13P presents Young Jean Lee

One question for: Young Jean Lee, cabaret neophyte

(from Time Out New York)

NSFW

It has come to the present writer's attention that his mother reads this blog. Sadly, this makes it impossible for him to promote the work of his esteemed colleague Michael R. Jackson, whose cabaret at Joe's Pub tonight is called So Fucking Gay.

Michael is the author of the best musical you have never seen, Only Children, which is an adaptation of Wedekind's play Spring Awakening and can be distinguished from that other musical by two distinguishing factors:

(A) It actually adapts the play, by resetting it in the present time, and therefore a world in which teenagers are not shielded from the facts of life but are assaulted by them every moment, treading water in a sea of internet pornography from before they can read.

(B) It is a courageous act of art and social analysis.

Cabaret performance clips here.

Musicals are crazy. And wonderful. And strange.

Doesn't it sometimes seem that every press release about a new musical sounds like (a) a terrible idea for a musical that might turn out to be brilliant, (b) a terrible idea for a musical that will, in fact, turn out to be terrible, or (c) an adaptation of a property that should almost certainly be left in its original form? (Were I not so determined to avoid whining – even though this is a blog about writing plays – I would complain here about the way the producers of Leap of Faith: The Musical refer to the fifty-bloody-third most popular movie of 1992 as "the hit film of the same name.")

The truth is, it is nearly impossible to predict which harebrained scheme will work and which won't. Which is as good a reason to love theatre as any.

These thoughts are prompted by We Have Always Lived in the Castle, now playing at Yale Rep and based on a cult novel so beloved and flawless that you'd have to be nuts to touch it. Luckily, the nuts in this case (Adam Bock, Anne Kauffman) are the kind who invariably have a method to their madness.

What do the men see?

I was going to blog about Gatz, but it has so much buzz that you don't need me to tell you that this is one of those theatrical events that in 20 years everyone will be claiming they saw. So instead: you should also check out Zoetrope at Prelude. I have no idea how the collaborators – Alec Duffy (whose production of Murder in the Cathedral opened five seconds ago), Sylvan Oswald (who seems to be winning every award available to playwrights this year, bless her little heart), and Mimi Lien (The Zero Hour and a million other designs) – found the time to create a song cycle of an invented town, but here's a song from it.

Unproducibility, Brothels, and Pirates

Studio 42's Unproducible! series is mounting "such plays are those in which the cast size, subject matter, potential depravity, complexity of staging, or scale of spectacle take them out of consideration for most other companies." As part of their mission, they are mounting these plays for one night only.

I'm not sure I understand this model, in terms of the work and the artists having the opportunity to grow, but I'm curious. And for those familiar with the long-running pirate puppet rock musical serial Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, all that needs to be said to recommend Studio 42's This Sporting Life is that one of the writers is Nick Jones. (Also, the fabulous Greg Keller is in it.) See it September 10.

P.S. Free beer.

For people who want to play. And are not scared of deadlines.

CALL FOR ARTISTS: 8MINUTE MUSICALS

8Minute Musicals is launching a new workshop and performance opportunity for musical theatre artists, and invites submissions from writers, composers, directors, musical directors, performers, management, and support staff.


We will be developing and producing eight new musical theatre shorts from September 24th – October 5th at the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival. We are interested in working with artists who can bring a fresh approach to what this genre can be. If you’re an experienced musical theatre writer, or even if you are a playwright or poet or pop songwriter or whatever who has never written a musical, but think it could be fun to try, we want to hear from you—this could be a great chance to test the waters. We seek artists with a high level of craft as writers or composers who are interested in collaboration and willing to dive into the creative process with a sense of abandon. That means we are looking for people who want to play. And are not scared of deadlines.

On October 4th & 5th, at the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival, we will present 8 new short musicals created through a ten-day collaborative workshop process. Here's how it works:

- 8 composers and 8 writers are paired on a Friday evening
- They are given guidelines to create a short musical theatre piece
- Their first drafts are sight-read by 10 performers that Sunday
afternoon
- The writer/composer teams have 3 days for rewrites
- The performers have 4 days for rehearsal with 2 directors and 2 music
directors
- Only 10 days after the first meeting, we present the new pieces to
the public

Our goal is to support and nurture the next generation of musical theatre writers and composers by providing them with the opportunity to meet new collaborators, explore new ways of working, and see their work performed off-book and fully staged in front of an audience. Inspired by the Jonathan Larson Award-winning Raw Impressions Music Theatre, which premiered over 150 new short musicals from 2001 to 2006, 8Minute Musicals is a program of Artists WithOut Limits (AWOL) Theatre Project.

If you are interested in participating, please see the submission guidelines.

Composers, Writers, Directors, Music Directors, Management and Support Staff, please email applications to submissions@8minutemusicals.org.

Performers, please email pix/resumes to casting@8minutemusicals.org.

Submissions are due by August 20, 2010. You can also find more info at 8MinuteMusicals.org.

We hope to hear from you!

Best,
8Minute Musicals Producers:
Jane Abramson
Masi Asare
Kristen Gongora
Laura Penney Shamir
Amy & David Southerland