Tonight marks the end of my first week of the In-Between and it has been and EPIC FAILURE. I was planning on doing a whole plethora of relaxing, lazy things and so far, all I've done is non-relaxing, work-related things. Granted, I love my job and the work that I get to do, but I cannot seem to catch a break! This weekend alone has been a bit of a whirlwind. I got sick last Monday (my first day off, of course) and didn't feel better until Thursday, just in time to get sucked into about a million projects.
My weekend consisted of two readings of new musicals, helping choose some high school actors to advance in a scholarship competition and trying to get my students into college.
Okay. On paper, this doesn't seem nearly as daunting as it felt. Maybe it was the cough syrup. Whoops. Don't tell.
The first reading was a really fantastic experience. It was a brand-new rock musical with some really fantastic material for seven actors. The content itself is mostly polished and this reading was more or less a final opportunity for the creative team to hear their work sung by actors before they stage a full workshop. The best part of this one for me was singing with the combo that they hired. It was a piano, drums, bass and guitar. Doesn't get better than that. I'm hopeful that they'll keep me around and ask me back to work on the next step, but only time will tell!
The other reading I did was a very new experience for me and I learned a lot about my strengths, weaknesses, theater education and preferences for the artistic process. The musical itself was incredibly fascinating. The plot centers around a Catholic priest and his return to a small Irish village during the Irish Potato Famine at the end of the 1800's. The reading itself went smoothly and the people involved all brought very unique interpretations to the table. The characters were intricate and the story itself is compelling. This is where my personal preferences for American Musical Theater began running through my head. After the reading was done, the moderator (and I think future director) of the reading told us that the creators were going to listen while the participating readers discussed what they thought were the strengths and weaknesses were in the plot and characters.
I've never had to really think about what I look for when I define good musical theater, but through the discussion that night, I very quickly learned that I value these things:
I want the show to be "somebody's story." To me, this means that the plot includes a defining moment for a main character that is compelling enough that I care about them and want to see their problems resolved.
The relationship between the audience and the plot should be clearly defined and decided from the very start of the show. Does the audience act as a fly on the wall? Is the audience encouraged to have a personal stake in the show? Is the show trying to convince? Inform? The choice needs to be clear and consistent.
The relationships and characters, while they can be complex, should be classifiable by classic, umbrella terms. The protagonist. The antagonist. The comedic relief. The basic relationship between good and evil. The parental relationship. The fraternal relationship. The relationship between the characters and a higher power. The relationships between the main protagonist and EVERYONE.
The characters HAVE to have a reason to sing. Musicals suspend reality enough to allow characters to break into scenes in which all the characters know the same melodies, lyrics and choreography, but I truly stand by the rule that the only reason a character should sing is if words alone can no longer suffice and in order to communicate, they need to do so through song. Going hand in hand with this is the need for EVERY song to move the story forward. The show cannot be in the same place at the end of a song, that it was at the beginning. It has to have a purpose. I am strongly against the concept that songs can just be thrown into a show on a whim. There needs to be a reason.
Modern musicals are (and should be!) sophisticated enough that they can "show" and not "tell". I can't stand a preponderance of exposition in character dialogue. I am SUCH a supporter of character driven work, and if the story calls for a lot of explanation at the top of the show, figure out a way to deliver it in a clean and attention-grabbing package a la Les Miserables. Did you know that the current format of the show includes a fairly lengthy prologue to set up the story of Jean Valjean that didn't originally exist because all the people of France are familiar with the story and the people of New York are not? That's right. Its so well done that most people can't imagine the show without the first 20 minutes.
Pacing. I don't want to fall asleep. 'Nuff said.
Okay. The most important thing I learned about myself is that I do a very poor job of intellectualizing plot and character choices. I think this comes from my training. I have always been told that it is not my job to mull over why specific choices were made by the creators. I have been trained as an interpreter. An interpreter of dialogue, music, movement and storytelling. I was rendered almost useless in the position of creator. In that capacity, I have no idea where to start. I am so used to looking at a show and deciding how to tailor it so it reads. I have never been asked to overhaul a show like we had been discussing. I was left to watch. And I was fine with that. Luckily, a lot of the other members of the reading were "go-getters" and had some strong opinions about how the next step of the show should be shaped.
This was my first taste of this specific type of workshop/reading. And I appreciate it because I now understand my specific place in the life cycle of a show. I belong in the later parts. The inception and initial development can be left to people that have a taste for those things. I love being able to breathe life into characters and songs and scenes. I love the organic nature of working with people in a space. I love watching the libretto come to life with characters that can alter their choices within the context of their scene. I love the building of a final product. This is where I belong and I'm more than okay with that.
Wow. Apparently I have a lot of opinions. I know that some of you might think that this is a negative quality, but I realize that this is what shapes me as an artist. My opinions shape my choices, and for better or for worse, I have to live with them....until the next show comes along.
Mull over THAT. =]
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