Write a New Musical in Just One Summer?
I’m delighted to announce a new collaboration with Samuel French, Inc., one of the world’s leading play publishers. From time to time, TDF Stages will exchange articles with Samuel French’s new online theatre magazine, [Breaking Character]. Because [Breaking Character] reports on theatre from around the country, this partnership will expand TDF Stage’s conversation about the theatre in valuable ways.
Today, I’m recommending a [BC] project called Collaborative Creation, which follows a successful musical theatre team as they create a new show. If all goes well, they’ll be ready to premiere their show in Vermont this September, and we’ll get a weekly glimpse into their process. I can’t wait to see what we learn as they move from “big idea” to opening night.
And now: Take a look at this excerpt from Collaborative Creation, then go enjoy the rest of the story at the [Breaking Character] website.
Cheers,
Mark (TDF Stages editor)
p.s. — I’m also excited to tell you that this summer, I’ll be teaching a course on arts criticism as part of the Samuel French Institute. For more information, just go here.
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Collaborative Creation: Week By Week, #1
By Tajlei Levis
Our musical GLIMPSES OF THE MOON began when the Algonquin Hotel (of Round Table fame) sought to highlight their literary heritage by presenting a new musical in the Oak Room. They offered us the Manhattan equivalent of a barn – with oak-paneled walls and red velvet banquettes- and John and I had an incentive to quickly write a new musical…
John and I are now embarking on a new project, an original musical which explores a different side of 1920’s New York. The Bootlegger and the Rabbi’s Daughter was inspired by the thought of combining our respective cultural traditions (John’s family is Italian, mine is Jewish) into a meaningful multi-cultural holiday show, a Jewish Christmas musical, which would fit into our specialty of writing vintage New York musical comedies. We have a date to present it in a theatre – a former barn – in Vermont in September. So far, we have a detailed treatment and the start of several songs. By the end of the summer, we hope to have a complete script and score.
Read the rest of the story here.
Pictured: Writing team Tajlei Lewis and John Mercurio
3 comments
If it’s half as good as GLIMPSES, it’ll be a home run! Fantastic idea – looking forward to seeing it in September where ever it is.
Hi Sharon! I’m really looking forward to following their progress, too. — Mark (TDF Stages editor)
[...] pleased to recommend the article as part of TDF Stages’content-sharing relationship with [Breaking Character]. Below, you’ll find an excerpt. You can read the rest of the story [...]
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