Susan H. Schulman visits

On 12 December, Tony-nominated director Susan H. Schulman, who led the librettists workshop at the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop for many years and is now head of the post-grad musical theatre directing programme at Penn State, will be sitting in on the composer/ lyricist workshop and speaking at the librettist workshop.

Writers' Guild 'New Writing Encouragement Awards'

On 25 November, the Theatre Committee of the WGGB presented their seventh annual awards for the encouragement of new writing at a lunch ceremony at the Royal Court Theatre, and DAVID JAMES and the BML Workshop won one of six awards. The other winners were Dyslexia Scotland, , Paul Milton (Cheltenham Everyman), Network Theatre, Elizabeth Newman (Octagon Theatre, Bolton) and Natalie Wilson (Theatre Centre). Mark Shenton wrote about the event at length in his blog (http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2011/12/encouraging-writers-discouraging-press/index.html). 

Working with Nigel Richards

On 10 October,  international musical theatre performer Nigel Richards came to conduct a session of the Composer/ lyricist Workshop, speaking on 'Acting through song', and critiquing several songs from the Workshop.

Members activities, autumn 2011

In September, DreamArts' production of 'Carnival' (book by GRAHAM WHITLOCK [BML librettist/ lyricist] and DreamArts members, music and lyrics by Wayne Roberts [non-member] and DreamArts members) had runs at both the Cockpit Theatre and the Tabernacle in London. It had an additional performance in October in the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House.

RUTH CARTER (BML librettist) wrote the book for 'Steps', a forty minute musical, with music and lyrics by Jennifer Green (non-member), which was performed at the Waterloo East theatre.

DAVID JAMES was invited to speak on a panel on musicals at the Royal Shakespeare Festival in Stratford upon Avon with Jeanie O'Hare (commissioning dramaturg for the RSC) and Dennis Kelly (librettist for 'Matilda').

'Butcher: The Irresistible Fall and Inimitable Rise of Fred Barnes, Birmingham's Musical Star' by CARL MILLER (BML librettist/ lyricist), with music by CHRIS ASH (BML composer), had a rehearsed reading at the Birmingham Rep in October.

More comps

In New York, it is much more of a tradition for commercial producers to provide comps for previews, so that industry professionals can keep abreast with each other's work. The Workshop thinks having this opportunity is invaluable for emerging practitioners, and we have been fortunate that the producers of 'Ghost' and 'Matilda' very generously provided free tickets for the workshop members to attend as a group, to consider, discuss and evaluate the work among themselves. We think this is invaluable, we are very grateful, and we hope to build this as a more regular practice.

Members activities, summer 2011

In June, a song by TIM SUTTON (composer/ lyricist facilitator) was presented at the MMD Lionel Bart Masterclass, for critique by Jeanine Tessori and Caroline Sheen.

In July, 'Ostrich Boys', adapted by CARL MILLER (BML librettist/ lyricist) from the novel by Keith Gray, was performed by the Young Rep Birmingham Rep.

In August, TIM SUTTON, Dougal Irving, Grant Olding and Lawrence Mark Wythe (non-members) presented an evening of their work on the Battersea Barge.

'Lend Me a Tenor' writers speak

BML composer ALAN BERLYN played in the pit for 'Tenor', and invited the writers, Peter Sham and Brad Carroll', to come and speak to the workshop about creating the musical. He was also able to arrange comps for the workshop members to see the show as a group, as an opportunity to discuss and evaluate among themselves a current piece of work.

Member activities, spring 2011

In January, 'Mass Carib', by FELIX CROSS (BML librettist/ composer) was performed at King's Place in London as a benefit for Haitian disaster relief

From March, Trestle Theatre Company toured Spain for several weeks with CARL MILLER's (BML librettist/ lyricist) adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'Birthday of the Infanta'.

April also saw CARL MILLER's adaptation of Alexander Dumas' 'The Three Musketeers' at the Unicorn Theatre in London.

A song by RICHARD VOYCE (BML librettist), from his musical 'Rosa', was presented at the May MMD Lionel Bart Masterclass, for crit by Richard Stilgoe and Bill Rosenfield.

In May, DAVID JAMES (Librettist facilitator) travelled to New York to attend the 'Dancers Over 40' tribute to Gwen Verdon. While there, he conferred with Baayork Lee (see above) and Louise Quick (Bob Fosse's dance captain and associate choreographer for 'Cabaret' and 'Liza with a Z') about musical theatre choreography, and also attended presentations by the Second Year participants at the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop.

Throughout the year, CHRIS ASH (BML COMPOSER) has been performing regularly as an instrumentalist around the country with 'Showstoppers!: The Improvised Musical'.

MMD board appointment

TERESA HOWARD (BML librettist/ lyricist) has been selected to sit on the board of MMD.

MMD Soho review

ANDREW BRINDED (BML librettist/ composer) has been selected to prepare the libretto for the MMD/ Soho Theatre Company 'Soho Review', to be produced in the spring.

Tim Sutton podcast

Tim Sutton (composer/ lyricist facilitator) has begun an ongoing series of podcasts www.voiceofthemusical.com. These feature interviews with prominent practitioners, and the first three are with Richard Stilgoe, Peter Sham and Brad Carroll, and Charles Hart.

Musical theatre choreography programme

BML hopes to add an ongoing musical theatre choreography workshop in 2012, along the same lines as the writing workshops. To kickstart this, legendary Broadway dancer/ choreographer Baayork Lee offered two apprenticeships to work directly with her on a new production of 'A Chorus Line' for Tel Aviv, produced by Bronowski Productions, in which she recreated Michael Bennett's original staging. The two got to work directly with her for six weeks of auditions and rehearsal in September and October. In this picture, with Baayork, Marvin Hamlish and the company, are young choreographers ASHLEY NOTTINGHAM (back row, far left) and DANIEL FARROW (second row, far right). All members of the BML workshop were in invited to a gypsy run-through at Three Mill Studios. ALAN BERLYN (BML composer) also played in the pit for this run. 

Workshop dates

I realise I haven't been terribly precise about dates. I'm often imprecise, so email me if anything confuses you.

The Librettists Workshop will run on Mondays from 7 March through 18 July, from 6 - 8 p.m. at Nitro. We will not meet on Easter Monday. Whether we meet on the two May bank holidays will be a group decision. Therefore, the term will be either 17 or 19 sessions.

The Composer/ Lyricist Workshop will run on Mondays from 4 Apr through 18 July, from 3:30 - 5:30 p.n. at Nitro. We will not meet on Easter Monday, but will meet on the two May bank holiday Mondays. Therefore, the term will run for 15 sessions.

The autumn terms for both will run from 5 Sept through 12 Dec for 15 sessions, so we will all be in sync.

'The Last Five Years'

'The Last Five Years', Jason Robert Brown's two-hander follow-up to 'Parade' is playing at the Tabard Theatre through 5 March. An interesting piece worth looking at.

Spider-Man

Richard Voyce from the Librettists Workshop sent this along. When will they ever pay attention?

The Chicago Tribune: “The much-told woes of ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ boil down to a problem that has similarly ensnared far humbler new musicals: an incoherent story. For without a book with consistent rules that a mainstream audience can follow and track, without characters in whom one can invest emotionally, without a sense of the empowering optimism that should come from time spent in the presence of a good, kind man who can walk up buildings and save our lousy world from evil, it is all just clatter and chatter.”

Directors and choreographers

Christine organised a meeting-up of mid-level writers the other night at Nitro, and one of the things we talked about was when and if to have a director involved in the development process. There were various opinions. One serious concern, though, is how few directors are out there who are specialists specifically in musical theatre who you might trust to help in development, if you should so wish.

Every morning, I walk by the Urdang on my way to the studio, and see all those kids sweating in class. There are any number of very fine performance and drama schools turning out trained talent; but, to my knowledge, none of them have a specific module for training directors or choreographers to work on musicals? How short-sighted is that?

I know of a couple recent productions where the choreographer came from Frantic Assembly, a company whose work I  admire and enjoy enormously. And the choreographer for the upcoming 'Ghost' has come out of music videos. But both of these are entirely different skills from developing a number that is going to tell a story, as part of a bigger story,with a theatre dance vocabulary, and then being able to set it on a group of trained dancers as part of a musical.

Last autumn, I was at the Bush, talking with a producer there, raising this question, and she said 'Well, directors always learn by assisting other directors'. For drama, that is perfectly true and it has worked well for many years (in conjunction with the drama schools that have a 'Directing' module or degree). But how often is there an opportunity for an aspiring practitioner to work with someone of the level of Jerry Mitchell or Matthew Warchus, to really learn craft?

What don't they get? Musicals are different!

SOME school mush be coerced into addressing this. Hmmmmmm.

Application deadlines

The deadline for applying for the librettists workshop is Friday, 25 Feb. For the Composer/ lyricist workshop, the deadline is Friday, 11 Mar.

C/L Workshop

Tim, David F, Steve, Christine and I had our first meeting last week to begin developing the programme for the workshop over the course of the year. It was great to do group-think about what different types of theatre songs can do (much discussion about what is a charm song and what it's function is), how they fit together to build a score, how different song structures can accomplish different things. It's going to be a productive year. The last project of the year will be collaborations between the members of the composer/ lyricist and librettist workshops to write 10 minute musicals, and there'll be another collaborative project before that.

More in appreciation of craft.

I had a chat with Sarah Travis, the excellent and experienced MD of the recent MMD 'Beyond the Gate' review after a performance. Speaking of the material in that review, she said 'The numbers that are well crafted were easy to rehearse. And the others... weren't.'

Not bad advice

You've all heard me stress the importance of structure in libretto development. In the obituary of mystery novelist Diana Norman in the Guardian on 5 Feb, they quote her:

'I always plot first. If you're writing thrillers which, of all the genres, have to be well constructed and not streams of consciousness, you've got to know where you're going. I have the last line of the book in my head before I sit down to write and I stagger towards it like a drunk navigating furniture to get to the far side of the room.'

Guys and Dolls

Central School of Speech and Drama is presenting Guys and Dolls, 7 thru 12 March. Mon-Sat at 7:30 and Fri and Sat at 2:30. 

An opportunity to see one of the greatest of classics, both well crafted and hilarious. An example for all of us. Try to go!

Bookings: 020 7722 8183 or email: boxoffice@cssd.ac.uk

Beginning 2011

We should hear on 15 January whether our Arts Council GfA grant application has been successful and we can expand the programme for 2011. Please check this site on that date if you are interested in taking part as we will hope to move forward quickly, beginning within a couple of months.

If you hope to join the Librettists Workshop, please think about being ready to submit a CV and two scenes (one comedic in some sense) of no more than 10 pages each for consideration.

If you hope to join the Composer/ Lyricist Workshop, please think about being ready to submit a CV and three songs (a ballad, a comedy song and an up-tempo number). This submission would be followed by an interview/ audition.

We will also be incorporating the 'Extreme Writing Lab', formerly run by MMD, as part of our programme for 2011, and will be looking for new members for that as well. Criteria to follow.

We will be meeting in 2011 at Theatre Nitro, near the Caledonian Road tube station. They have very generously offered us studio space for the coming year.