2012-2015 AY
Vacation
Mar. 11, 2013—by Rebecca Bernard I found myself in Niceville, Florida. It was a place I’d written about a while back. Then I was there. We had the top down and the sun was on us and all the surrounding earth. In a movie I was watching, the camera would pan to the side sometimes. It would show...
An Unstaged Reading
Mar. 10, 2013—by Aidan Carr Looks like this. There have been a couple historical models for developing new musicals. In the so-called “Golden Age,” shows grew via the out-of-town tryout—a month or so in New Haven or Philadelphia where changes would be made by gauging audience reception. The first number of Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the...
What A Bookwriter Does
Mar. 10, 2013— by Aidan Carr The blueprint. If a musical is a house, the bookwriter is its architect; he also shares interior/exterior design duties with the composer and the lyricist. Most of the spoken language of the piece (most) falls under his jurisdiction, but he also shapes the story itself, places the songs, cuts pages and scenes....
Music is Sculpture
Mar. 10, 2013—by Aidan Carr Writing music before the 20th century was a lot like painting—you had certain colors and certain brushes, and you painted certain things. Like painters, composers outgrew these boundaries—painters stopped painting things, composers stopped writing tonal music, etc. But we still think of most music as having a pretty narrow set of ‘brushes’ or...
What’s Being Adapted
Mar. 10, 2013— by Aidan Carr Opening credits. The film I’m adapting is called MAY. It is has a cult reputation of sorts—it frequently makes pop “Top 10 Horror of 2000’s” List, a horror-hipster favorite. This is actually how I discovered it—on such a list, the author ranked MAY as his second favorite of the decade, remarking that...
Making Musicals: An Introduction
Feb. 27, 2013—by Aidan Carr For the next two months, my writing here will document the process of creating a new work of musical theater. This process is lengthy and not particularly glamorous: indeed, much of the groundwork and infrastructure for the project that this creative diary follows has been in development for nearly two years. It is...
Students at the Oscars
Feb. 27, 2013—by Harvey Burrell A recent article in the Wall Street Journal explored a group of students at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University and their contributions to the Academy Award Nominated film “Beasts of the Southern Wild”. “Beasts” was completed for 1.5 million dollars, an impossible low sum of money by Hollywood standards. It took home the...
How to Pet a Shark
Feb. 20, 2013—by Rebecca Bernard You have to use two fingers when you pet a shark. You line them up side by side. Then gently place them in the tank. Let the shark come to you. It will avoid you if you reach for it. Show no desperation. Most humans spend time growing inside the body of...
Make Space – How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration
Feb. 13, 2013—by Harvey Burrell How do creative people share space? This is one of the biggest issues when designing a multi-purpose space. The book Make Space draws upon the experience of the Stanford d.school and design consulting firm IDEO. Both of these firms have been heralded as leaders in fostering creativity. The book raised a lot of...