Throughout the 20 weeks you will work with collaborators. Each creative will focus on one aspect of book, music or lyrics. Some collaborations will last, some will be one-off, but all of them will teach you something as a writer. “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” — Henry Ford
The following are provisional collaboration projects developing through the 20 weeks.
Collaboration 1 – Storytelling from an inspiration. From a single grain of source material, exploring how rich and satisfying an eventual musical theatre story could be. Each collaborator will explore process and challenge, choice of story structure, character maps and project pitch/presentation.
Collaboration 2 – The Perfect Ten-Minute Musical. A new partnership of writers will craft a 10-minute story and develop the characters and song placement – to create a clear and detailed world that should inspire an audience as much as for a full length work. Early explorations of musical forms, lyrical specificity of language, and the gentle art of rewrites.
Collaboration 3 – Thematic Song Cycles. A third partnership between writers to deliver the knock-out stand-alone song. Pieces to be woven into a thematic feast, playing with the emotions to create a balanced through-line. We will explore successful cycles and how groups of writers have used this work as a showcase for their individual and collective talents
Final Collaboration [extended form]. Explore a one act musical theatre piece reaching a point where there is shape, some musical material, character maps, and a progress-plan to reach a formal reading stage. This could be a new partnership, or the development of an existing collaboration.
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