Write4Art
Write4art is dedicated to nurturing the creation and production of new works for the stage, screen and TV, including plays, musicals and screenplays featuring stories that are both character-driven and exhibit contemporary thematic relevance.
How do we help new works?
We enter into agreements with authors to provide dramaturgical assistance during the creation phase on a disciplined schedule of work, by helping test the new works in a series of table readings, concert (script-in-hand) readings, workshop performances and developmental productions (in association with producing theatre companies).
What’s in the works right now?
Several new works are currently in development, including an a cappella musical about Galileo, a 4-character revue about diverse female teenagers, and a musical play about the dissolution of a 25-year marriage caused by diverging value structures.
Theatre for Young Audiences…and….
We’re about to launch a Theatre for Young Audiences program aimed at children ages 4 – 9 based on a similar and successful program that John Sparks oversaw at Theatre Building Chicago from 2005 – 2009. Two shows in development for launching in public schools in the fall of 2023.
A little recent history.
Early in 2019, Write4art planned a workshop of a 4-character musical about Josephine Baker by playwright Sherman Yellen and composer Wally Harper, Josephine Tonight. Difficulties in casting the show caused delays. We conducted a table reading of the piece at NMI in North Hollywood with a likely cast. Members of that cast were occupied when the performance space and resources available so the project was put on hold.
The organization nurtured the creation of a new musical, Seagull Song, based on Chekov’s play, The Seagull. The initial composer and the initial lyricist did not stay with the project over creative differences, but the bookwriter and producer continued their work. In early 2020, a new composer/lyricist was found and the score was developed. We made plans to schedule a concert reading in early 2021, plans that were scuttled by the pandemic shut-down.
Meanwhile, we were finally able to secure a theatre and rehearsal space to present the pandemic-delayed concert reading of Seagull Song in April of 2022 as well as 6 performances of the 4-character Josephine Baker show at NMI in August of 2022.
Collaboration with China!
John Sparks was contacted via Linked in by a consortium led by Damai Entertainment, a division of Alibaba in China, to discuss the development of a similar program of nurturing the creation of new musicals in China. Alibaba and the Shanghai Grand Theatre worked with JSparks & Co to develop the curriculum. The initial 12-week workshop was held in the summer and fall of 2021 via Zoom. The two introductory weeks were attended by over 100 young writers in China. The final 10-week sessions were attended by 11 pre-selected writers, a group that was composed of 10 women and 1 man. Those 11 writers continued to work with the CEO from October 1, 2021 until August 2022, working in teams of 2 or 3 to create 5 new musicals to be subsequently read at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
2023 and beyond at Write4Art.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, the CEO contacted writers he knew from Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and London, looking for new projects for the company to develop. As a result, three promising new works are currently in development. One is heading for a concert reading in the fall of 2023, one is under early discussions and planned for a workshop production in the Hollywood Fringe Festival in the summer of 2024, and one is planning a table reading of the first draft of the book in March of this year.