new musicals inc. -- blog
we develop musicals.new musicals inc.
At New Musicals Inc. in Los Angeles, we develop new musicals.
Here’s our blog, which includes posts and musings on the craft of writing musical theatre, along with our observations about developing new musicals, and how to get them produced.
Want to get involved, as a writer or producer? See our page about developing musicals.
If you’re looking for classes, visit our sister organization, The Academy for New Musical Theatre.
Academy for New Musical Theatre Summer 2013 Internship Announcement
The Academy for New Musical Theatre is looking for a Summer 2013 intern to assist in the planning, marketing and presentation of the 17th Annual Stages Musical Theatre Festival! See below for internship description and eligibility requirements.
INTERNSHIP DESCRIPTION
Yet Another Vampire Musical
— by Richard Castle
In 2006 I flew up to San Francisco to see the pre-Broadway production of Lestat, a new musical based on Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. With music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, the show was sure to be worth the trip. After all, I was a huge fan of Elton John’s music, and I have always loved vampire stories. I’ve even had arguments about who was the better Dracula: Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee. So you can imagine my excitement as I took my seat at the Curran Theatre on that rainy January night.
The show was a flop. People walked out before the intermission. I remember leaving the theatre wondering how a show written by such a talented team could go so horribly wrong.
Flash forward to August of 2011, when ANMT asked me if I would be willing to write a song for a producer who was interested in a new musical about vampires. With the memory of Lestat haunting me, I was torn as to whether to accept the assignment. However, I had recently seen a Swedish film called Let the Right One In, which offered a fresh take on the vampire story, and I felt newly inspired. Paired with composer Clifford J. Tasner, I wrote the lyrics to a song called And Ever. The song is about a vampire who dreads falling in love, because he is doomed to witness each of his mortal lovers grow old and die, leaving him to mourn them forever And Ever.
The Academy Repertory Company performed our song for the producer in November of that year, along with pitch songs from three other writing teams that had been assembled by ANMT. The producer liked everything he heard that night, and asked the writing teams to develop three different vampire shows.
With the influences of The Heiress, Rebecca and Vertigo, I hoped to fashion a dark, romantic and spooky show. Refining our material with the helpful feedback from the monthly Writer’s Workshop at ANMT, Clifford and l completed a 45-minute one-act version to present to the producer.
In May of 2012, Bloodline was presented along with two other vampire shows: Coffins of the Mayflower (a farcical comedy) and Child of Ages (a drama). Based on the presentation, the producer was eager to see all three shows expanded, so Clifford and I got to work on the second draft of Bloodline. ANMT staff provided helpful notes, and the producer offered some suggestions as well. We added some more songs, discarded some that didn’t work, and tried to flesh out a few of the characters. The producer staged a reading at the Met Theatre in Hollywood, providing feedback forms to the invited audience.
As I write this blog, I am busy working on the third draft of Bloodline, with hopes of a possible full-production. The hardest part of this process has been the expansion of the show to a 90-minute intermission-less one-act. It was originally structured to be a 45-minute musical. With each draft, it has been extremely challenging to expand the show without ‘bloating’ it. I have found the feedback to be extremely helpful, and I am currently outlining the newly expanded story. Keep an eye out for the next incarnation of the new vampire musical Bloodline.
I just hope it doesn’t suck.
New Staff Member
The Academy is once again defying the odds, expanding its staff, rather than cutting back. We’ve hired a new administrative assistant, Bryan Blaskie, to help with daily workload, as well as special projects.
Bryan’s responsibilities include sexy stuff like supervising the online Catalogue for New Musicals, overseeing new technology and social media, and then…LESS sexy stuff like office management, database supervision, and daily/weekly communication with composers, lyricists and bookwriters. And maybe a little bit of tidying and janitorial assistance thrown in, just for good measure.
Bryan first joined ANMT as a composer during 2011-2012’s Core Curriculum. After successfully completing the program, he wrote the music for “iWish” as part of the 2012 15-Minute Musicals program. In addition to his work as a composer, Bryan is an accompanist for various programs in Los Angeles. He played Keyboard II for our production of “A Ring in Brooklyn”. He is a staff accompanist for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He also performs around the LA area in his blues duo, Torch Note. Bryan is from Columbus, Ohio, where he studied music composition and piano performance at Denison University.
“Bryan’s starting as a part-time employee,” says Scott, “but there is definitely room to grow into a full-time position, or even a whole new department. Bryan’s a smart, funny, and artistic composer, but he also has the skills and drive of an entrepreneur, and he knows there are opportunities to launch whole new departments at the Academy: the world is his musical theatre oyster…if that metaphor makes any sense.”
“I’m really a lucky guy,” says Blaskie. “I’ve wound up in the right spot and the right time. I love my bosses — we have a gas working together; lots of laughter and clowning around. But at the end of the day, I take this job very seriously. I know the opportunity they’re giving me here. But now it’s up to me to make something exciting happen.”
Written by the British writing team of Chris Burgess (book and lyrics) and Denise Wright (music), Emerald tells the story of Grace Maguire who abandons her life in Manhattan and moves to the secluded seaside town of Ennismuck, West Ireland. However, as soon as she arrives she clashes with a mining corporation buying up the local properties in order to extract the newly found gold. Grace campaigns to save Ennismuck, and starts a prickly relationship with truculent local artist, Mulcahy. But, beyond these perilous ventures Grace manages to topple the mining company’s monopoly, and eventually, thaw Mulcahy’s frozen heart. Calvin Remsberg directs and Ross Kalling is musical director.
“The musical theatre is full of stories that take place in exotic locales, often fictional but with some basis in reality. Brigadoon never existed but Scotland is real, and Missitucky isn’t really a state, but Finian’s Rainbow takes place there.” says director Remsberg. “In Emerald, we have a fictional Irish village, Ennismuck, but in modern day Ireland. It’s populated with lively Irish characters that create the stories’ charm. It’s always fun to work on something new, and it will be even more fun to see it up on its feet!”
Featured in the cast are Jake Anthony, Adrian Bewley, Noel Britton, Melisa Dunham, Courtney Freed, Christ Warren Gilbert, Randy Guiaya, Scott Guy, Sean Hankinson, David Holmes, Shirley Hughes, Rebecca Johnson, Luke Kipp, Gia Mora, Veronica Frances Scheyving, Stewart Scott, Tedd Szeto, Michael Tatlock, Gabrielle Wagner, Peter Welkin, Erika Whalen, and Jennifer Winkler.
The Lonny Chapman Theatre is located at 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA. $10 tickets can be reserved through the ANMT website at www.anmt.org.
ANMT LAUNCHES 2011-12 CONCERT READING SERIES
What would you pay for a miracle? The people of the small town of Painted Post, Massachusetts have got plenty of reasons to believe. It is 1945, and not only has the town lost many of its young men in the war, but now a vision of the Virgin Mary has appeared in the window above the sickbed of a comatose young girl. So what if the girl’s mother charges admission to pray at her bedside and witness the vision? And when the girl suddenly awakens after five years, she is pregnant. Could it be yet another miracle — or just one of her mother’s hoaxes?
This is the starting place for the new musical The Angel of Painted Post, which will kick off the 2011-12 Concert Reading Series for the Academy for New Musical Theatre.
With book by Adrian Bewley, music by Matthew Levine, and lyrics by Richard Castle, The Angel of Painted Post is filled with unconventional characters and universal themes of faith, religion and family. With songs including “Mama’s Little Angel”, “Hey, Mother Mary” and a wacky dream sequence called “The Gospel of Alma”, the piece speaks to the role of faith in a society that has been ravaged by war. Wouldn’t you want to believe in miracles?
This new musical began in ANMT’s Full-Length Curriculum last year, and then won one of only eight coveted spots at Stages Musical Theatre Festival 2011. The actors involved with the development of the piece last season included: Sarah Girard, Christiana Moffa, Will Collyer, Dan Stewart, Stephen Stewart, Dana Shaw, Dina Buglione, Renee Scott, Peter Varvel, Erika Whalen, Ben Ryan, and Jonathan Dinerstein as Music Director.
“This is a dark, provocative, exciting new musical featuring the voices of three very talented writers,” says Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry. “I’m particularly excited because I will be stepping into the complex role of the manipulative mother myself. Roles like this for ‘mature’ women don’t come along all that often, and I look forward to sinking my teeth into it!”
The ANMT Concert Series will continue on February 6, 2012 with Emerald, written by Chris Burgess and Denise Wright from London, England. Emerald won ANMT’s 4th Annual Search for New Musicals, and received a workshop with the Academy Repertory Company in April 2011. The Concert Series will feature a new draft, based on the work which the writers have done since the April workshop.
The concert reading of The Angel of Painted Post will take place on Monday, December 12 at 7:30pm at the Lonny Chapman Theatre on Burbank Blvd., and will feature members of the Academy Repertory Company including Noel Britton, Elise Dewsberry, Evelyn Halus, Christopher Maikish, Sari Rose Poll, Andrea Press, Tedd Szeto, Peter Welkin, and guest Sean Hankinson as “Ben”. ARC Music Director Ross Kalling will be at the piano. Tickets are $10.
For tickets, visit www.anmt.org
FREE Workshop Demo – August 13
ANMT is now accepting applications for the 2011-12 season on their famed Writers’ Workshop.
Check it out at our FREE Workshop Demo on Saturday, August 13th from 6:30 to 9:30pm at The Academy for New Musical Theatre, 5628 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood.
This collaborative incubator teams different writers every month for specific writing opportunities and feedback sessions. Sessions meet one weekend per month from September through April - followed by the intensive 15 Minute Musical process in which writers create a new 15 minute musical in under a month, and ANMT produces the results.
Can’t make the Workshop Demo? Audit the first sessions in September:
Saturday, September 17th from 10am to 2pm
and/or
Sunday, September 18th from 2pm to 6pm
Full details, schedule, fees, and testimonials available online.
For more info - and to reserve a spot - visit:
http://www.anmt.org/workshop/
www.anmt.org
academy@anmt.org
Bootcamp in Session! (classes still enrolling…)
ANMT’s Musical Theatre Boot Camp is a summer series of workshops, lectures, and
practicums designed to give participants a chance to work quickly over a
concentrated six week period. It’s also a great place to check us out before
committing to our full curriculum in the fall.
We have new classes starting until early August!
With Available Courses:
MUSIC FOR LYRICISTS
MAKE A SOCKO MARKETING VIDEO - WITH NO CAMERA!
PREPARING YOUR SCORE in FINALE NOTATION
HOW DOES A MUSICAL GET FINANCED?
LEGAL PERILS, PITFALLS AND TRAPS
CONQUER THE INTERNET/SOCIAL MEDIA
ACTING THE SONG with Georgia Stitt
For More Information Visit: http://www.anmt.org/bootcamp.asp#
MUSIC LAB – ONLINE!
ANMT’s sixth annual MUSICAL THEATRE BOOT CAMP presents:
MUSIC LAB - ONLINE!
Instructor: Philip Seward
Make your own schedule!
THIS COURSE IS OFFERED COMPLETELY ONLINE
Course Fee: $495 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $495)
A concentrated version of the full Music Lab curriculum offered as part of ANMT’s Core Curriculum program, with a unit a week instead of a unit a month. (If you’re planning to take the Core program, this course will fulfill your Lab requirement).
Write and format your musical professionally.
Videos, tests, exercises and interactive assignments on the craft of composing for musical theatre, from Columbia College professor Philip Seward. Topics include:
Setting a lyric
Creating a Piano Arrangement
Finding a rhythm in a lyric and using it to develop a melody
Creating a lead sheet (chord symbols and melody)
Working with a hook
Key signatures & accidentals
Driving melodically toward theclimax of the song
Supporting the melody with a piano accompaniment
When to modulate
Composing Incidental Music
Composing for the music theatre voice (head voice, chest voice, belt, legit, timbre)
Formatting a Score: Dynamics, Expressive Markings, Pedaling, Rehearsal Marks, etc.
Vamps; safeties; jump cue; out on
Formatting voice parts
Swing notation
Integrating Script and Score
Only during the summer - this online Lab is available for the ANMT Member price of $495.
To register (or for more info) - CLICK HERE
INSTRUCTOR INFO:
Philip Seward lists among his operatic and musical works, NIMUE (premiered 2007 in Edinburgh, Scotland), DOWNTOWN (2007 at Stages Festival in Chicago), SINCERELY YOURS (2003), JUAN PERON’S HAND (2002) at the Northtown Arts Center; HIGH FIDELITY (1998) Chicago Humanities Festival and (1999) Merkin Hall in New York; SPREADING THE NEWS (1998) at North Park University; HANS BRINKER (1994) at Theatre Building Chicago which was also a recipient of several Jeff Citations and an After Dark Award; the youth operas AFRICAN STORIES (2007), A NOTEWORTHY TALE (2002) and STONE SOUP (2001) commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago; BLESSING (2003) for the Lira Chamber Chorus; and PSALM 8 (1997) commissioned by the Lyric Opera Chapters. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Columbia College Chicago, co-conductor of the Lira Ensemble of Chicago, music director at St. James Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and he has served both as a free-lance conductor and performer for many ensembles, musical shows and operas.