Creativity Quotation #10

"Every human being needs an outlet for his inborn creative talent. If you feel you would like to write, then write. Perhaps you are afraid that lack of a higher education might retard you from real accomplishment? Forget it. Many great writers, Shakespeare, Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, to mention a few, never saw the inside of a college.

Even if you will never be a genius, your enjoyment of life can still be great."

- Lagos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing

Takeaways from Day 3 of the ASCAP/Dreamworks Musical Theatre Workshop

Tonight's panelists were Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary, the writing team responsible for Broadway's First Date among many other impressive projects.

• Solve the problem of your story's superstructure before you tackle its musicalization.
• Don't take the path of least resistance when it comes to your song moments. There are moments that write themselves, but there will be times that require etching and digging to find the songs that have yet to be.
• "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell, Animal Farm. Some characters have to be more important than others in order to give a solid through-line for the story to fall back on. Answer the question - "Whose story is this? Who am I rooting for?"
• Don't leave vague empty gaps in your writing when it comes to action/staging. Even if the director changes it eventually, give her something to start with (I thought of Mrs. Lovitt's opening solo in Sweeney Todd and how it's very clear musically that she's busy pounding dough with very specific musical figures).
• Don't rely solely on your lyrics to get the point across. Your music itself provides emotion, subtext and other storytelling elements. Don't ignore the effect your music is having on a scene's mood or premise.

Takeaways from Day 2 of the ASCAP/Dreamworks Musical Theatre Workshop

Today's panelists included Kevin Bannerman who has worked on story development for Disney Animation (Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), 20th Century Fox (Anastasia), and now Amazon Studios; and Winnie Holzman, book writer for Wicked and writer of TV series such as My So Called Life and Huge. This evening's presentation was not a plot-driven musical, but rather, as Stephen Schwartz called it, a "thematic revue." A show consisting of songs & scenes connected by a theme, but that didn't follow a standard narrative arc (think Cats or A Chorus Line).

• Who is your show aimed at? Answering this may help you keep the thematic threads of your work focused and clear.
• Leaving the audience wanting more isn't always a good thing. Make sure you answer the right questions for your audience so they get a grasp on what the premise of the work is. (For example, clarify the language of the show, real vs. heightened moments, context for songs).
• Schwartz: "I'll accept any level of reality you present, if I understand what it is."
• It doesn't matter how good the individual songs are if you don't provide an organizing principle that propels your audience forward. In a story-based show, this job is relatively easier - the central conflict should provide the forward momentum. However, when you no longer have a story to depend on, you need to give us a reason to stay interested.
• I wish I could recall this verbatim, but Schwartz went through examples of shows that aren't structured around a typical narrative, and he explained what ties Cats together. It went something like: "They keep bringing out this old, sad cat and then shooing her off-stage. And you keep wondering, what's with that old, sad cat? And then she gets to sing her heart out at the end and go to heaven in a tire." True words.
• Also, provide that organizing principle early enough in the show so that the audience isn't left confused or tempted to check out.
• Holzman (paraphrased): "Be OK with living with these questions for now. You don't have to have everything answered." Schwartz: "Yet."

My Experience at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals

As part of my 2014 career map, I set a goal of attending a musical theatre festival in New York. Thanks to funds provided by Theatre Bay Area's Titan Award and the influence of my mentor, Leslie Martinson, I was able to tag along with TheatreWorks to NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals last week at New World Stages in NYC (Holy Hyperlinks!). My main objectives were to observe, learn and get a pulse on what is happening in the musical theatre industry.

I was so excited to receive my packet and name badge!!!

Here’s how the two-day festival worked. Eight writing teams, who were chosen prior to the festival, prepared 45-minute versions of their current projects for presentation on one of two stages. Festival attendees were assigned one of two show-tracks. On the first day, we waited in line to enter a theatre, watched one team present their 45-minute snippet, exited into the lobby where the writers handed out demos and made themselves available for conversation, then immediately queued up again to re-enter the theatre to watch the next presentation. This repeated until we saw four shows that day. The second day was nearly identical, except we watched the remaining four shows in the second theatre. There was also a special songwriting showcase on the first day, during which four writing teams were able to share two songs from their current projects. Basically, it was a full two days of musical theatre. I should say, NEW musical theatre.

I won't go into too much detail (if you're curious about the line-up of shows, click here). I will say that there was such a refreshing breadth of musical theatre styles represented in the festival. Some were very contemporary and varied, while others stayed true to a particular culture or time-period. There were love stories and tragedies and hilarious comedies. And my God, the talent! From the writing to the musicians to the actors, it was clear to me that these were not mere dabblers in the art of musical theatre. These folks took what they were doing seriously and poured themselves into their projects.

I think that’s what stood out to me most about the Festival of New Musicals. Everyone there loved musicals and wanted to catch a glimpse of where the art form is headed. Theatre companies were interested in finding a work they could invest in and help develop into a fully realized show. I was surrounded by people who loved musical theatre as much as I do. I come away from the festival with great, practical insight into what gets a show to its next steps. But perhaps more importantly, I come away feeling like my passion for musical theatre is not silly or ungrounded - it's a passion shared by others - and I am invigorated to jump right back into my own writing.

An Experiment in Productivity

I am lucky because my schedule is often open-ended, and I can format my work hours as my day demands. It sure beats working a classic 8-to-5 office job. However, there are some pitfalls to having such a free schedule. Competing priorities can be tough to sift through, especially if deadlines are far-off. It's easy to get lazy since there aren't always strictly designated working hours. The lack of structure has also meant that I skimp on healthy eating habits and fitness.

Click to visit Fast Company's article

Two weeks ago, I decided I really needed to examine my work week plan. I was aided by an infographic I saw from Fast Company Magazine which showed the daily creative routines of historically famous writers, musicians and artists. It was nice to see that being creative (and successful) didn't mean haplessly working at all hours of the day, losing sleep, skipping meals & showers. But rather there was sense to finding a rhythm even to one's creative process. I was also intrigued by how individualized each famous person's creative routine was. Basically, they found the groove that worked for them. Instead of asking "How can I get the most working hours in?" I should have been asking "When do I do my best work?"

This has led to a new schedule which I'm just trying out, with full knowledge that it can (and probably will) change in the future. What's nice about this schedule, though, is that it is an honest reflection of my strengths and limitations. I am often most productive in the mornings before lunch, so those hours have been specifically set aside for my creative work (writing, composing, researching, etc). I like to exercise during the middle of the day (rather than morning or evening), so right before lunch, I have gym-time. This means that I can delay my showering until after gym instead of showering first thing in the morning (which used to cut into my most productive hours). Afternoon is when my creative juices tend to stop flowing, and I can really only manage to do specific, pre-determined tasks. So, that's when I will get the business-side of my writing work done (applying for grants, working on demos, e-mails, etc). Evenings are reserved for play and rest.

Now, none of this is rigid. If I'm faced with a looming deadline, I will probably allow myself to become that stereotypical, locked-in-his-room-until-the-work-is-done creative type. But that needn't be the norm, especially if it means going against the rhythms that seem to work best for me.

I'll check in with myself again in two months or so to see how it's all going. Here's hoping!