It Start(ed) Here
Hear from past MMTL collaborators on why they believe in our mission.
Kristin Bair composer, Up and Away
What project did you work on with MMTL?
Kevin Hammonds (book/lyrics) and I (music) had been developing an original musical in the BMI Workshop called Super Hero (now titled Up and Away), a musical comedy about the world’s very first superhero trying to figure out if he should use his gifts for fame and fortune or for good.
The show’s title soon changed to Up and Away, and the show went on to further development with Pittsburgh CLO through their Spark Festival initiative (staged reading and workshop). It had its world premiere at Pittsburgh CLO with an extended 16-week run, and debuted on the West Coast at Broadway Rose Theatre Company.
At that stage in your career, what opportunity did MMTL present for you?
We had been bringing individual songs into the workshop for feedback, and we had had a few casual table reads with friends, but had never gotten the show on its feet. We also were not yet working with a director.
When we were selected for MMTL in 2014, Frank Evans suggested that director Marlo Hunter would be a good fit for the show. Indeed, she was a great fit, and we’ve been working with her on this and other projects ever since then.
The opportunity to work on the show within the reading process and then put it up in front of an audience was absolutely instrumental in its development. The actors were hilarious and generous with their suggestions, and Marlo influenced the shape of the show in so many positive ways.
Crucially–the show is a comedy–we could finally hear the audience’s reactions and make sure that they matched our intentions.
What impact did your experience with MMTL have on your long-term career?
Without MMTL, there would probably not have been a world premiere with Pittsburgh CLO, honestly. We received so much excellent, actionable feedback from our MMTL reading that we overhauled a lot of the show, writing new scenes and songs. After that process, we had a self-financed, small-scale reading to which we invited Mark Fleischer from Pittsburgh CLO, which started us on the path to the world premiere.
Why is it important to have organizations dedicated to the early-stage development of musical theatre?
When you are writing a musical, it’s like writing in a vacuum. When you are ready to get out of your head and hear your words and songs aloud with actors, finances become a roadblock. It is expensive to pay a cast, and just as expensive to pay for rehearsal space, not to mention paying a director and a music director. But your show cannot improve without having that experience, so you either raise the money or you try to tweak what you can on your own and hope that your instincts are leading you in the right direction.
OR…you have a brave organization willing to support early-stage development, like MMTL. Yes, you may still have to do some self-financing and logistics on your own sometimes, but to have a partner who believes in your show enough to relieve some of that burden and allow you to concentrate on writing (and rewriting) is absolutely the very best gift. There are few programs that are solely dedicated to the messy, painstaking work of development, and any organization that is able to commit to the future of musical theatre through supporting those first halting steps should be applauded and showered with gratitude.
The dirty secret (maybe not so secret) of writing is that first drafts are only one small part of the writing process–REWRITING is where the magic is. Shows cannot be successful if they do not have the chance to receive feedback to improve them. But getting that feedback is hard–nay, practically impossible–without support.
What’s up next for you in your career?
Kevin and I are almost finished with the first draft of our musical adaptation of Failure Is Not NOT an Option, a hilarious memoir by True Crime Obsessed podcast host Patrick Hinds. We have a few other projects in various stages of development, including Dear Shirley, an adaptation of photographer Hinda Schuman’s memoir that documented the demise of her marriage to a man and the blossoming of her relationship with a woman, as told through letters to her best friend in the 1980s.
With lyricist A.J. Freeman, I have written an adaptation of the beloved children’s book series Frank and Bean which will be a part of The WBUR Festival in Boston in May.