GWM seeks talented, witty lyricist/playwright/dramaturg to collaborate on musicals...

Cafe Society
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Something I’ve rarely mentioned on the boards is this: I write rather offbeat musicals. They don’t really follow any set form (i.e. neither sung-through nor strict “book” musicals, but somewhere in between), and deal with kind of… wacky subjects.

For instance, my third show, TRASH! is about a bingo tournament in a trailer park. (But the story’s much more involved than that, of course… a bitch reporter, her gay cameraman, a sandwich stand, a tornado, a telethon, a psychic network… and lots of polyester.)

Anyway, I can’t seem to tie up the loose ends of my second show, Willows (a rather dark musical), and I can’t seem to get going on the lyrics to TRASH!, although I have the story and plot sketched out.

I write (and sequence) all the music. That, along with orchestration, is my forte. But the missing piece of the puzzle of my (our?) fantastic success story is that one person who can write witty, quirky lyrics, and get into the general storytelling process. Someone who’s fun to collaborate with. Preferably someone who’s written lyrics to offbeat/experimental/je ne sais quoi-type musicals. Theatre connections a plus!

This isn’t supposed to sound like a job ad. ::sigh::

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to turn to the SDMB, but now’s the time. I have bits and pieces of the libretto/script, and a whole load of music that I’m going to convert to MP3.

Email me and let’s chat about your experience, my experience, our vision, and all that crap. :wink: scottevil@ca.inter.net …

For the record, my first show, Figures, I wrote and produced when I was 17. I’ve long since buried it. Too teenaged-angst-ridden. :rolleyes:

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People have emailed me.

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You sound so surprised!

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Sounds cool. I wrote scenes for one in college called “Canterbury Court Tales”, a retelling of Canterbury Tales; in this one, numerous people are making a pilgrimage to a trailer park where an image of Elvis has materialized on a doublewide.

A musical I’ve worked on but never done anything with and anybody who will pursue has my blessings to “steal it” (though I’ll expect a ticket to opening night): DSM-IV- the Musical, based on the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual used to diagnose mental illness. Each character is a number and each song of course has to do with the illness (“Grab the Keys and Hurry!” is the song for the bipolar, later replayed as a dirge, while “Just pick one voice” is sung by a delusional schizoaffective and an offstage chorus, the title coming from one of the most brilliant pieces of advice I ever knew a therapist to give. (One of my ex-loves was a very skilled psychotherapist- and crazy as hell- not an uncommon combo.)

Isn’t there a musical based on JERRY SPRINGER opening in London?

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Sounds cool. I wrote scenes for one in college called “Canterbury Court Tales”, a retelling of Canterbury Tales; in this one, numerous people are making a pilgrimage to a trailer park where an image of Elvis has materialized on a doublewide.

A musical I’ve worked on but never done anything with and anybody who will pursue has my blessings to “steal it” (though I’ll expect a ticket to opening night): DSM-IV- the Musical, based on the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual used to diagnose mental illness. Each character is a number and each song of course has to do with the illness (“Grab the Keys and Hurry!” is the song for the bipolar, later replayed as a dirge, while “Just pick one voice” is sung by a delusional schizoaffective and an offstage chorus, the title coming from one of the most brilliant pieces of advice I ever knew a therapist to give. (One of my ex-loves was a very skilled psychotherapist- and crazy as hell- not an uncommon combo.)
An interesting aspect of this one is that since the characters are numbers, not names (one song I worked on was called “Talk to me, Not my Diagnosis”, based on a complaint I once heard screamed at a psychiatrist while working as a mental health social worker), the same role can be played by a black man in one production, an Asian woman in the next, and a white drag queen in yet another without altering the integrity of the character.
Isn’t there a musical based on JERRY SPRINGER opening in London?

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I write VERY bizarre comedies. I’ve been looking for collaboration with people for the longest time. I wrote one called “Alex & Mikenut”, about two bumbling guys in 1903 trying to outwit an evil villain named Hypertension Axemana. I wrote one about a bookstore staffed by strange characters like Adam, a philosophical man with the head of a rabbit; and Karim-Blake, a performance artist/poet with a neon blue afro. They all go to Maine to look for the missing link.

I’ve written music-less musicals before, which is to say I have written lyrics for many songs, but not the music. I’d love to work with someone. I can’t log into my email account right now because they’re having technical problems, but you can email me (it’s in my profile) or I will try to email later when it is working.

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Sampiro, I like the concept of the DSM-IV musical! Really!

Robin

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This is going well. I’ll write up a synopsis for those of you who are into the concept of TRASH!, and we’ll take it from there. I don’t want this to be like choosing a new roommate. I’m not limited to one collaborator, but the others have to be able to work together on their own as well…

As soon as I get myself a newer version of Cakewalk, I’ll start touching up the music, and then I’ll have MP3s to send around.

There is a skeletal script for TRASH!, but it’s mainly dialogue and descriptive filler. This is where I hit a wall four years ago (and then hit the bottle, but that’s thankfully over).

So that’s where I’m at. Keep emailing, etc. I don’t want to talk too much about the story of either show here in the thread… gotta leave some element of surprise, when we have the command performance before the Dopers. :wink: