A Musical is Born! -Part 9- The Overture

I didn't write an overture for my musical. In my mind, the curtain opens to reveal actors posed like an oil painting, and when the first note is played by the piano, the actors magically come alive.

But the theater we are in doesn't have a curtain. And KW, the director, wanted a different way to (literally) set the scene... by introducing the audience to the townspeople first.

And so, she asked me to write an overture, to which I happily obliged.

For those of you not familiar with the term, an overture is the piece of music that happens before the actual story begins. Oftentimes, there is no action on stage; the overture is the time for the orchestra to shine. The lights in the theater dim, the overture begins, and the audience knows that it's time to quiet down and settle in for the show. An overture usually introduces the audience to themes from each song, while giving its listeners an idea of what the overall tone of the show will be. When musicals moved from theaters to movie theaters, the overture was kept and sometimes used as background for the beginning credits. But some time after the 1960s, overtures in musicals became old-fashioned.

I grew up watching musicals with overtures and without. Most often, if I was watching a movie with an overture, I would just fast-forward through it to get to the action. At my young age, I didn't appreciate the composer's masterful way of weaving the different themes together into one piece. Then I discovered Into the Woods, where the story starts immediately with the actors on stage. And this became the basis for the beginning of Five Children and It.

But... like I said before, this musical is only half-done. It is still in the process of finding itself, and adding an overture is not difficult. I just needed to find the right tone and decide how to work in the themes.

It helped that KW already had in mind what she would like to see: different groups of townspeople coming on stage at different times, each in character and portraying an aspect of town life. She didn't need it to be long, so I knew right away that I didn't need (or want) to write an overture that was 5 to 10 minutes long. I just needed to find the right tone, something that is light and bouncy like the first song, but not exactly the same. I decided on the instrumental background to "Hilary St. Maur Devereux Albert William," a song from the second act. I tried playing snippets of other songs on top of that background, and it worked! A recognizable 4-measure bit of one song here, followed by another 4-measure bit there. Then I alternated the melodies between the glockenspiel and violin, so that a whimsical, staccato phrase was followed by a more serious, legato phrase. This was the perfect background for the different personalities on stage.

The final step was crafting a beginning and an ending. I could start the song immediately with the "Hilary" sound, but I wanted something quieter, as a way to ease the audience into this magical world. Since I hadn't used any of the slower songs in the overture, I picked the sweet ending of "Castle Siege" to start everything off. Then for the end, I took the chorus of the first song, "Fairy Palace", changed the melody a bit, then repeated it, with the melody in cut-time to create a ritardando (slow down) effect. The final overture is a little over a minute long; I was happy with the end result.

I was glad to hear that KW was happy with it too! She immediately blocked the opening, and I was able to see it today! I loved how the "children" scamper onstage during the lighter melodies, then while they are acting, the "adults" come on and open their shop, etc. I'm excited to now announce that the show has an overture, and that we now have an opening scene!

Addendum: At one point in the rehearsal, a singer asked if they were to sing the beginning of a phrase that was meant to be interrupted by the soloists. Originally, I had only the soloists sing the phrase, but the question made me think. I didn't favor one way or the other, so I asked the ensemble what they thought. I just think it's so fun having the cast be directly involved in the creative process, even if it's for one musical phrase. Also, an actor asked if we will be doing an "original cast" recording. If we could pull that off, it would be an AMAZING opportunity!!

A Musical is Born! -Part 8- The Music

My plan for Week 3 rehearsals was to sing as much as possible. With Christmas one week away, I wanted to teach the actors all the music so they could practice at home on their own. I did accomplish my goal, and learned a few things along the way.

The biggest lesson is that writing for children is different than writing for adults. Usually, when I'm thinking of harmonies, I think in four parts: bass, tenor, alto, soprano. I might deviate a little from this, but four parts is standard. But... in a group of children, there are boys whose voices haven't changed yet, or are in the process of changing. So even if I have a group that is half boys/half girls, I may have only a handful of actual bass or tenor voices. Most of my young male actors sing alto or soprano.

So, a vocal director for children's theater must find ways to be creative. Since most musicals were written with adults in mind, this kind of musical tweaking happens more often than you might think. At this point, I have several older female singers volunteering to sing tenor. I love that they want to try something new! I have in the past dropped a part or rewritten a few notes. We shall see if I'll need to make changes like that in this show. There has already been a few spots where I'm making changes based on what I hear (and I have complete freedom to do so!!)

Now we're on break until the New Year, and since there isn't much more to report, I thought I'd share a little about my songwriting process.

I heard this advice when I was a teenager: the music is coming out from the character. It's not the other way around, that the music is playing and the character is responding. Rather, the character him/herself is actually creating the music. And the audience just happens to be able to hear it too.

And that is how I approach writing songs for a musical. I close my eyes, become the character, and try to put all his/her thoughts and feelings into music. 

Of course, it's a little more complicated than that, but I won't go into music theory and poetic structure and all that. A lot of the time, I'm just sitting at my piano and playing around with different combinations of things, or I'm driving in the car and humming to myself, and find a melodic line that I really like. It's part trial-and-error, part inspiration, part work. I don't have a formula. Sometimes I start with a melody line, sometimes a lyric. In the case of Five Children and It, several of the songs started with something I read in the book. "Fairy palace in an earthly paradise" and "the wonderfullest Psammead" are straight out of E. Nesbit's mouth (or pen). Her words painted a picture for me and inspired my lyrics. When there aren't words from the author, I go back to the emotion of the character or the feeling of the scene that I'm trying to portray. 

It also helps to understand how songs serve in a musical. There are three basic functions of songs:

-narration- songs that give background information

-exposition- songs that tell the story

-"I want" "I am" "I feel"- songs that convey emotion and inner thought

Narration and "I want..." songs slow down the action. Exposition (which can include songs that convey conflict or summarize) move the story along. Songs can also be used as a metaphor, comic relief, background, or as a performance within the show itself, but most songs fit into one of the three listed above, or straddle two functions.

Next is understanding when these songs should happen within the show. Narration is a good opener, of course. Do I want a big opening number, or something more quiet? Too many "I want..." songs makes the show drag. So when is it beneficial to hear the heart of a character? Too much exposition done in song means some of the details may be lost and the audience can't stop to think. But in some cases, I want to move quickly onto the next scene, or I need to give information but want to do it in a fun way.

It's all about balance! This is the basis for my work; this is how I'm thinking as I'm writing. I'm no expert... definitely no Lin-Manuel Miranda or Stephen Sondheim. But I hear my actors singing the songs outside of rehearsal and I see how excited they are to practice with me, so I'm encouraged. I can't wait to start combining singing with blocking and dancing!

If you are interested in writing for musicals, I recommend listening to a variety of music. Music is a language, and you can't learn a language without listening to its sounds. Listen to music from shows, but also ones not from shows. Listen to songs from Gilbert and Sullivan, Rogers and Hammerstein, and George Gershwin, not just current writers. Then study lyrics, poetry, and story-telling. To write lyrics, you have to understand character, which is a whole other blogpost in itself!

A Musical is Born! -Part 7- The Discoveries

It is Week 2 of rehearsals. 

But I feel like it's been longer than that. I need to remind myself that this show is still very new for my actors. They have yet to familiarize themselves with the details of the story.

Last week, the artistic team and I sat with the whole cast (those who were there) and worked. Now, we divide and conquer. On Friday night, I had the eight actors who make up the "household" learn the Prologue and first song, while KW worked with the Narrators and MZ met with the Psammead. Then we swapped and switched and shuffled people around. I then rehearsed the "Castle Siege" with the ensemble, before moving them on to MZ to work on blocking the "siege". (Blocking is the theater term for movement on stage. This is for any movement that is not dancing.) 

And that is how our 4-5 hours go. Each director decides which scene or song needs to tackled and we schedule our actors accordingly. Basically, the actors learn the show in bits, all out of order. We start putting things together when the actors have learned the pieces. My goal is to teach all music by Week 3. This works out especially well because after Week 3 we'll take a week off for Christmas, which will give the actors time to rest and listen to the music at home (on 'repeat', I hope.)

So I arrived at rehearsal all prepared to teach the actors the singing parts that I have heard in my head for so long, when... surprise! There were plenty of new and amazing details to keep me on my toes! I needed another self-reminder: this show is only half-done! We still have many details to work out, and many of these details depend on the actors themselves (how many there are, what they are capable of physically doing, how well they listen, etc.)

Here is what I discovered this week, in just six total hours of rehearsing.

1) Illness at this time of year is unavoidable. I have yet to see the entire cast together. But technology is helpful here. I made practice tracks of all the songs so singers can practice at home.

2) My ensemble is awesome! I started with the hardest singing parts, to ensure that the actors have enough time to learn them, and they have already nearly memorized two of the songs. They listen really well and sit quietly during rehearsal, which means rehearsals go ten times as well.

3) Writing for male voices is hard for a female singer. Everything I wrote for female voices is singable... not everything I wrote for male voices is. We have some tweaking to do, but my actors are okay with trying to sing it in different octaves.

4) My Psammead (the magical sand fairy who can grant wishes) came in to rehearse his solo with me, and he wanted to show me the dance he had learned the day before. I was blown away by his moves! I had never seen this actor dance before!

5) A fun part of divide-and-conquer is when another director calls you in to show you what his/her group had accomplished. MZ choreographed a short lyrical dance for four girls, and when I saw it, I cried. She asked what I thought... I say, if my initial reaction to a scene is tears, it's a keeper!

6) I'm straddling the role of vocal director and writer. If I was solely the vocal director, I would only have to deal with the music and the band, sometimes collaborating with the other directors on dances and timing of blocking. But now I'm asked questions like, "What do you think of this baby doll?" We all agreed that the baby's face was... hmmm... too realistic. So, we're going to make our own baby. And "What is your vision for what the Psammead will look like?" That's a costuming question... I didn't think much about it! So I took some time to do some research, recruited my daughter to photoshop something together for me, just to give the costume committee something to start with. I still don't have all the answers. I don't know how to make a big baby doll or transform a teenage boy into a magical creature. But we have time to play and experiment... and discover!

A Musical is Born! -Part 6- The Reading

Auditions were two weeks ago. Because of Thanksgiving, we couldn't start rehearsals right away. But that's okay, because the extra time gave me space to finish preparing for our first rehearsal (and switch modes from writer to vocal director.)

On the night of the auditions, after the last actor had sung for us, the artistic team stayed for another hour and a half to discuss what we still needed to hear at callbacks to help us make our decisions. Then the next morning, bright and early, we gathered again with the actors and met with them in small groups. My job was to hear their singing range, then quickly teach the actors a part of a song and hear them sing the song individually. We ended around 1pm. Then the actors left, and the artistic team discussed some more. That is all I will say about that, because auditions are like personal, private conservations between actors and directors. All you need to know is that by 6pm of that day, we had our cast. 

Casting felt like a big step forward. Even though it caused me a bit of stress, I enjoyed the whole process immensely. It was refreshing to hear some of my songs sung by other people for the first time! I was getting tired of hearing my own voice. 

That refreshing, revitalizing feeling came again this morning at our first reading (when the cast sits down and simply reads through the entire script for the first time.) The five children, the Psammead, and the townspeople finally had voices and faces! The actors put on their best British accents and did a wonderful job of interpreting their characters, though it was only their first time reading their lines. The ensemble sang parts of the songs that I had taught them only the night before.

Throughout the reading, I played the keyboard and sang the songs and KW (the director) tried to paint a picture of what is happening onstage. The room was chilly, but there was an electric tingle in the air: we were starting to see the pieces of the puzzle come together slowly! And I was in awe as I heard KW or MZ (the choreographer) describe their ideas for a castle siege, a dance, or a transformation. They were filling in the holes that my mind by itself couldn't fill. 

And that is, in my opinion, the real magic of theater. We bring our talents and gifts and ALL work together to make this happen. Theater cannot happen without actors, directors, backstage crew, costumers, makeup artists, tech crews, publicity... it truly takes a village to raise this "child!" 

At our first gathering, I told my actors that my musical is really only half done at this point. Having a script and music in my hands is an accomplishment, but a musical is meant to seen, heard, and experienced. My actors are part of the team who will help bring this show to completion. I hope they understand this, and I hope they are as excited as I am!