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Event Details
  • Feedback workshop: Conflict & Obstacles
    February 19, 2017
    10:00 am - 11:50 pm
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FEEDBACK WORKSHOP #2: CONFLICT & OBSTACLES

NOLA Rehearsal Studio
250 W. 54th St.,  11th Floor

This workshop is dedicated to fostering a conversation about musical theater structure not only for writers but also for producers, directors and everyone involved in the creation and production of new works. The cost for non-participants to attend for the full day, to observe the presentations and be part of the discussions, is $55 ($35 for TRU members). Download the Application, fill it out, and email to TRUStaff1@gmail.com to sign up.

Submission deadline: Wednesday, February 8th. 

Our professional panel of commercial producers, directors and writers will include:

  • Nancy Golladay, literary consultant (NY Shakespeare Festival, O'Neill Conference, more), moderator of the BMI Librettists' Workshop; 
  • Sheldon Harnick, Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning lyricist (Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello, She Loves Me, The Apple Tree, The Rothschilds);
  • Barbara Pasternack, artistic director of Theatreworks USA;
  • Tom Polum, producer (The Toxic Avenger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up);
  • Skip Kennon, composer/lyricist (Herringbone, Don Juan DeMarco, Time and Again), former Artistic Coordinator of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and teacher for two decades.
  • Bob Ost, executive director of Theater Resources Unlimited, and TRU Literary Manager Cate Cammarata will facilitate.

Writers (or producers!) are invited to submit no more than 25 pages of a show you are working on. We want to see the section of your show in which conflict and obstacles arise – the plot complications – plus MP3s of the songs within only those pages. Also send a concise synopsis of the opening in which you introduce the world of your show, and the want of your characters and how it prepares us for the conflict in the section presented.

In the workshop we will focus on three main aspects:

  • 1) Songs that express differing points of view, or conflict;
  • 2) "Turnaround Songs" in which a character changes his course of action;
  • 3) The climactic moment (sometimes the first act finale) that drives us forward into the resolution (note: "resolution" will be in workshop #3). 

We will discuss "I am" songs and "I feel" songs, and the function of each, with special attention paid to the way they move the action. In addition, we will continually explore the delicate balance between script and song.

**If accepted for presentation of 10-15 minutes including one song and scene, plus feedback, there will be a participation fee of $100 ($80 for TRU members), which includes 2 seats for the entire day workshop as well as your presentation slot. Space is limited. Any additional attendees from the musical team (including music director, additional collaborators and cast members) who wish to observe the entire workshop must reserve in advance and will be charged $20 per person.

Submission fee is $10 for members, $20 for non-members. If accepted, it will be applied to a participation fee of $100 ($80 for TRU members).

Panelists
  • NANCY GOLLADAY

    has served as a literary consultant with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Paul Sills, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Ellis Rabb, Warner Brothers Films, Punch Productions, the Nederlander Organization, Tenterfield Productions, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and Davenport Theatrical. Nancy was actively involved in the founding of the U.K.'s Book, Music, and Lyrics (BML) Workshop, an evolving group focused on the development of musical theatre writers and choreographers. She was an invited speaker at Mercury Musical Developments writers' conference in London, and appeared on the original Dramatists Guild "Art of the Synopsis" panel in New York. Nancy has worked for many years on the Drama League, Drama Desk, and Tony-honored BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop as a member of the faculty and Advisory Committee. As Moderator of the Librettists Workshop, she has recently created a popular program of in-house table readings of its members' new projects.

  • SHELDON HARNICK

    began writing music while still in Carl Schurz High School in Chicago. Around 1956, Harnick met Jerry Bock, forming "what is arguably the most important musical partnership of the '60s." Their first musical was The Body Beautiful, running for only 60 performances in 1958, but Fiorello! (1959) ran for 795 performances and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. Fiddler on the Roof (1964) "became one of the most cherished of all Broadway musicals" and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical as well as Best Composer & Lyricist. Among his other beloved musicals are She Loves Me, Tenderloin, The Apple Tree and The Rothschilds. Harnick wrote the libretto for the opera Coyote Tales, with music by Henry Mollicone, which received its world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in March 1998. He wrote the book, music and lyrics to the musical Dragons, which was performed in 2003 at the Luna Stage in Montclair, New Jersey. He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book with Norton Juster for the musical The Phantom Tollbooth, based on the book by Juster. The musical premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2007. He recently was given a 2016 Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.

  • SKIP KENNON

    was the overall Artistic Coordinator of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and the teacher of the first year there for two decades. He wrote the music for the one-man musical Herringbone (Playwrights Horizons - starring David Rounds, Hartford Stage - starring Joel Grey, Edinburgh Festival, Philadelphia's Prince Music Theater, Chicago's St. Nicholas Theater, 2007 season opener at Williamstown Theater Festival - starring B.D. Wong), the music for Here's Our Girl (workshopped at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater), and the music and lyrics for the musical version of The Last Starfighter (Storm Theatre, Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals - summer 2006, New York Musical Theatre Festival readings - fall 2006), Blanco (Goodspeed Opera House at Chester, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, National Music Theater Network), Feathertop (WPA Theater, Pennsylvania Stage Co.), and Time and Again (Manhattan Theatre Club, San Diego's Old Globe Theater, Eugene O'Neill Center National Music Theater Conference). Kennon also wrote the music and lyrics for the one-act musical Plaisir d'Amour (book by Terrence McNally), which was produced at New York's Triangle Theater and seen in workshop at Circle Rep, as well as the music for the one-act musical Afternoon Tea (book & lyrics by Eduardo Machado), which was performed at Theater Row Theaters in 2005 by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan. He was a classical music critic at the Hollywood Reporter for five years.

  • BARBARA PASTERNACK

    Artistic Director of Theatreworks USA whose mission is to create, produce, and provide access to professional theatre for young and family audiences nationwide, including disadvantaged youth and under-served communities. Since their founding in 1961, they have presented more than 90 million children and their families with opportunities to enjoy theatrical productions in 49 states and Canada. TheatreworksUSA is also one of the most honored theatres of our kind. We are the only children's theatre to receive both a Drama Desk and a Lucille Lortel Award. In addition, Theatreworks USA was the recipient of a 2001 Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, and in May 2000, The Actors Fund of American bestowed its Medal of Honor upon our founders, Jay Harnick and Charles Hull.

  • TOM POLUM

    co-founder and CEO of Streaming Musicals, producer of the films of Emma, Marry Harry, No One Called Ahead, Pride and Prejudicewww.StreamingMusicals.com.  Author of Mambo Italiano which had it's world premiere at the Westchester Broadway Theatre.  Outer Critic's winner Best off-Broadway musical for The Toxic Avenger; produced the Houston production of The Toxic Avenger, following the off-Broadway New York premiere of  the show about the first superhero from New Jersey by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and David Bryan (keyboardist and founding member of Bon Jovi) and directed by Tony Award-winner John Rando. He also co-produced Last Call, a musical documentary by Broadway director Christopher Ashley (Xanadu, Rocky Horror Show, All Shook Up) and is developing the musical comedies Mambo Italiano (based on the Canadian film starring Paul Sorvino) and Zombie Honeymoon, as well as other musicals, including Heloise and Abelard, The Toxic Avenger Christmas Chaos and Finding Frida Kahlo. Past credits include the tour of Broadway’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nomination for Best Musical).

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