OPEN SEMINAR IN WRITING MUSICAL THEATERThe first Open Seminar was held on November 3, 2007. We are considering presenting the seminar again in a two-day format in 2008. Please email us (dreiffel "at" nomti.org) if you would like to be put on the list to receive an email notice. The following describes the November 2007 seminar:NOMTI's Open Seminar in Writing Musical Theater is an intensive day-long instructional seminar introducing the principles, standards and skills most widely recognized as central in the field of musical theater. If you enjoy this great American art form, then this seminar will give you new appreciation and respect for the great musicals. If you are beginning to write a musical, then these are the tools that you will need to know how to use.
The skills and standards discussed in this seminar are also those that NOMTI considers when assessing applicants to the Advanced Writers Lab. Admission to the Lab depends on your presenting work that shows that you understand these issues and are learning to master these skills.
Please note that this seminar is not designed to provide an opportunity for sharing one's work. The program will cover the following topics:
Designing the book
- Book = story + put-together
- Recognizing stories that would make a good musical
- Using inner and outer story to create opportunities for song and dance, to create a more interesting world and to give the chorus a point of view
- Thinking presentationally (musicals handle dialogue, space and time in unrealistic ways)
- Finding the spine of the story
- Beginnings, middles, ends
- Developing conflict through strong antagonists
- Creating irreversible change by setting up opposing world views
- Scene writing: using both action and activity
- Finding the spine of the scene
- Using subtext to compress the scene
- High-context & low-context dialogue
- Audience-friendly put-together requires a sequence of contrasts
- Songs embody story structure - who sings to whom and with whom should mirror alliances in the story
- Placing songs at points of conflict between characters
Songs and lyrics
- How to create a memorable tune
- Forwarding plot, revealing character through songs
- Using subtext and lies to engage the audience
- Giving the title and hook multiple meanings
- Song form as roadmap for storytelling
- AABA song form: first roadmap for telling a story
- Verse/Chorus song form: second storytelling roadmap
- How lyrics are different from poetry - using strong and specific nouns and verbs
- Creating anthems with distinctive vocabulary to be sung by a sociological group
- Using harmony to create surprise, suspense, mood, or to move into new sections or ideas
- Creating variety through accelerating or decelerating phrase lengths and note durations, and through back-heavy vs. front-heavy phrase structure
Case Study: Wicked
Directions to Berklee meeting space:Room TBA: When information is available, this site will be updated.
T stop: Hynes Convention Center
Parking: On-street parking is extemely limited. Allow at least 30 minutes to find a space (meters in effect through 8pm, 25c for each 15 minutes). Or park at any of the adjacent lots (on Hemenway or Boylston or on Dalton Street between Boylston and Scotia).
