Yearly Archives: 2017

27 posts

2017.

This year brought two back-to-back bicoastal workshops, an international production, a bunch of table readings, a few concerts (big and small), a new look at an old idea, an ultra-productive writing retreat (RIP YIMT), and a wonderful new agent. Best of all, it gave me the chance to work with so many artists I love and respect, including…

Delaney Amatrudo, Robert Ariza, Sash Bischoff, Ally Bonino, Jack Brinsmaid, Liz Lark Brown, Sojourner Brown, Liz Carbonell, Max Chernin, Jackie Colquitt, Adam Cuppy, Jessica Fisher, Tara Forseth, Chris Gilroy, Holly Gould, Lux Haac, Molly Hager, Sean Hagerty, Susan Hammons, Chase Hauser, Sam Heldt, BP Houle, Emily Jenda, Benjamin Kamine, Angelina Kelly, Lauren King Thompson, Tara King, Caitlin Kinnunen, Lindsay Kipnis, Marina Kondo, Kelsey Lake, Adam Lawrence, Lily Lester, Allison Lian, Carl Limbacher, Amy Linden, Ellen Macy, Evan Maltby, Lauren Marcus, Patrick Marion, Megan McClain, Eric William Morris, Matt Morrow, Elexis Morton, Sam Paley, Angela Pardini-Gomez, Allison Posner, Katie Rodgers, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Keith Rubin, Allie Sandler, Danny Saulle, Geremy Schulick, Charlotte Seelig, Libby Servais, Johnny Shea, Rich Silverstein, Allison Spratt Pearce, Phoebe Strole, Nicole Sumlin, Allie Trimm, Kira Vine, Emily Walton, Sally Wilfert, and Jeremy Yaddaw.

It also made me take a long, hard look at the work I do and be even more conscious of and conscientious about what I put into the world. More than anything, it forced me to re-up on my forever goal to be aggressively empathetic. In the midst of a difficult year culturally and politically, it was a thrilling year of creation.

Here’s to all the 2018 holds!

Back in the studio!

Holly Gould & Allison Lian

Julia and I went back into the studio with the cast of our REB+VoDKa+ME NYU workshop over the last few weeks to record the rest of the score! It was great to extend our time with these amazing students, and we’re so excited to have the whole score recorded. Thanks to Chris Gilroy and Mighty Toad Studios for having us back in Brooklyn. And thanks to Rich Silverstein for guiding us all through this epic score, as always. Be on the lookout for mixed tracks sometime in early 2018!

REB+VoDKa+LOVE!

Back row: Cast members Lily Lester, Jackie Colquitt, Adam Lawrence & Jack Brinsmaid, Lighting Designer Charlotte Seelig, Me, Dramaturg Megan McClain, Director Ben Kamine; Middle row: Cast members Sam Paley, Katie Rodgers, Jessica Fisher, Danny Saulle & Angelina Kelly, and Composer Julia Meinwald; Front row: Choreographer Tara Forseth, Cast members Allie Lian & Holly Gould, Music Director Rich Silverstein; Not pictured: Cast member Angela Pardini-Gomez, Set Designer BP Houle, Costume Designer Lux Haac, Stage Manager Lindsay Kipnis, ASM Tara King, Sound Designer Neal Goleta, and Production Coordinator Brandon Anderson.

The workshop of REB+VoDKa+ME at NYU that performed this past weekend was one of the most intensely rewarding experiences I’ve had as a writer.

It’s been a little over 3 years since I sent Julia links to these two related articles and was like “Don’t think I’m a scary person but could this be our next musical?” and she basically said “You’re not scary and yes.” Two years ago, we started writing the show with director Ben Kamine in R&D Group, led by dramaturg-extraordinaire Megan McClain. A year-and-a-half ago Rich Silverstein came on board when we shared our first 16 songs from the show in public. And five months ago we finished a first draft of the script.

And this weekend the show was given a fully designed and produced workshop staging with a cast of amazing juniors and seniors from the New Studio on Broadway at NYU/Tisch. To call this opportunity a gift is an understatement – we wrote a show that doesn’t exist in a physical space and by not being bound by music stands we were able to learn more than we ever could have imagined about our work.

Much credit for that goes to our amazing creative and design team (partially pictured here) for helping us to develop our own world and our own physical language to make the 90-minutes of the show a complete thought.

And we could never have seen our work as fully as we were able to without the willingness, openness, depth, and hard work of the twelve students in the cast. They navigated this technically, musically, and emotionally complex piece with the kind of grace and heart we couldn’t have imagined when we first had the idea three years ago.

Immense thanks are due to Kent Gash, Sarah Schlesinger, and Brandon Anderson for inviting us into this collaborative process. Be on the lookout for some production photos in the near future!

The Magnificent Seven Demos!

I’m so happy to get to share all 13 of the songs we’ve written so far for The Magnificent Seven as we dive back into finishing a full draft of the show with MTF this year!

Thanks to our magnificent singers (Ally Bonino, Emily Jenda, Caitlin Kinnunen, Marina Kondo, Amy Linden, Ellen Macy, and Emily Walton), our magnificent special guests (Lynne Marie Rosenberg and Keith Rubin), our magnificent band (Geremy Schulick, Carl Limbacher, and Jeremy Yaddaw), our magnificent engineer Chris Gilroy, and our perfect ten MD/collaborator Rich Silverstein for making this all happen.

We can wait to write and record the next batch!

San Diego, part 2

Our week in San Diego came to a close with a reading of the show on Saturday afternoon. It was so wonderful to get to hear the new draft (with four new songs and a bunch of new pages) and to get to know the wonderful people of Diversionary!

Thanks to our cast (L-R in the photo) Lauren King Thompson, Susan Hammons, Allison Spratt Pearce, Sam Heldt, Chase Hauser, and Adam Cuppy; thanks to music director Patrick Marion, who guided these six wonderful actors through more than 20 songs in about that many hours; thanks to stage manager Kira Vine for keeping us together; thanks to the whole staff at Diversionary (Jenny, Sebastian, Skyler, David, and Anthony) for welcoming us and making us feel at home; and big thanks to Artistic Director Matt Morrow for bringing us out and guiding the show towards the spring. We can’t wait to head back and start rehearsals in six short months!