The hands-down greatest experience of my writing life was not in New York City. It was in the tiny town of Waterford, Connecticut. Waterford may not be a bustling metropolis, but it is something of a theater Mecca, as it is home to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. The center began 50 years ago as […]
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After two installments chatting with the wonderful Cheryl Coons about the wonders of the Chicago theater community, I was all ready to move on and find musical theater magic somewhere else in this big country. And somehow my efforts to do so led me immediately back to the Windy City. “The American Music Theatre Project […]
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Last time, I spoke with writer Cheri Coons about the winding path of a busy writing career outside of New York. But I also wanted to get more of her perspective on the Chicago theater scene and whether the keys to her success there can be applied to other places as well. “Chicago is a […]
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“This is just a strange sidebar story that you probably won’t ever have time to include in your written piece…”—Okay, you have to realize that I am now obligated to share this story. But what I love is that this story is a perfect example of the fairytale writing career that most of us dream […]
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In earlier installments of this blog, writers Daniel Tenney and Rob Gardner both referenced the challenge of finding a writing partner when you live outside of one of the major theater hubs. But what happens if you find a great collaborator—someone who shares your vision, where the creative chemistry starts to spark—and it turns out that […]
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Would you like to hear something cool? Something exciting going on in the world of theater that you may not have heard about? Then meet Nan Barnett. “I am the executive director of the National New Play Network, which is an organization of more than 80 theaters across the country, all of which have an […]
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Let’s start with another flashback from Steve Fendrich: “In 1985, I visited this gentlemen who was a teacher in Longmont, Colorado, and his name was Bill Francoeur. He was the music teacher there, and he had written a musical that a friend and I had gone to see, just to check things out. And when […]
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Let’s start with a flashback. This is Steve Fendrich: “So one time Bill Francoeur came to me and he said, I have this idea. He said, you know, we ought to put out a musical with a cassette tape, and on one side have the lyrics and music to it, and on the other side […]
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“I’ve averaged about one show per year that I’ve written and produced. Plus one or two, here and there.” Let’s go ahead and stop there a moment. We all know that New York is the capital of American theater, and that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But of all […]
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In the last installment of this series, I got to talk with representatives from community theaters. Community theaters are a topic that has been particularly on my mind of late because my adaptation of the novel The Giver just got authorized by author Lois Lowry for production in community theaters. And it occurred to me […]
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Ok, let’s start with a refresher from our conversation with theater marketing expert Clay Mabbitt: Marketing has two parts. The first part is identifying who’s going to love what you’re creating. And then, the second part is showing them why they’re going to love it. Alright then. Let’s consider a certain kind of theater that […]
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There are some writers of the Old School (and I admit there was a time when this included me) who feel like self-promotion is a little gross. After all, those of us with real talent just need to create great work, right? Then we’ll be discovered, and someone else will do all of the promotion […]
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Meet Rob Gardner. He’s thirty-six. He lives in Phoenix, AZ. And he makes a living as a composer. “I just took a leap of faith about ten years ago, quit my day job, and it’s worked out. I’ve gotten a few really lucky spots, too, and that doesn’t hurt.” It’s tempting to focus on that […]
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“I don’t like to think of Nebraska as the middle of nowhere,” she says with a laugh. Alisa Belflower is speaking to me from Lincoln, Nebraska. And if you were to draw a map of the musical theater world, it would be easy to imagine Lincoln as the middle-est nowhere possible. If musicals are to […]
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