A Sleeping Show Returns

You may recall that nearly two years ago, when I started this blog, I mentioned a show I was working on called “Wonderland” that was going to be a re-imagination of the classic Lewis Carrol stories. Eventually, I abandoned the concept, but it has come up again in conversation with a local theatre company that’s looking for a spring show. They’ve expressed interest in it, so I wrote up the show’s outline in three days, retitled the project as “Alice” and sent it off to them. They’ve said it will be a little while before they make a decision on what they want to do, so in the meantime I’m going to start on the script so that if they do choose “Alice”, I’ll have a head start.

If “Alice” gets the green light, the company and I have both agreed that (though I still want to do it as a musical) it would be best to put it through this first run as a straight play, due to time constraints. I’m looking at this as a good thing, though, because it gives me time to build the characters and story before adding in the added element music would bring. As for the music itself, I’ve turned away from the idea of electronica and have decided to do it with more straight up rock. And I’m not talking “musical theatre rock” like RENT or next to normal, I’m talking U2, Green Day, Coldplay, Pearl Jam rock.

As for edge, I will still be working on the show, but I may take a break from it if “Alice” gets produced. Nevertheless, I still love the characters and the story, so it will simply be put on the back burner for now.

I’m really excited about this opportunity, and it’s really rewarding that a show that I’ve been building on for two years might finally get a chance to be produced!

Continuing On

Well, I’m slowly but surely coming along on the rough draft of edge. Lately, I find I’ve really been beating myself up about getting the writing just perfect. I’ve rewritten about four songs already, and I’m not even done with the draft yet. However, all in all, it’s coming along really well. I’m about halfway through Act 2 and I already know I need to seriously work on the storyline, but I knew that from the get-go. I’ve always had it in my head that I’ll need to expand a lot of the character arcs and that I would have to do it during editing. I mean, really, it’s kind of hard to develop story arcs for seven different characters and create one congruent story for the whole group while trying to get the whole thing out on paper for the first time. The music for the show is still in the early stages. I haven’t had time to write much music lately, but I think it’s goign to flow really well once I get the time to work on it!

So Far, So Good

I’m still working on Act I of “edge”, but I still consider this great progress. I’m loving writing this show so much that it hurts when I go a day without working on it, or maybe that’s just the built in guilt-o-meter in my head. Regardless, the show is coming along really well.

I’m really taking the time to try and connect with the characters as much as possible because I want to find just the right way to say something. I’m about to move into some of the meatier material in the show and I think these connections with the characters’ thoughts and feelings are going to be infinitely crucial to the rest of this piece. I’m loving every minute of this, and I really think this is one of the best first drafts I’ve written, so far!e

Jumping off the Edge

Okay, so I wasn’t able to start writing “edge” yesterday, but I started working on it this morning and I not only wrote the first scene of the show, I also wrote the score for the first song! I wrote the score on my computer (as I will write all the music for the show), and I realized that some of the timing got messed up on the treble clef, but that’s something easily fixed. I’m so proud of myself for just jumping into this without any sort of motivation but my own sheer passion for this project! It’s just such an exhilarating experience.

This is the first time since 2006 that I’ve written a script outside of Script Frenzy, and I’m remembering how great it is to work without that constriction. It’s really helping me rediscover the joy I had for writing theatre pieces. In my spare time, I’ve come up with a logo for the show, just something for me to look at and get me into the piece:

Fall Project

I’m finally back! Let me explain a few things real quick:

1.) I’ve been pretty busy this summer with work and everything, so I haven’t gotten to work on writing a show lately.

2.) I started editing White Lies and realized that it would take some serious rewriting on not just the show but the concept itself to make the story work. It just didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I’ve decided to shelve it for the moment. I might work on it again someday, but for now it’s going to be put away.

Now, onto the good news. I’m currently working on the outline for a new musical that I’ll be starting to work on this month! The project is currently titled “edge” and is about 7 New Yorkers who have to try and rebuild their lives after 9/11.

I’ve been wanting to work on a 9/11 musical for many years now, but I’ve never been able to figure out the right way to approach it. It only hit me a few days ago that I didn’t want to work on a show about the events that occurred during the attacks, I wanted to write about how people coped and picked themselves up from it.

So far, the outline is coming along really well. I just completed Act 1 today, and I’ve only been working on it for a couple of days. I’m really looking forward to working on a project outside of Script Frenzy for the first time in a long time, and I’m so excited about finally finding a way to work on this concept!