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Flying With Elephants, Part Two

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Flying With Elephants, Part Two

Disneyland was not only a fun place to visit with my Dad; it became an inspiration to me as I found my way into a career as a storyteller. Walt Disney told stories with his movies and in the three-dimensional environmental story of a theme park; my chosen medium is musical theater, but the concepts of telling a story are similar. On one trip to Disneyland – as an adult, long after my childhood visits with my Dad – my best friend Annie introduced me to a little detail in Disneyland’s storytelling that impressed me, perhaps, more than any other.

So there we were, Annie and I,

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Flying With Elephants, Part One

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Flying With Elephants, Part One

I live in Orlando now, and spent seven magical years working at Walt Disney World. But my childhood was also spent at a Disney theme park. Every summer, I would go on a road trip with my Dad from my Northern California home, all the way south to Anaheim. We would spend an entire day at Disneyland, Dad and I, from park opening until

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Loving Broadway From Afar

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Loving Broadway From Afar

I was listening to SiriusXM, enjoying an interview with Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated Writer/Director of Lady Bird. I was feeling a connection to Ms. Gerwig because, while I don’t actually know her, I feel as if I do because she and I share the city of Sacramento as a mutual treasured friend. I was imagining how I’d love to compare notes with Greta, who

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Workshopping a Song - Part Two

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Workshopping a Song - Part Two

A week or two later, Eric and I presented a re-write of our song, "Full Of Life," after considering the comments from our colleagues in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. We had made the changes suggested, added a verse at the beginning to get us into the song, and took Maury's suggestion about the

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Workshopping a Song - Part One

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Workshopping a Song - Part One

Eric and I had had decided to write a musical based on the story of the Donner Party. We knew we wanted to treat the historical subject with respect, in contrast to some previous adaptations of the event which ventured into the realm of parody and gruesome gory humor. We knew that we had to decide how to handle the subject of

That Voice, Though

That Voice, Though

When I was sixteen years old, I fell in love with a sailor named Gabey. He was charming, idealistic, and about the handsomest man I had ever seen. And oh boy, could he sing. He had two loveable sidekicks with him, equally handsome and charming, and they were singing and dancing their way through

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Dirty Shoes and Other Traditions

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Dirty Shoes and Other Traditions

As a special holiday celebration, my family recently spent a day at EPCOT, enjoying some of our favorite attractions and hearing Trace Adkins narrate the glorious Christmas concert, “Candlelight Processional.” During the day, we had lunch at the Biergarten, enjoying

Julie Andrews On My Lawn

Julie Andrews On My Lawn

I’ve been thinking a lot about what made me fall in love with musical theater in the first place. I have a flood of memories from my childhood, and I think each of them played a part in sparking my passion. This was one of the earliest.  Our family was dressed in our Sunday best – it was probably a Sunday afternoon after church – we went with Grandma and Grandpa to

Stealing From The Best

Stealing From The Best

Which comes first, Music or Lyrics? For us, it’s generally the Book. Eric, Bill, and I are storytellers, and before we start writing songs, we need to agree on what the story is. This usually begins as a conversation  – to get all three of us on the same page, knowing our goal for a given scene. Then, Bill disappears for awhile. Eric and I go out for pizza, take in a show, tend to real world issues like paying bills and getting on with life. We don’t hear anything from Bill as he

Mama, Look Sharp

Mama, Look Sharp

Writers, Directors, and Actors, and all of us who create musical theater … I think we all tend to think of ourselves as the creators of the experience. The writers who formulate the words and the notes to tell the story. The Directors, who provide focus and vision to make the story come to life. The Actors, who become the characters of the story. The story certainly wouldn’t exist without us. However, the great thing about telling a story is that

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Why We Tell The Story

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Why We Tell The Story

I remember sitting in the Booth Theater next to Eric, both of us enthralled with the calypso-infused score and the delightful storytelling of Once On This Island.  It was 1990, and a time of transition for me. When I had moved to New York six years earlier, I wanted a career as a Director, and I had already directed several large productions of classic American musicals in the heart of Manhattan. But Eric had a different idea. It was around this time that Eric had suggested

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Yes, And ...

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Yes, And ...

I’ve always hated doing improv. Whether in acting classes or on the speech and debate team, I always wanted the script ahead of time. I wanted to be able to memorize it, rehearse it, try different phrasing, different delivery styles, wanted to be sure of my lines and sure of myself. Put me on a stage with a bunch of comic geniuses and nothing more than a couple of prompts, and I froze in terror.

In life, I want a script, too. I’m a list-maker. And when life throws me a curve ball and something