Austin & Min Write A Musical
The Podcast
For a few years now, fellow Bay Area playwright/composer Austin Zumbro and I have wanted to collaborate on a project. There were a few false starts, but nothing that came to fruition. Until now...
Join us every week as we attempt to create a new and original musical! Starting from conception to (hopefully) production, you'll get to listen in on what it's like to build a musical from scratch.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or right here on this page (see below).
**Note for Parents: while Austin and I have written a lot for young audiences, the project this podcast centers around is not necessarily intended for kids. We aren't terribly crude, but listener discretion is advised.**
CONTACT US
Thoughts, feedback, anecdotes you'd like to share with us as we set out on this as-yet-undetermined adventure? You can reach us at: austinandmin@gmail.com
Season 2
To commemorate the lack of progress we’ve made on our musical, we’re sharing a song each from other musicals we were able to get produced!
A quick conversation about our experiences with vocal arrangement - musical theatre style!
The path a musical takes to production can take many forms. In this episode, we discuss new musical development opportunities and what might make sense for our show.
Finally - you get to hear some music that isn’t our theme song! To help us think about what the score for our show might sound like, Austin shares a song he wrote for another project.
This time, the focus turns to what’s been keeping Min busy - namely, the premiere of his musical ‘Gold: The Midas Musical' which opens in Berkeley this weekend!
We’re so busy with other projects, we decided to share a bit of what else we’re working on. This time, we hear from Austin about his musical based on the popular children’s book ‘Press Here.’
Say hello to Berk & Tess - our two central characters - as we share profiles of them from our outlining sessions. We also share another international email!
We’re back! As a result of some outlining sessions, we are actually able to share a working title. Plus, we answer an email from one of our listeners!
Season 1
The discussion continues as we flesh out the details of our story even more. And perhaps get distracted by conversations about high school, Harry Potter, and Star Wars.
In this special minisode, we have a brief check-in about which hats each of us will wear and how we might divvy up the workload of book-, music- and lyric-writing.
We continue our conversation about story construction and what would make for a compelling plot for our characters. Topics include privilege, 2-act/3-act story structure, and Min has a lot to say about the Child's Play horror film series.
Things are getting exciting! First, we delve deeper into the responsibility and rigor it takes to create diverse characters. Then, we begin to jump into story elements we think these characters could undergo.
This week, we dive deeper into the question of "Who are the people in our musical?" We begin to sketch in very rough detail some outlines of who these characters could be, as well as briefly discuss the question of representation in storytelling.
It's time to think through the inner-workings of the show's universe. What is this fictional world we are trying to create? What makes it tick and who are the people in it?
After our brainstorming session last week, we start to hone in on the central ideas upon which we can build our musical. Discussions include self-actualization, mundaneness, and a lot of talk about video games!
In this episode, we brainstorm ideas for a brand-new original musical!