WELCOME TO MUSICAL THEATER!
In this piece, more or less, we want to help bring you closer to the preparation process behind a musical production - the process that both challenges and inspires us. These notes are based on our current knowledge, personal events and projections. They are not coming from a place of any particularly elevated experience and instead merely strive to amplify interests. If you have any thoughts, we’d love to chat! Now, let’s dive in!
ACT 1: CONSTRUCTION AND ORGANIZATION
SCENE 1: THE SCRIPT
Alright, so, the kick off! What are you going to create? Pick a genre, an era, a space. Make it explosive yet spontaneous yet revolutionary yet relatable. Construct the leads, shape their possy, add a nemesis or perhaps a kryptonite, music that speaks from the heart and a splash of something out of the ordinary. And wallah, you’re only halfway there!
The script is the spine of the whole production, the framework on which all other departments will model their part, so expectedly, writing it may be the hardest and most time consuming stage. It is sometimes even an ever unraveling process, of constructing and reconstructing, with the final touches only done days before the curtain rises.
Apply the above as we have when writing an original musical. However, even if you are merely doing an adaptation of an existing work of art, you must familiarize yourself with the plot as if it were your own. As a writer, one must become the characters themselves and enter their reality. Only then will they be able to pull everyone else in as well.
And after rounds of editing and mediocre writer’s acting, there you have it: a delicious mix of words, emotions and captivating music that helps unfold them.
SCENE 2: THE MUSIC
In a musical, songs help the actors and actresses utter their deep inner thoughts and feelings in a more expressive way. At the peak of their emotional justification - love, joy, hatred, temper, agony, mystification - the characters sing!
Opening Score
The opening song is important in that it is the audience’s first impression of the musical. It sets the tone, reveals the background, the characters and allows the audience to grasp the feel of the musical. Take The Lion King's title song “Circle of Life” as an example: it precisely introduces the magnificent world of the wild and how everybody ceases to celebrate the birth of Simba. A successful opening number arouses and upholds the audience’s attention, making them intrigued to figure out what happens next.
The Musical Effect!
It is undeniable that this is the element that truly puts the ‘music’ in ‘musical’. But it is more than the catchiness of the tunes that captivate their audience. It is the emotions they convey. The excitement or agony in every note, every belch or whisper, is detailedly mapped out to make all the senses hum along.
Envelops overspilling with feels. The first burst of the trumpet.
The songs are the true voices of the musical’s characters. The songs are what tell their stories.
SCENE 3: THE SUPPORTING CREW
The supporting crew is an indispensable part of a great musical production.
There is the Scenic Department consisting of Set Design, Props and Stage Management that create and direct the stage’s layout, painting the most accurate version of the conveyed world for the audience to step into.
The Lighting and Sound Department are present to set the mood with everything from the intensity of colours to echo of rattling chimes.
Then comes the Costumes and Makeup Department – the style gurus who add the final filters onto our cast to make sure they are limelight ready. Costumes design garments and dress whilst Makeup enhances features with magic strokes of powders and pens.
Coaches for acting, singing and choreography perhaps work the closest to the cast, besides the directors. This department helps further develop their existing skills and make sure they are portraying their roles correctly.
A great crew is hard to find. But don’t feel that your team has to be a huge pack. It is not their numbers that make them great, but their enthusiasm and dedication towards the show.