This excerpt from the song "Amsterdam" features Thomas Knapp as Astor Mason and the Cast of This Time.
Tickets Are On Sale Now for "This Time, A New Musical Romance" at Theater for the New City, August 20-September 6, 2015
This Time, A New Musical Romance will premiere at New York City's Pulitzer Prize-winning Theater for the New City (TNC) (155 First Avenue, New York, NY 10003) on Thursday, August 20, 2015 and will run through Sunday, September 6, with performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8 PM and Sunday matinees at 3 PM.
Advance tickets are available online and at the TNC Box Office. (Box Office purchases are cash only. Tickets are available day of show.) For online sales, please visit http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=thiB28.
For more information, please visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net/blackbox.html or www.thistimemusical.com.
Advance tickets are available online and at the TNC Box Office. (Box Office purchases are cash only. Tickets are available day of show.) For online sales, please visit http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=thiB28.
For more information, please visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net/blackbox.html or www.thistimemusical.com.
PLEASE DONATE In Support of This Time's Summer Developmental Workshop and Production
My production partners and I are in the midst of a full developmental workshop of This Time at Theater for the New City (TNC) in the East Village this Summer, culminating with performances at TNC August 20-23, August 27-30, and September 3-6. We need your help raising $35,000 to make This Time happen.
Please visit http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net/donation.htm to quickly and easily make a donation of any amount. TNC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is co-producing the workshop and performances, so any donation you make is 100% tax deductible.
If you can assist with a donation, please be sure to
(1) enter "'This Time' Production/Black Box Studios" in the "COMPANY/TITLE OF PRODUCTION" box and
(2) send an e-mail to workshop@thistimemusical.com with your name, the name or names by which you'd like to be recognized, donation amount, and date, so we can track and appropriately recognize your contribution.
No donation is too small. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support!
The Evolution of a Contemporary Musical
JULY 2013
One of the items
on my creative bucket list has long been to write a musical, and in late July
2013, I am inspired to write one. The
odyssey begins with a simple story: Boy meets Girl and they fall in love. Pretty common, right? Only this Boy and Girl learn that they have
been in love before - many times before - in prior lives spanning
centuries. Set that story in Amsterdam,
New Orleans, and Venice and you have the framework for a story that's never
been told, seen, or heard as a musical.
AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 2013
The story
continues to develop and grow. New
characters emerge. Subplots and
intertwined storylines spring up around them.
The main characters' careers and backstories change. And now they have names.
Ridley Barton Howard (Barton) is a
composer, who returns from Venice at the start of Act One with a commission to
compose a symphony (ANOTHER item on my creative bucket list!) for La Fenice
Symphony Orchestra, a symphony which he will compose throughout Acts One and
Two and will premiere, in part, before the conclusion of the musical. Charlotte Austin is a ballerina-turned-school
teacher who aims to return to top form and reclaim the soloist spot she walked
away from with one of the World's most prestigious ballet companies. Other characters include an eccentric New
Orleans cafe owner who takes an unusual interest in and has a mysterious and
complex connection to Charlotte and Barton; his fiancee, a choreographer and
childhood friend of Charlotte; and a subdued filmmaker and his colorful actor
partner.
The musical now has a name too: This Time. An intentional pun on the principal plot point, the title is a multiple entendre with varied connotations from scene to scene.
As the story further takes shape, I start to write songs for the musical. No one knows the story the way I do and, as the story evolves day to day with every new detail, it's fitting that I should be the one to tell all aspects of it. There is no "right way" to write a musical, especially when the composer, lyricist, and librettist are the same person. But as I press on, plot points begat songs. Songs begat dialogue. Dialogue defines scenes. Scenes yield conflicts, more plot points, and additional songs. And on and on. Imagine starting a 1,000 piece puzzle with only the four corners, none of the sides, and 10 or 15 assorted center pieces....
The musical now has a name too: This Time. An intentional pun on the principal plot point, the title is a multiple entendre with varied connotations from scene to scene.
As the story further takes shape, I start to write songs for the musical. No one knows the story the way I do and, as the story evolves day to day with every new detail, it's fitting that I should be the one to tell all aspects of it. There is no "right way" to write a musical, especially when the composer, lyricist, and librettist are the same person. But as I press on, plot points begat songs. Songs begat dialogue. Dialogue defines scenes. Scenes yield conflicts, more plot points, and additional songs. And on and on. Imagine starting a 1,000 piece puzzle with only the four corners, none of the sides, and 10 or 15 assorted center pieces....
OCTOBER 2013 TO FEBRUARY 2014
Five or six songs
are written, characters are developed, scenes are roughed out, and dialogue
ideas emerge. My next step is a
scene-by-scene outline of the Prologue, Acts One and Two, and the Epilogue of This
Time, organizing the settings, characters, action, and dialogue of
each scene, leaving "holes" where songs would "plug in" or
needed to be written.
The initial outline process lasts
five months. During that time, old
characters are developed, some are cut or condensed, new characters originate,
and relationships between and among characters are forged. Another five songs are composed and the need
for specific additional songs becomes clear.
Themes emerge organically and ties between characters, locations, plot lines,
dialogue, and songs surface that I never intended. This
Time is taking on a life of its own.
In the Summer of 1989, while still a
Prelaw student at Penn State, I commenced an internship that would span two
college Summers, but would have lasting outcomes from which I continue to
benefit decades later. It was that
Summer that I met Matt Okin, a theatre student at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, in
the fabled mailroom of the renowned William Morris Agency. Matt and I became fast friends, spending our
days sorting and delivering mail to, manning the desks of, and running errands
for the World's top talent agents and rubbing elbows with their A-list clients,
while our evenings were spent producing his original plays.
Our friendship and professional
relationship have stood the test of time. It was in December of 2013, when I first
approached Matt and his Black Box Studios theatre production company
about assisting in the development of This Time. A quarter century of friendship has lead to
our greatest joint creative opportunity!
MAY AND JUNE 2014
By the end of May
2014, I have practiced law for 19 years and all but lost my focus. While traveling abroad, I consider what I
want to do professionally and whether it's practicing law. I conclude that the answer is in no way
simple, that I can't realistically decide if I'm in the right career while
still in that career, and that I need time to find the answer.
I return to the US and make THE
toughest professional decision of my Life: I decide to leave my coveted
position with NBC Sports. During the
month leading to my last day, there is ample time to consider how I will spend
my time off. The solution hits me like a
ton of bricks. While I ponder my future
as an intellectual property and entertainment lawyer, I will work full time on
the development of This Time. So begins what
will be the best, most inspiring, most prolific year of my Life.
JULY 2014 TO SEPTEMBER 2014
Following a month
of musical directing a production for Black Box, I jump full time in to
refining and developing This Time.
More songwriting, story development, and tons of research make the weeks
fly by and the outline, initially completed in February, resembles a book more
and more with each passing day.
At this point, I start making plans
to escape, hide away, hunker down, and hammer out the first draft of the
libretto (book and lyrics) of This
Time.
I choose a secluded, quiet retreat, away from mobile phones and other
distractions to allow me to focus.
OCTOBER 2014
NOVEMBER 2014 TO DECEMBER 2014
Dramaturgy can be defined as a
comprehensive exploration of the context in which a theatrical work resides,
including the backgrounds and motivations of the characters, the themes and
metaphors employed in telling the story, and the overall structure, rhythm,
flow, and dialogue.
Dramaturgical work begins on This Time in November, with Matt as dramaturg and a number of sessions in which we review the libretto word by word, page by page, and scene by scene. The sessions, the first time I have sought outside input at this point in the process, yield new ideas, additional songs, restructured scenes, and overall rewrites of the first draft, the month of November alone seeing two new versions of the libretto. I also seek the input of two musical theatre professionals in my family, an exercise that produces even fresher ideas and inspires a big opening number not present in the initial drafts.
Dramaturgical work begins on This Time in November, with Matt as dramaturg and a number of sessions in which we review the libretto word by word, page by page, and scene by scene. The sessions, the first time I have sought outside input at this point in the process, yield new ideas, additional songs, restructured scenes, and overall rewrites of the first draft, the month of November alone seeing two new versions of the libretto. I also seek the input of two musical theatre professionals in my family, an exercise that produces even fresher ideas and inspires a big opening number not present in the initial drafts.
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2015
The New Year brings more dramaturgy, still more songs, and substantial rewrites. But then, it happens. The seventh draft of the libretto is complete
and dramaturgically sound. We've done as
much as we can do in a vacuum. It's time
to "go public." It's time for
a reading.
An initial stage reading of a
musical is a public performance of a new musical work wherein a professional
cast will read the dialogue and stage directions of the libretto and perform
the songs, usually accompanied by a pianist, without sets or costumes. It is a cold, snowy night in late January
when we post the first casting call for the initial stage readings of This Time and the
response, from actors of all levels of experience from up and down the East
Coast, is overwhelming. Hundreds of resumes
and headshots pour in from multiple sources and we begin the tough work of
deciding which actors we'll invite to audition.
Contemporaneously, we fill the ever important roles of musical director
(Brody Greif) and stage manager (Kelly Ice) and we get ready to
build our cast.
We hold the first auditions for the
initial stage readings of This Time at Ripley-Greer Studios in Midtown Manhattan in early
February. Narrowing hundreds of
credentials down to a few dozen is no small or easy feat, but over the course
of two frigid days, Matt, Brody, Kelly, and I see some of the finest musical
theatre talent New York has to offer... and we are blown away! It will be another week before we extend
invitations, but before the end of the month, the cast is set.
MARCH 2015
Intensive
rehearsals for the reading kick March off with a bang and our cast is
BRILLIANT! We return to Ripley-Greer for
five cold New York mornings to make This Time a reality. Finally, the characters are living, breathing
entities walking, talking, and interacting with each other. And the songs.... I am without words to describe what it feels
like to hear songs I wrote alone in the studio months before performed by
professionals with rich, colorful voices at last. The payoff of more than a year and a half of
work is life-changing!
As much as our cast clicks in the
two weeks of rehearsals, they truly gel on the first of two nights of the
reading. A sing-through pre-hearsal is
transformative and the energy carries over to the performance.
But as inspired as the first reading is, the second and final night is spectacular. After a pre-show "pep talk" during which the cast and crew bond one final time, the team delivers a reading and performances fit for a Broadway cast recording.
But as inspired as the first reading is, the second and final night is spectacular. After a pre-show "pep talk" during which the cast and crew bond one final time, the team delivers a reading and performances fit for a Broadway cast recording.
The weeks following the readings are
a time for reflection. Meetings with
cast members, additional dramaturgy, and contemplation of the next steps for This Time begin
almost immediately. Among the
considerations is an offer from Theater for the New City (TNC) in the
East Village to co-produce a developmental workshop of This Time in the
Summer of 2015.
APRIL TO JUNE 2015
Major overhaul of
the libretto begins, altering not the story of This Time, but the manner
in which the story is told. Several
songs performed at the initial readings are cut and additional songs are
composed. Characters depicted in the
libretto a month before are condensed or removed all together. Plot points and relationships once subtle or
ambiguous are brought to the foreground.
The deal with TNC now official, the business of theatre takes center stage. Cast and crew projections, scheduling, and budgeting follow and it becomes obvious that significant fundraising will be necessary. A development plan is devised and we reach out to friends, family, colleagues, and other potential donors and patrons for sponsorship, which, thanks to our partnership with the non-profit TNC, is tax deductible.
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