ANMT’s sixth annual MUSICAL THEATRE BOOT CAMP presents:
COLLABORATION WORKSHOP
Instructor: John Sparks
Four Saturday mornings from 10:30am to 1:30pm.
July 23, 30, Aug 6, 13
Course Fee: $125 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $95)
Come prepared to actually collaborate with someone you don’t know - and may not even like. Maybe your collaborator has the wrong color hair, or smells bad, or writes better than you do - horror of horrors! Bring your long term collaborator(s) if you like - but I won’t let you work with them, at least not at first. There will be exercises designed to create artistic arguments you will resolve publicly in the workshop, and privately between sessions. Depending on the makeup of the group, the exercises will be able to accommodate bookwriters, lyricists and composers in various combinations. There will be something for everyone to hate - I promise. Oh, yeah - and some lecture about the psychology of collaboration, peppered with show biz gossip - juicy stuff.
To register (or for more info) - CLICK HERE
INSTRUCTOR INFO:
John Sparks was the founder/co-Director of the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (1979-1995) and the Artistic Director of ANMT from 1995 to the present. He founded the Writers’ Workshop at Theatre Building Chicago in 1987 and was its Artistic Director for over a decade. Between the two workshops, John has mentored the work of over 250 writers, including Mark Hollmann, composer/lyricist of Urinetown; George Gorham and Dan Sticco, A Change in the Heir. Other writers in the workshops have earned three Richard Rodgers Awards and two Kleban Awards. Nearly 400 shows written by workshop members have been produced in theatres across the country. John’s own musicals have been produced in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Author: Elise Dewsberry
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc., Elise has been involved in the development of new works for over forty years: as an actor/singer, as a director, as a dramaturge, and as a writer. While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise joined ANMT as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and publishes a monthly blog on the craft of musical theatre available at https://nmi.org/elises-video-blog/.