A Musical is Born! -Part 5- The Auditions

I'm sitting in a room that is charged with energy.

54 nervous kids are waiting for their 2 minutes. A lot is riding on those 2 minutes.

I'm not auditioning, but I'm as nervous as these kids. How will I know in those 2 minutes if this boy or girl will be the best one to portray my characters?!

Fortunately, I have the artistic team to help me decide. And even more fortunately, CYT is a tight-knit community, so I already know some of the actors. I've taught them in class, I've worked with them in shows, and I've seen them on stage. Besides, these 2 minutes is not the end of the process; there are still callbacks (when we hear specific actors reading for specific parts, oftentimes in dialogue with another actor. This is also when I can hear the actors singing songs from the musical.) Our callbacks will be tomorrow morning.

So, I'm sitting here, just waiting, shuffling papers again and again. Then it hits me! My nerves are not about the auditions. It's because THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN. This is me, Mama Baird, sending my "baby" out into the world.

It's always been a wonder to me how the creative process is so much like birthing a baby. Part of it is a mystery: I'm contributing, yet wheels seem to turn by themselves. And in the end there is something new in my life that didn't used to exist before, and now I can't imagine my life without it. Then I share the music (or drawing, or story, or whatever) and my baby has taken its first steps. Next thing I know, I hear someone singing my song, and I realize that my Baby has gone out into the world and made friends. And I hope that more and more people will like my Baby and become its friend.

Tonight's auditions are equivalent to my Baby's first day at school. The first actor gets on stage and begins her slate*... here we go!

*Slating is when an actor gives his/her name (and possibly age) and announces the role he/she is auditioning for and/or the song or monologue that he/she is going to perform

A Musical is Born! -Part 4- The Team

100 days.

100 days until... 

OPENING NIGHT!

Three years ago, I had this:

and now we're down to 100 days!

It certainly doesn't sound like very much, when I think of all that still needs to be done: casting, learning the songs and dances, blocking the scenes, finding the band, costumes, sets, props, lighting... aaaahhhh!!!!

But we've been preparing for this. Long before the actors get their librettos, the directors have been studying the script, listening to the songs, brainstorming ideas with each other. Several people have asked me if I will be directing this show. The answer is no: I know music, but I don't know theater. I don't have enough experience with sets, props, lighting, costumes, blocking– basically everything that I mentioned in the paragraph above– to know how to direct. But I did decide to be in the role of the vocal director, the person who will teach the actors the music and help them get the right "feel." Doing the heavy lifting as director is KW, who most recently directed CYT's Shrek in the spring. The choreographer is MZ*, who had just finished CYT's Beauty and the Beast. The three of us make up what is called the artistic team for Five Children and It. We were the artistic team for another show back in June 2021, so I'm excited to be working with these amazing people again!

So we've already been talking, texting, emailing... any time an idea pops into our heads, we run it by the other members of the team. During the summer, we met outside a Starbucks just to confer, sync thoughts, ask questions, go out on limbs, be open to new possibilities. Do we use puppetry for the sand fairy? Hmmm.... How do we portray a baby on stage? Hmmm... We had lots of questions. 

We didn't have answers for everything that night, but we landed on this: the magic in "Five Children and It" should feel like "Mary Poppins"– colorful, delightful, but with a touch of seriousness. And we knew the theater that we will be performing in, so it was easy to already imagine the show on the stage. The only problem is that whenever I try to imagine the show, I picture it with my own children or my friends' children (you know who you are!) playing the parts. So what we need now is actors to fill the holes... next step... casting!

*I'm sticking with initials for now, until I get permission to use their full names.

A Musical is Born! - Part 3 - The Slog

It was a good thing I had new inspiration to propel me, because the next step was not a fun one. I had to put down on paper what I heard in my head; every note and every rest had to be painstakingly recorded in order to pass the music onto the singers and the musicians. I downloaded a free music notation program called MuseScore, and started to learn how to use it. It was frustrating at first, but I was rewarded. How exciting it was to see my songs written out! And how even more exciting it was to hear my students in the class sing my harmonies! In February 2022, my students performed two songs, "Castle Siege" and "Being Wanted", in the class-end showcase. We took our bows to thunderous applause.

At this point, KW and I started talking more seriously about performing the musical in our next winter session. But I still had lots of work to do. I kept tweaking the script and the songs (a line here, a lyric there) and began to orchestrate the show (a fun but daunting task!) I had originally thought that the show should be performed with only piano accompaniment, but I decided that it would be better to round out the sound by adding bass guitar, violin, percussion, and drums. Then, I had to think about music for between scenes, music for when the "magic" happened, and music for the bows. Lastly, how to get the music bound in a way that the music would lay flat on a music stand? After doing some brainstorming and researching, I decided that the best route was to print them through Office Max.

I also needed to make the script into a book. Thankfully, I had experience with Amazon's "Create Space" (now called Kindle Direct Publishing) and so I knew that was the best way to get the scripts bound in a sturdy book form. (I won't bore you by describing this process. Because a script is not laid out in paragraphs like a story, I had to go through the script and make sure everything was indented, bolded, or italicized correctly.) I also needed a logo! My husband, who is a full-time pastor and has a graphic design background, worked with me on this. He created an image that will go on posters, programs, T-shirts, and librettos. We had some sketches that looked more serious and Victorian, but we went with a more fun and whimsical look.

And then finally, FINALLY!, I had two books in my hand!

But these were only the proofs. KW and I went through and marked up anything that needed correcting (lots of sticky notes!) Then back to the computer I went. 

This was my summer. I took advantage of our more relaxed schedule to plow through as much editing as I could. Whenever I felt tired of the process, or discouraged, I would get a nudge of encouragement from a family member, a friend, or KW. In July, CYT had a picnic in a local park to announce the shows for the new season. When Five Children and It was revealed, I was surprised to find myself bursting into tears amidst the cheering and the clapping! Everyone was so excited. The musical was becoming a reality!

With new motivation, I finished the work. Weeks later, I received a heavy box on my front porch. 34 scripts!

And just ten days before auditions, I had copies of the orchestral score ready for each of the five musicians.

The computer work was done!! Now, it's time to take the show from the page to the stage!

A Musical is Born! - Part 2 - The Leap

January, 2020. 

Now with a script in my hand (or actually, a digital script in my Googledrive), I had to take the big leap and tell someone about it. 

My girls had decided to audition for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which turned out to be a wonderful, delightful show to be a part of. At this point, my girls were not just in love with musical theater, they were in love with CYT Tri-Valley. They had great friends and they were learning and growing and having fun. 

My girls and I after a night of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

My role as a parent volunteer for Tom Sawyer was to hem, fix, and organize costumes. No one in CYT Tri-Valley knew about my musical background, which was perfect. I sat and sewed and quietly observed how the organization ran, and found myself falling in love with CYT Tri-Valley as well. I also watched the directors at work, and I had the feeling that they were artists who liked to try new things, which was exactly the kind of people I needed. My musical could be a good fit for CYT Tri-Valley– if they would be willing. I drummed up my courage and approached the Artistic Director during a rehearsal one day. 

"Would you ever consider putting on something completely new?" I asked her.

She was surprised. The question was most unexpected. But she was open to the idea, and told me to send her the script. The next thing I knew, a CYT Tri-Valley board member had also read the script. Then another board member, "KW", the one who was also directing Tom Sawyer, read the script.

But, a few weeks after the excitement of seeing my girls on stage in Tom Sawyer, Covid lockdown happened. Live theater (and most everything else) shut down. I hardly thought about my musical for the rest of 2020 as I worked on other projects. It wasn't until 2021 and the talk of teaching classes that Five Children and It came up again. KW told me that I should workshop the musical in a class. I didn't know exactly what that meant at the time. I soon learned that it's a way of working through a script with actual actors in order to improve it.

So, in November 2021, I nervously sat in a classroom of 18 students and passed out my script. I started off by assigning different students to read each part. As they read, I listened for any awkward lines that caused stumbling. Then at the end of each scene, we discussed changes that needed to be made, before moving on to the next scene with new actors reading. I braced myself for the criticisms, but everything the students said was constructive and beneficial. There were so many little details that I had forgotten (like what happened to the nuts?!) There was even a very big detail that I had completely forgotten to mention, and that was that the family was going on vacation, not moving to the countryside! And the class as a whole agreed that the ending was not very satisfying, so I went back and rewrote the ending. The students had so many great suggestions that their collaboration only made the whole musical better. 

A few weeks later, I played the music to the class for the first time. I had held back on playing the music because I wanted to focus on the story itself and not let the music be a distraction. I was even more nervous that day than on the first day– the recordings were rough, my singing was just-okay, would they like my songs?! But my nervousness subsided with each listen.

"I can picture the scene in my mind," said one student after hearing the prologue.

"Oh, it's so pretty," uttered another student after one of the solos.

The students clapped after each and every song, and cheered for me when one recording didn't work and I had to perform the song live. By the time we finished listening, we had two songs that we wanted to perform as a class, and I was inspired to add more choral parts for the class to sing. The musical was still developing!

A Musical is Born! - Part 1 - The Seed

I've been busy.

I have two books in the works, but what has been all consuming is the musical that I've been working on since 2019. This musical will be performed in February of 2023, so I think this is the perfect time to start documenting the journey!

Welcome to Part 1 of "A Musical is Born!"

In the spring of 2019, my two oldest girls finally had a chance to help backstage with a show. Our local chapter of Christian Youth Theater (called CYT Tri-Valley) was performing Godspell, a musical adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew. By the last night of the performances, my girls were in love with theater and eager to perform in the next season.

But their excitement dwindled when the next three shows were announced: Frozen, Jr., The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Honk! There wasn't anything wrong with these shows; admittedly, they weren't familiar at all with two of the shows. But my girls had dreams of being in something big, like Les Miserables.

This led to a discussion about the small number of musicals that were appropriate for a CHRISTIAN YOUTH theater. Most musicals are not written with children in mind; they are full of crass jokes and innuendo (to say the least.) Even Les Miserables, an epic story of redemption, is not fitting for youth, unless heavily edited. And let me add that some popular musicals performed by high schools and other youth companies are full of morals that are not godly. I wish that all Broadway shows could be like Godspell. And it's not simply about making some edits; theater companies sign contracts that limit the changes they can make to a show. Unless you get specific permission to make changes, you are bound by copyright law to perform the show as written.

So that leaves few musicals to choose from. There are plenty of "junior" version of shows out there, and "children's" musicals and even "Christian" musicals, of course, but sometimes the quality of these shows are not top notch. Nor are they challenging to actors and singers who listen and watch Broadway musicals.

This was the discussion that started turning the wheels in my mind.

"Could I write a musical? Could I write something that is fitting for youth theater, full of beautiful music, and based on Biblical values?"

I wasn't completely confident in my skills, but I was up for the challenge. After all, I've written stories, scripts, songs, and choral music. Put them all together, and a musical is born! Besides, what was there to lose?

First step, I needed to find a story to adapt, because I knew I didn't have the time or energy to write an original story. I thought of one book after another that might work on stage: Pollyanna, Homer Price, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. Then I ran into copyright laws. If a book is not in the public domain, then I would need to ask permission to use the book (or pay royalties.) This then led me to two books that were more than one hundred years old, E. Nesbit's Five Children and It and George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.

I decided to start with Five Children and It. This book tells the story of a family on vacation in England, and while they are there, the children dig up a creature called a Psammead, who has the ability to grant wishes. Then, of course, their wishes lead to trouble.

The story was perfect. It had a variety of characters, fit for all ages. It had moments involving a town full of people, and moments between only two or three characters. I started reading the book and mapping out the script, removing chapters that were impossible for youth theater to pull off (like the chapter on flying). Whenever I encountered a problem (like "How do we portray a baby on stage?"), one of my kids came up with a solution. Amazingly, the whole process flowed smoothly. The original story was written as a serial for a magazine, so chapters fell neatly into "days" and "scenes". I only had to dig a little for a subplot and an overarching story. The theme was apparent: be grateful for what you have. And most surprisingly, song ideas came easily, with the help of the author's text as lyrics. While I've been struggling to write "pop" songs lately, songs in the musical theater style came very naturally to me. By the end of the summer, I had a rough script and most of the song ideas.

Now for step two.

I had my family, plus my sister-in-law, do a read-aloud of the script. This didn't go so well. I had tried to preserve Nesbit's words as much as possible, but she being a British author from the early 1900's meant many words and phrases that were confusing to present day readers. If a person was reading them in a book, that would be one thing. But for an audience hearing the words, that was a problem. The story needed to be immediately understandable. So back to writing and rewriting.

Step three meant recording the songs so people could hear them. Out came the keyboard. I used Garageband to lay down the piano track, then recorded myself singing all the different parts. My husband heard my working on the songs, and immediately said about one of them, "It doesn't fit." No writer likes to hear those words! But he was right. The song was too melancholy for the fairy-tale. I scrapped that song and tried to come up with something more danceable and fun. After a few tries, I found a "country dance" sound that I really liked, which made the potentially scary scene much more light-hearted. This song is now one of my favorites.

And so it was, back and forth like this for months. Writing means rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting. It means analyzing the tiny details, but also seeing the bigger picture. Some characters needed more development and lines. I had three songs in a row that were too similar, so I reworked the second song and gave it a totally different sound. I had a big gap without any music, so a new song was added. I tried adding another song near the end of the show, but that seemed to impede the flow of the scene, so out it went.

All throughout this process, my goal was still to write something that a medium-sized youth theater group can perform. It didn't need to be earth-shattering. It didn't need to make it to Broadway. I wrote with the children in mind, that there should be something for everyone, whatever their age, and whether or not they have the best voice or most experience. I put in a small sword fighting scene (who doesn't love a good sword fight?) and a possible tap number. In the end, I felt like I had accomplished my goal– a beautiful, God-honoring musical that was fun for all!