Blog Filter By Posts by Laura Stratford

A new musical is a tricky beast. It comes with all the challenges of a new play--the problems of dramatic build, character, denouement, economy of dialogue--plus a suite of other potential pitfalls. Is the opening number suitably energizing, and if it is, does it still adequately introduce us to the world of the show? How many ballads is too many ballads? Not to mention solos versus duets or ensemble numbers, male versus female voices, and the question of choreography...it’s enough to make a well-intentioned Lin-Manuel Miranda-wannabe throw in the towel.

Everybody understands the importance of good acting and musicianship in musical theatre—without them, obviously the show isn’t going to be very good, even if it’s brilliantly written, composed, and directed. What you might not realize unless you’ve spent any time thinking about it is how vital good design is to a show. An easy way […]

The post So You Think You Can Produce, Part 4: Make It Work appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Having just spent a weekend rediscovering my city with guests, I’d like to return to the specifics of Chicago’s musical theatre scene. Not everyone is in a position to produce for themselves, and for a city with over 100 distinct theatre companies, it can get confusing when it comes time to figure out whom to […]

The post Chicago Theatre Report: Where To Bring Your New Musical appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

You’ve got your cast, and now it’s time for rehearsals. I hinted last time that we’d talk about schedules, but in fact, I’d like to move in a different direction. In brief, to sum up scheduling, you’ll need dedicated periods for learning music, choreography, blocking, and then for a sitz probe (sing-through with the band) […]

The post So You Think You Can Produce, Part 3: The Press appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Before we took our detour into producing specifically for festivals, I wrote about the ground work to do before mounting a show. At this point, if you followed my sage advice (and of course you did), you’ve got a budget, a venue, and an all-star production team. Hopefully you also have rehearsal space and you’ve […]

The post So You Think You Can Produce, Part 2 appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

I’d like to step sideways from my last post to talk about something close to my mind and near to my heart at the moment, as The Chicago Musical Theatre Festival is midway through its performances. Festivals are a great place to try out producing your work. That’s a big part of why they exist. My […]

The post So You Think You Can Produce: Festival Edition appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

As I mentioned in my first post, one of the greatest things about being a theatre professional in Chicago is that you can actually produce new work. There are enough reasonably-priced venues for even a small company (or group of individuals) to rent a space and put on a fully-realized production. “That’s great!” I hear […]

The post So You Think You Can Produce, Part 1 appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.

Hello there, fellow lovers (and writers, and producers, and attendees) of musical theatre! Greetings from the City of Broad Shoulders. It is my mission, in blogging for NMT, to bring a little Chicago flavor to the national (international?) discussion of the art form we love. A brief introduction: I’m the co-founder of a Chicago company […]

The post Second City, First Post appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.