School staging original musicals?

College Majors Musical Theater Majors
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<p>My son at Ball State Univ. has closing night for “The Circus in Winter” tonight. This project was an original stage adaptation of a novel by an Indiana author, with all aspects of the project completed by students in the department. Not only was the stage script adapted by the students, but one student also wrote the complete original score (which is FABULOUS, btw!) and the set, costumes, and many unique staging concepts (including a life-sized elephant puppet!) were all conceived and completed by students, with expert direction from their professors. The resulting production was fresh and wonderful, and is entered into a regional competition for Kennedy Center honors.</p>

<p>My son says that this project has made him remember why he loves the theater so much, and I can imagine why…the chance to “create” rather than “imitate” a great character, the adding and cutting of scenes and songs and the emotion that comes with that, the feeling of creative control must be wonderful and unique for an actor!</p>

<p>Being fairly new to this major (most of what I know comes from this website!) I did not realize that this may be fairly uncommon, until a theatre friend explained that this was a pretty unique opportunity for these students.</p>

<p>So, I am asking: what schools are doing this type of project? And on this scale (mainstage)? Please share!</p>

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<p>That sounds absolutely wonderful for your son and his classmates! What a great opportunity!</p>

<p>My daughter is also very into creating theater. She enjoys the creative process and bringing ideas to fruition, as well as creating works for herself to be in (not just waiting to be cast in other works). </p>

<p>She did have this kind of experience while at NYU/Tisch in the Experimental Theater Wing studio (ETW). In fact, one (but not the only one) reason she spent her final 3 semesters in that studio, after training in the CAP21 studio, was the opportunity that studio affords students who wish to do what are called Independent Projects, which is creating their own works of theater that are staged. In senior year, my daughter wrote a musical and composed the songs and wrote the lyrics and staged it before graduating and also played a lead in her musical. She was not the only student by far there to do this (some also wrote plays too). </p>

<p>From that one experience, her musical went on beyond graduation and while I don’t want to name specific theaters, etc. here, her musical went through various workshop stages and was selected by various theaters and musical theater organizations to be workshopped and staged, including an Equity production in NYC. Her musical, which was the first and only one she has written, went on to be a Richard Rogers Award finalist. This one opportunity started as a seed as a student at Tisch and from that, she signed with a well known agent for theater literary (besides having a different talent agent) and has been commissioned to write a new musical for a Tony winning regional theater. This all came from that first musical done as a student (which has gone through many revisions since then). Her work as a MT composer/writer has been featured in concerts in NYC as well. The musical she created in college has even led to being selected for a MacDowell Fellowship. My point in sharing this is that the creation of theater while in college can lead to lots later on! </p>

<p>That musical was not a mainstage musical at her college though (as was at your son’s college). </p>

<p>But in addition to that, she was a writer/performer and musical director for NYU’s Reality Show at Madison Square Garden and in Abu Dhabi and that show is entirely created by students. </p>

<p>Since graduating, she is also involved with her former classmates in a cast of writers/performers (all the performers must write and/or compose for this show) of a comedic musical revue that performs weekly in NYC. They create and perform the show every week. In fact, tonight, the group performs at a well known venue in the city and their show is being made into a live CD tonight. This is another example of creating your own theater (many of the cast trained in ETW at Tisch and so are used to that kind of work). </p>

<p>The mainstage shows at Tisch are not student created (though there are student created works in studio productions and there are student directed musicals also at Tisch that are not mainstage and my daughter has been involved in several of these). But in her junior year, the mainstage musical was an original new musical and so the cast, including my D who played one of the leads, got to originate the characters and be a part of that kind of experience. As well, while at Tisch, my D was involved in being in some new works by the Graduate Program in Musical Theater Writing at Tisch. </p>

<p>Being able to act in and also create new theater works is a fabulous experience and one that can lead to further work down the line post graduation, as my daughter is finding (she graduated two years ago).</p>

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<p>Nicksmtmom et al - The project your son was involved in sounds wonderful. There is such great creative synergy when an opportunity like that comes along. There are increasing opportunities for that type of project at many programs. The fact that the Kennedy Center American Theater College Festival has a judging category for both new plays and student written plays is a good indicator of the growing numbers of this sort of opportunity. I will say, though, that having this produced as a “Main stage” show is not as common. Many of these shows have life after their college debut and are creating a venue for development of new material.</p>

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<p>My school often does original material as written by the students: “Spirit” the musical comes to mind that we did last year, as well as “Weightless”, a one act play. One of our mainstage productions this year is an original play, not student-written, but we are doing the world premiere of, so this should be interesting!</p>

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<p>Coastal Carolina presents staged readings of new musicals by guest artists every May. Last year was the innagural “Maymester” show, and we did “Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls”, a new musical by the creator of “Urinetown”, Mark Hollman. Due to the success of the Maymester reading, CCU is staging the first full production of the show at the equity house attached the school, Atlantic Stage, this January!</p>

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<p>When we visited Pace University, they were performing a new work and seemed to be committed to the idea of regularly doing this; the shows, however, were not written by the students.</p>

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<p>This thread is talking about two different experiences. One is staging new musical theater works. One is students creating and then staging new works. Both experiences are very valuable, though different.</p>

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<p>I think that these experiences are common at many schools in varying degrees… for example at JMU the current seniors had the opportunity over the past four years to audition for/ see staged productions of a student written play, two student written musicals, multiple original undergraduate and graduate student musical and play readings, a mainstage play where the writer came to campus and worked with the students and the director on the material, and two workshop productions of material by guest composers from NY, one of which is currently in rehearsals and opens next week in the studio theatre. </p>

<p>It is wonderful that so many schools around the country can offer these kinds of opportunities for students to work on so many different types of original works. There are also so many writers and composers looking for the chance to develop new works, that the potential for wonderful synergy exists between programs and writers/ composers. :)</p>

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<p>It is unusual for a fully staged student-written musical to be created. In my time I’ve had student create and perform two small musicals. </p>

<p>I had this discussion just the other night with a friend before she when onstage to perform her solo performance. We talked about why she writes/creates so much of her own work. Bottom line, she wants to be a more creative artist. It is what drives her. Others really simply love taking someone’s words/music and breathing life into them. I find that when people get the opportunity to create in an ensemble environment they tend to really enjoy the process. </p>

<p>At the university level is the perfect place for this to occur. You have a large creative group, facilities, professionals who can give feedback, and no down-side if it isn’t any good. I love it when students do this kind of thing. I highly encourage all the student out there who want to – just give it a try. Likely your department will support you. Have fun. Create. Who knows. After all, who would have thought a group of people getting together to stage a parody of a classic Hitchcock movie would create the runaway hit “The 39 Steps.”</p>

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<p>Another reason to do it, according to my daughter, is to create work for yourself to be in. In other words, create your own opportunities, rather than wait for one to come along!</p>

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<p>Just this weekend at the University of Michigan, the student-run Basement Arts theatre presented “Zombie Farm - The Musical”, a full length musical written by my son with music composed by another student. This was a completely original work. He was fortunate to cast many of the very best MT students since his show did not conflict with the mainstage musicals. To soozie’s point - naturally he wrote a role for himself! The show was well received.<br>
Also - last year a student-written musical “Gibson Fleck” was a mainstage show - I believe this was a first for U of M.</p>

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<p>Kudos to your son, bazaarshopper! And to everyone else involved in this production!</p>