Collaboration Part Two: The Writers

In yesterday's post I meant to talk about collaboration with writers. LOL. But clearly that intention got away from me. I work on a lot of new musicals, and I can tell you, if there isn't trust between everyone in the room, that process is going to be a long and arduous one. It is certainly a terrifying experience for writers. They are, after all, entrusting their, usually very personal, work to someone else, and they are trusting that the director, the actors, and the designers, will faithfully put their work onto the stage. I've been very fortunate to work with amazing writers, and I'm a firm believer that my job is to help clarify the story that they want to tell.

After discussing the whole idea of collaboration in my last post and implying that maybe true collaboration isn't necessarily common, I am here to state that the workshop of The Boy Detective Fails three summers ago was easily one of the top three most collaborative experiences I have had working on a show. The story of how Joe Meno (the bookwriter) and Adam Gwon (the composer/lyricist) came to work on the piece together is a fascinating one. Adam had gotten a commission from Signature to write a new musical. He very much wanted to adap Joe's celebrated novel The Boy Detective Fails. Eric Schaeffer handled connecting the two, and Joe offered up the possibility of writing the piece together since he is a playwright as well as a novelist, and he had already written a play of his novel. Adam jumped at the chance of course and they started writing... long distance. Joe lives in Chicago and Adam lives in New York. The first time I met Joe was the first time Adam met Joe! That occurred when we got down to Signature for the first day of rehearsal for the workshop of the show. Happily we all got along famously. Neither one of those two gentlemen is precious or overly protective of their work. They just want what is best for the piece. It was a very comfortable room-- no stress, no mistrust, no ego. And that spirit has only deepened as we get the piece up on its feet and head toward full production.