Location: Coastal Carolina BFA MT '14 via Austin, TX
Posts: 448
Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls - Musical Reading
The CCU Theatre Department is thrilled to announce the Inaugural Developmental Musical Reading of "Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls" with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman (who wrote Tony Award Winning "Urinetown") and book by Adrian Royce (a scriptwriter in Los Angeles). Although the director is still TBA, CCU Professor Steven Gross will be musical directing.
We as the students (and I’m sure the faculty!) are super excited for this experience. It will be during our schools Maymester and will not only be a great networking opportunity, but also a 2 credit course. As it says above, it's an "inaugural" reading, so this is a new thing that CCU will hopefully be doing every year on from now! Mr. Hollman, Ms. Royce, and the TBA Director will be staying in Residence at CCU for most of the month of May and the cast will be rehearsing Monday-Saturday on an equity schedule to produce the reading of this developmental new piece, which will be tweaked, changed, and added to as the process goes along.
I know that there is also an industry reading of the same show in January or February in NYC with some potentially big Broadway stars reading it, so we are really lucky to be a part of this! If you have any more questions I can attempt to answer them, but this is really all I know as well. More information will come as I know it!
While everyone is prowling the boards waiting for news of acceptances, I thought I would do a little update on the Maymester workshop of "Bigfoot and Other Strangers" (as I believe it is currently called.) CONGRATS to our CC kids theatrelvr's D and AlexaMT for being cast, and to sjstxmom's S for snagging the role of assistant director! I know everyone who is involved is really excited about the opportunity.
I am hoping for updates once the class is underway to see how the whole process works. Of course if there is going to be a performance I will need to start planning a May trip to CCU as well.
Location: Coastal Carolina BFA MT '14 via Austin, TX
Posts: 448
Thanks! And the only update I have as of now (besides casting) is that Jason Bruffy has been announced as our director. He's got some great credits and was really nice at auditions, so there's a little addition!
Location: Coastal Carolina BFA MT '14 via Austin, TX
Posts: 448
I have no idea if there will be a performance or not, but I'm sure we'll let y'all know if there is. As it's a workshop, it might be for industry purposes only and not open to the public, but I'm not 100% sure.
In case anyone will be in the Myrtle Beach area on May 15, there will be 2 performances of "Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls" that will be open to the public. Show times at 11:00 am and 7:00 pm.
Kudos to the cast, crew and creative team of the staged reading of "Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls" at CCU today! I was lucky enough to get to go to both performances today and to stay for both talk back sessions with Mark Hollmann, Adrien Royce, CCU director John Woodson and CCU musical director Steven Gross, plus of course the very talented cast and crew. I also got to sit in on about an hour of the rehearsal yesterday and watch the process unfold as they were still making changes to the script and to the songs yesterday afternoon! The student who was the assistant director showed me the script - white pages were the original script, then each day's changes were on a different color paper. His book was a real rainbow of colors! I don't know how they kept it all straight but they did.
I know this was a great experience for the students who were a part of the program - both on stage and off. And from some of the comments at the talk backs it sounds like this will not be the last staged reading they do at CCU. Fingers crossed for more!
I just got back from a post-show party (yes the parents were invited!) and it was great to watch the kids interact with the creative team in that informal setting. Mr. Hollmann and Ms. Royce could not have been more positive about the process and were so very gracious. What a great day!
yes...austinmtmom...what a great time it was! it is unbleivable what work goes into a show before it becomes "a show"...loved the story and the music was...well...no other word but aMAZing!!! So glad I was able to take part in this adventure!
Location: Coastal Carolina BFA MT '14 via Austin, TX
Posts: 448
It was an extremely fast-paced, enlightening, and very fun experience. From the first day we recieved a draft of the script and score to the Sunday we performed it (11 days, I believe?) it has already changed so much and it still has a lot of growing to do. I felt honored to be able to participate in such a process, especially with Mark and Adrien who were so thankful and gracious and inspiring through out the process.
Overwhelming as it was getting music one day (Mark writing it only the night before!) and performing it the next, it really taught us to be on our toes and helped us learn quickly. Changes would come and go we would have to learn quickly and adapt, which is something very helpful in the theatre world, especially when we were reminded of people who are working on shows in previews- learning new material by day while performing old material by night and slowly putting the two together. Great experience.
I know they hope that this is not the last musical "raging" (staged reading!) at CCU for maymester, and that there are 2 possible creative teams lined up, hoping to workshop their new musicals next year semester.
Location: Coastal Carolina BFA MT '14 via Austin, TX
Posts: 448
Update from our Department Chair:
Due to the success of the Maymester reading, the creative team behind "Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls" has agreed to allow Coastal Carolina University Department of Theatre to produce the show.
Therefore, in association with Atlantic Stage (the small equity theatre attached to Coastal Carolina) and Perseverance Theatre (in Alaska, where the show will go after we finish it), CCU theatre will workshop the show, and be a part of the premier of "Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls."
The creative team, including Adrien Royce and Tony Award winning composer and lyricist Mark Hollman, will be in residence for much of the time the show is in rehearsal. This is an amazing opportunity for our students to be on the ground floor of an exciting new musical, work with amazing talent, and expose the talent within the program to even more people in the industry. The show will be directed by John Woodson.
VERY exciting news that I am happy to share with the CC community! We're beyond happy that we'll be the first people to produce the new work, which hopes to go to New York at some point, On Broadway or Off.
Just thought I would update this thread as the show is opening this weekend at Atlantic Stage. I can't wait to see the show to see how it has changed from the reading in May. There has been lots of publicity for the show and they just added 2 performances to meet the demand for tickets. I know the cast and crew can't wait for tomorrow night. Break a leg everyone! Atlantic Stage’s new play in constant flux - Kicks! - Feature Story -TheSunNews.com | Kicks!
As the parent of a HS junior who is looking at schools I was curious to know what is a Maymester? I think I can make an educated guess but just wanted clarification.
