Analyzing musicals

I joined a Playwrights Circle group. It's spearheaded by Miranda Baker, presently working on her Masters degree in Creative Writing.

The goal was for each of us to produce a scene or a One Act play, with an eye towards next year's Udderfest. We will be able to have a staged reading ( each) of 10 minutes of what we've written.

I have written short plays before and worked with a dramaturge on them. But I've never tried writing a musical. I know that musicals are “in it for the long haul “ projects. “Hamilton” took years of research in order to produce a historically accurate production, to say nothing of knowledge of stagecraft and musical chops.

I had the opportunity this Saturday, to listen to a fellow on Zoom whose musical will be going into production in New York City. He spoke about the ways that the playwright/songwriter collaborates with the person who coaches the singers, adjusts key signatures according to vocal ranges. They also consult with the choreographer , as some lines would be extremely difficult to sing while dancing, so the melody has to be given to another character. Hopefully, for Udderfest, I will be able to have the 2 songs in the scenes I want to use, sung. I’m looking forward to it, at any rate. This feels out of my depth, but I am wading in anyway.

Cheers.