Crazytown

SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

"Another suitcase in another hall..."
Miles Mandwelle (Actor/Musician)

I’ve been in denial that I’m going back to school for most of the summer. This is an easy denial to make because I get into programs all the time, but the money never happens, so I decline them.

But this time, I have scholarship, a lease signed, a mailing address, and I found myself packing my backs this morning.

Ohmygod. I am living someplace for more than three months, and not out of a suitcase! I haven’t had a mailing address since I moved out of my apartment in Chicago, December 3, 2010. This is a big deal.

With my artist’s doubt running rampant, I’ve been avoiding it all summer. Am I worthy? Did they make a mistake in accepting me?

In the film of my life, this is how Miles waits for the greyhound bus:

 

Armed with my suitcase, my handy-dandy box of vitamins, herbs, and homeopathic remedies, three huge boxes of plays and vocal scores of every genre, twenty copies of my resume, and of course, my rapier wit, I make my way to North Carolina School of the Arts.

Let’s take a look at some classic back to school moments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MILES MANDWELLE is an actor and musician wrapping up his summer gig in Washington, D.C. Next, he's headed to school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wish him luck!.
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SO IS IT ANTI-FEMINIST TO USE BOYS AS BAIT?

Or, how I may have inadvertently started a mini online musical theatre writing revolution...
by Amanda Louise Miller, Frequent Facebooker 

About a week ago, a friend sent me some info about a contest being held by the creative team responsible for the "Team Starkid" YouTube videos.  (If you have never heard of Starkid, I strongly suggest you check out one of their original endeavors, A Very Potter Musical, here.)  Starkid announced that they would be presenting a reading of a brand new show, "A Very Potter Senior Year" at LeakyCon next month, and--gasp!--that they would be including fan submissions for songs, set drawings, and costume renderings.

(Starkid promo image)

 The prize for those whose submissions are chosen:  a front row seat at the reading.

Hear that?  That's the sound of StarKid fangirls the world over losing their shit at this announcement. ;)

Starkid's brand of cheeky satire falls right in my wheelhouse, so I sent off a couple of song submissions for the heck of it (still no word on who the winners are), but what has struck me the most aboutt his contest -- more than any prize or recognition I could win -- is the instant and global creative community that immediately sprang up around the contest event Facebook page.

(Note the amount of attendees:  2,426)

 Suddenly, thanks to this one upcoming reading, people of all ages from all over the world have been writing music, sharing that music with their peers, and communicating about what they created, supporting and critiquing each other in a supportive online community unlike anything I have ever seen.

(Just a sample of the online love on the event page -- check out the numbers of comments and likes.)

Even more exciting: most of the songwriters and composers involved in the online discussion were girls, at something like a 5:1 girl:boy ratio.   

GET OFF YOUR ASS AND MAKE SOMETHING

... And here's four things to help you do it.
By RSO

1. ART & DESIGN (Facebook page)

This one's easy.  Just go here, "like" the page and you'll be subscribed to a barrage of frequently updated photographs of awesome shit, from the sweet to the seriously trippy -- that just show up unannounced in your newsfeed.  My favorites, I think, are the architecture examples.

I SHOULD TOTALLY BE MEMORIZING THINGS *RIGHT NOW*

Necessity is the mother of many things... including this collection of "speed memorization" hints and weblinks.
by Amanda Louise Miller 

It just goes to show: be careful what you wish for.

I’ve always loved performing.  And I was lucky enough to spend much of my 20s in a city with theatrical opportunities galore, which meant plenty of chances to get my “onstage fix.”  (Yay, Omaha!)

(My last role = Heidi in the Nebraska premiere of [title of show] -- I'm on the right.)

But ever since I finally figured out what I really want to be when I grow up--and started this whole post-quarter-life-crisis-grad-school adventure of mine--my chances to be “just a performer” have been few and far between. Consequently, I've often found myself saying (a lot, and to whomever would listen):  

“I just wish I could be IN a show!”

Cut to one week ago, when an actress had to step out of a play I was scoring for the Kansas City Fringe Festival…

(The show tells the story of four women executed by their governments:  
|Marie Antoinette, Mary Surrat, Anne Askew, and Mata Hari.  Find out more about it here.) 

 ...when I, in a moment of foolhardy self-confidence-mixed-with-summer-vacation-boredom, said:

"I can do it.  You know.  If you really NEED me to."

Cut to three days after that, when I found out EXACTLY how many lines this role for which I’d volunteered involved (for the record: 169), which I now have to memorize in about a week.

(This is a picture of me RIGHT NOW.  Pretty sure this is karma coming back to get me for all my excessively wordy scripts.)

Like I said:  be careful what you wish for.

CONFESSIONS OF A LEXIMAVEN

Amanda shares an online tool to feed (and regulate!) one's word addiction.
by Amanda Louise Miller 

Hello.  My name is Amanda Miller, and I am a "leximaven."  

In a nutshell:  I love words.   

I write, I read, I pin quotes on Pinterest - I even decorate my apartment with words.

(words, words, words in my grad school apartment)

Further proof:  In 8th grade, when I won the class award for English (thankyouverymuch!), Mrs. Thorberg preceded the announcement of my name with this description, delivered with delicious and dramatic pauses: 

“She reads... and reads... and reads some more.... then she writes.... and writes.... and writes some more.”  (Yeah, still having a hard time living that down -- thanks, Mrs. T.  ;)

Probably because of this obsession, one of my favorite places to procrastinate on the interwebs is www.wordle.net.  Wordle is an online graphic generator that uses your text to create cool-looking “cloud” graphics.  You can edit your images, save them, or publish them to Wordle’s online gallery, all for free.  Here’s an example from a song I'm currently working on (you can listen to it here):

("The City" Wordle)

One hint:  Wordle automatically takes out “common English words” (they call them “stopwords”) from your text.  If you want to add these words back into the mix, use the “Language” menu once your image has been created.

(Turning off stopwords after a Wordle has been created.)

BRUNCH WITH NORA EPHRON

A small--well, valuable, but small--tribute to a great writer.
By Shoshana Greenberg (lyricist-bookwriter)

I had a dream three years ago that Nora Ephron was my cousin and was taking me out to brunch. The next morning I called my mom to make sure Nora and I weren't actually related, and my mom said she was sorry to disappoint. Thinking about the dream now, it probably meant that as a writer I wanted to be related to a very successful one, but I also think the dream reflects how open Ephron was in her writing, as though instead of words on a page or on the screen she were chatting with you over mimosas and eggs benedict.

 

Nora Ephron

I did meet Nora Ephron once when she signed my copy of I Feel Bad about My Neck at Barnes and Noble in 2006. Our conversation went like this:

 

Nora Ephron: So what do you do?
Me: I graduated from Barnard College.
Nora Ephron: Ah, where my two sisters went.
Me: Yes. And now I'm in the graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU.
Nora Ephron: Oh, wow. So are you a lyricist, bookwriter, or composer?
Me: I'm a lyricist bookwriter in the program. But I also write stuff.
Nora Ephron: Great.
Me: Thank you.
(exit Me.)

This is verbatim. I wrote it down immediately afterward so that I would never forget it. Not a conversation of note but a moment that I of course remember to this day, especially after she passed away this week.

PRODUCT VS. BRAND

"Having the goods" is one thing.  "Selling the goods" is quite another.  The most successful artists rock at both.
Amanda Louise Miller (writer / composer / grad student / multitasker) 

Artists are corporations of one.  We have to be.  And what real corporations have entire floors of eager college grads to do, we have to do solo, wearing different "hats" depending on the task at hand.

(Sometimes all the hats I wear feel like this!)

All these hats can result in all sorts of internal "United-States-of-Tara-esque" conflicts⁽¹⁾, one of the most challenging being the balancing act between product and brand.

"Product" is the actual thing we create--and its quality, creativity, and palatability.  Having a good product means having an original, artistic point of view and successfully conveying that view through craft and attention to detail.

"Brand," on the other hand, is how we trick coax the world into seeing both ourselves and our product.  Brand is embedded in how we package ourselves -- a YouTube presence, for example (here's mine!), a web page, even our weekly postings on awesome, musical-theatre-oriented blogs. ;-)

But when juggling product and brand, most of us, at some point, overfocus on one at the expense of the other.  Take the actor who spends big bucks on new headshots instead of on a valuable acting class or the writer who locks themself away from their performers and audience in a cave of perfectionism -- they've both got a floor of their artistic corporation that needs, shall we say, revisiting.

As for me, after an 8-year hiatus in the "real world," I recently went back to grad school to study music composition full time.  (PS:  Avenue Q was right, and those kids ARE so much younger than me, but more about that another week!)  When I started my master's program, I'm pretty sure the rewards I planned to gain were more "brand-" than "product-oriented."  But thanks to some gentle butt-kicking from the experiences and teachers I've had so far at OCU⁽²⁾, I've realized that, for me, grad school is an invaluable opportunity to amp up the quality of my creative work.  So, for the next year anyway, I plan to be as product-centered as possible.  (See, Dr. Knight - I was totally listening last semester!)

But working on your product -- or your brand! -- doesn't have to mean diving headfirst back into academia like this nerd did.  There are all sorts of free resources on the web for folks who want to do some amping up of their own.  The bottom line is that we artists have to make a conscious decision to cultivate BOTH the product and brand floors in our "corporation of one" if we want successful, lucrative (!), and rewarding careers.  Which floor do you need to revisit?

(1)  If you haven't seen the Showtime series The United States of Tara, run immediately to your nearest streaming Netflix viewing device, and start watching it now.  Trust me.

(2)  Hear Kristin Chenoweth give my school a shout out HERE.

AMANDA LOUISE MILLER is a non-traditional graduate student, working towards an MM in music composition at Oklahoma City University.  Currently, she is living the life of a summer-vacationing vagrant, spending most of her time on the road between her family and friends in Nebraska, and her apartment in Oklahoma City, with her chinchilla, Fosse, reluctantly in tow.  www.amandalouisemiller.com
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BAZ IS THE BALLS

A friend recently posted a link on Facebook to Baz Lurhmann's "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" - I clicked on it and was amazed, astonished, pooped my proverbial pants, taken aback, my socks were rocked off, you get the point. Mofo'in Baz, knocked it out of the park. 
-By Leah Bonnema (Stand Up Comic) 

When this song came out right around the time I was graduating I remember thinking it was fun. I probably turned it up and yelled Oh I love this song! Maybe I even called a BFF on the phone or quoted it in a yearbook, but I certainly didn't get that this song had within it what it has taken me the past thirteen years of therapy to fully comprehend. To illustrate, I have pasted the lyrics below in italics and then added my own additions, notes and (possibly) unwanted comments. 

Baz Lurhmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99: wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, "sunscreen" would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience I will dispense this advice NOW!" I am not good at maintenance. Everyone who knows me knows I don't even own a hair dryer, I don't wash my face at night and I need to change my sheets more often. However, I never skip the sunscreen. Whether your fear is wrinkles or skin cancer, sunscreen covers it. 

HOW TO WRITE A MUSICAL IN SIX MONTHS (PART I)

Well, a first draft.  Start your new musical next Monday, June 11, 2012, and be done with a first pass by Christmas.
By RSO

I love the creation of new musicals, but I find that many writers take too long to complete a first draft.  Inspiration is for amateurs, as they say, and considering the years and years of development most shows go through, the most important thing is work briskly but steadily, never rushing but never putting it completely aside, until you get to the words "the end." 

Whether you take six months or six years to complete your first draft, if you're writing a musical you're probably going to need the same three or more next drafts and likely table readings, music stand readings, staged readings, workshops, etc., that most musicals go through in order to develop their one most important thing: THE STORY.

So why not take six months?  Start your new musical next Monday, June 11, 2012.  The best part is: you don't need anything to begin (except maybe a collaborator...).

June 11, 2012
1. THE IDEA.  Hopefully you can skip this step because you already have the idea in your head.  If so, get a head start on step 2, below!

If you don't already have an idea, take one week and no more to find it.  If you've written a bunch of musicals before (why are you reading this!?!?), this might get complicated -- it's probably a more delicate decision -- but if you haven't (welcome!), your first idea is likely a low-hanging fruit, a story or genre of stories, a time and place you just love consistently. 

There are other considerations when you pick your show idea (horror is less easy to musicalize than romance; "gay" shows tend to be harder sells than "non-gay"; period pieces require more research and are likely far more expensive than contemporary plays -- though they may be more interesting, but don't worry about that now.  There will still be time to turn back if you go down a wrong road -- the most important thing is to write something you're interested in.

Be warned: if your story isn't 100% original and/or public domain, do not waste your time are begin work on something that requires optioning the rights WITHOUT GETTING THE RIGHTS... 99 times out of 100 it will lead to some nasty heartbreak.

June 18, 2012
2. RESEARCH.  Immerse yourself in the world (and potential worlds) of your musical.  If your piece is going to be interesting, you're probably going to research a dozen or more subjects (some more in depth than others) in order to attain the authentic voice and perspective your play requires.  Movies, plays, books (fiction and non-), magazines, audio recordings, and the like, are your tools.  Time: No less than two weeks.

SHOULD WRITERS BE PROLIFIC?

How important is a huge body of work?
By Shoshana Greenberg (Lyricist/Bookwriter)

Sometimes I get a burst of energy and think, "I want to write and write and write and write and write and..." and if I'm lucky I write for about an hour. Then I'm sad because it seems I'll never be the prolific writer I'm supposed to be. I love the idea of amassing a huge body of work, and I don't want to ever stop writing, but as a writer, at this point, I'm not sure I'm the type to churn out tons of material. Am I still a writer if I'm not writing all the time? How many songs, musicals, plays, blog posts do I need?

I feel like the student Calvin from the Sideways Stories from Wayside School story. Bebe can draw 200 pictures in an hour, while Calvin can only draw one. Consequently, he doesn't think he is good at art and instead of drawing helps Bebe draw even more pictures each class period, believing he is doing the world a greater service by bringing it more art. Their teacher, Mrs. Jewls, corrects him by saying:

"No, no! That isn’t how you measure art. It isn’t how many pictures you have, but how good the pictures are. Why, a person could spend their whole life drawing just one picture of a cat. In that time, I’m sure Bebe could draw a million cats... but if that one picture is better than each of Bebe’s two million, then that person has produced more art than Bebe."

I love this story and I know what the teacher says is true, but I still feel this pressure to be prolific and continuously produce work at a fast rate--that that is what makes a good writer. I don't know where this comes from. My teachers would encourage us to write all the time because writing is like a muscle you have to keep in shape, but they also encouraged us to go slowly and find our way through our writing. Maybe it just comes from comparing myself to others. Many writers seem to be workaholics--writing constantly, producing work constantly. It makes sense that the more one has written the more chances one has to get something produced or published, but if I try to work this way I just become frustrated.