Sunday, September 18, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Guest Blogger: Carol Lynn Pearson
Today we have a special entry from Carol Lynn Pearson, the original playwright of FACING EAST, who shares her thoughts on the adaptation of the play into a new musical.
----------
When I first received an email from Nathan Gardner suggesting the idea of a musical adaptation of my play “Facing East,” I think my jaw dropped and I thought—who is this crazy man? A musical? Musicals are big--like singing and dancing. “Facing East” is small—like a bullet in the heart.
Upon meeting Nathan I discovered he was not crazy, but oddly visionary.
And upon seeing the adaptation and hearing some of the creative, beautiful and moving songs, I too now have the vision. The musical incarnation of my play will not violate the intimacy of the story, but will intensify the emotion in a way that only music can.
I look forward to watching this new creation take flight.
********
Carol Lynn
----------
When I first received an email from Nathan Gardner suggesting the idea of a musical adaptation of my play “Facing East,” I think my jaw dropped and I thought—who is this crazy man? A musical? Musicals are big--like singing and dancing. “Facing East” is small—like a bullet in the heart.
Upon meeting Nathan I discovered he was not crazy, but oddly visionary.
And upon seeing the adaptation and hearing some of the creative, beautiful and moving songs, I too now have the vision. The musical incarnation of my play will not violate the intimacy of the story, but will intensify the emotion in a way that only music can.
I look forward to watching this new creation take flight.
********
Carol Lynn
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Guest Blogger: David Rigano, FACING EAST Composer
We've a special blog entry today from our composer, David Rigano....
-------
Today is August 4, 2010. I’ve been asked to write a blog post about the cration process of Facing East, the new musical I’ve been working on with Mark-Eugene Garcia. So, here goes:
In 2008 I was living with my parents in Westchester, trying to make a life for myself in the theatre, teaching at an awful school in Brooklyn and had just produced my first concert, an evening of songs by myself and my brother and frequent collaborator, Paul. I finally had some decent videos for YouTube and mp3s for MySpace that were not recorded by me with a shoddy microphone. So, up they went for all the internet to hear.
I had also heard a story that I thought would make an interesting musical and had asked Paul to write it with me. It was an intimate story which would make for an intimate musical. A family drama, nothing huge or epic. Just the story of one family and how decisions made and resulting consequences affect them and bring them closer together.
Then I got an e-mail from Nathan Gardner saying he’d heard my music online and would I be interested in writing a song or two on spec for the new musical he was planning on producing? The MySpace-ing worked! Of course I said yes! (We’ll skip over the part where I had recently met someone else named Nathan Gardner and spent a good week or so thinking it was him.) The musical would be called Facing East, based on the play by Carol Lynn Pearson that had its New York premiere at The Atlantic Theatre Company only a year before. It was the story of a Mormon family dealing with their gay son’s suicide. Here it was: the intimate family drama I’d been itching for. Sorry, Paul, we’ll do the other one later.
I met Mark, he sent me some lyrics he’d been working on, I wrote the music for the song “All the Mother,” and we recorded a demo with our mutual friend Sierra Rein. I continued to work on some other musical themes while we waited to hear from Nate. First we got the news that he loved the song. Then came the waiting process while it went to Carol Lynn Pearson, the playwright of the original play. She loved it to, and all of a sudden I was a working composer.
And I was terrified.
I should explain. It’s not that I hadn’t written music before. I’d produced an entire concert’s worth, and was getting another one ready. I had never written just music before. I’d written music and lyrics together, and I’d written lyrics for someone else’s music. A few times I toyed with other people’s lyrics, but not too seriously. And here I was supposed to score an entire show. I felt like I’d forgotten everything I’d ever learned about music, or worse, that I’d never really known anything about music to begin with; that I’d been faking it the whole time with silly cabaret songs.
I was lucky to find in Mark a collaborator who not only understands music and song structure, but believed that I could do something with the songs he was structuring. Believed that I could make his words sing, so much so that he started requesting that I write the music to outlines that he would later set lyrics to.
We worked this way for a year and half, back and forth, music and lyrics, story and score. And now we’re in talks for our first workshop, Broadway performers involved, and looking toward a world premiere in Chicago next season. We’re helping to raise money for The Trevor Project and doing our part to make the country a little more socially conscious of the growing rift between religion and family values, real family values. The ones that keep families together rather than split them apart or leave them in pain.
Today is August 4, 2010, and we are waiting to hear the federal court’s ruling on whether or not California will be forced to repeal Proposition 8 and recognize the same sex marriages that were made legal only a few months before Prop 8 ruled them out. It will be remembered as a day of great joy and progress or as a day of great disappointment. But it will be remembered.
I can only hope that our little family drama helps to move things in the right direction.
(Note: Between the writing of this post and the publishing, Judge Vaughn Walker deemed Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The Federal Court System has chosen equality over prejudice, love over fear, and something potentially huge has just begun. I'll be with you along this journey.)
-------
Today is August 4, 2010. I’ve been asked to write a blog post about the cration process of Facing East, the new musical I’ve been working on with Mark-Eugene Garcia. So, here goes:
In 2008 I was living with my parents in Westchester, trying to make a life for myself in the theatre, teaching at an awful school in Brooklyn and had just produced my first concert, an evening of songs by myself and my brother and frequent collaborator, Paul. I finally had some decent videos for YouTube and mp3s for MySpace that were not recorded by me with a shoddy microphone. So, up they went for all the internet to hear.
I had also heard a story that I thought would make an interesting musical and had asked Paul to write it with me. It was an intimate story which would make for an intimate musical. A family drama, nothing huge or epic. Just the story of one family and how decisions made and resulting consequences affect them and bring them closer together.
Then I got an e-mail from Nathan Gardner saying he’d heard my music online and would I be interested in writing a song or two on spec for the new musical he was planning on producing? The MySpace-ing worked! Of course I said yes! (We’ll skip over the part where I had recently met someone else named Nathan Gardner and spent a good week or so thinking it was him.) The musical would be called Facing East, based on the play by Carol Lynn Pearson that had its New York premiere at The Atlantic Theatre Company only a year before. It was the story of a Mormon family dealing with their gay son’s suicide. Here it was: the intimate family drama I’d been itching for. Sorry, Paul, we’ll do the other one later.
I met Mark, he sent me some lyrics he’d been working on, I wrote the music for the song “All the Mother,” and we recorded a demo with our mutual friend Sierra Rein. I continued to work on some other musical themes while we waited to hear from Nate. First we got the news that he loved the song. Then came the waiting process while it went to Carol Lynn Pearson, the playwright of the original play. She loved it to, and all of a sudden I was a working composer.
And I was terrified.
I should explain. It’s not that I hadn’t written music before. I’d produced an entire concert’s worth, and was getting another one ready. I had never written just music before. I’d written music and lyrics together, and I’d written lyrics for someone else’s music. A few times I toyed with other people’s lyrics, but not too seriously. And here I was supposed to score an entire show. I felt like I’d forgotten everything I’d ever learned about music, or worse, that I’d never really known anything about music to begin with; that I’d been faking it the whole time with silly cabaret songs.
I was lucky to find in Mark a collaborator who not only understands music and song structure, but believed that I could do something with the songs he was structuring. Believed that I could make his words sing, so much so that he started requesting that I write the music to outlines that he would later set lyrics to.
We worked this way for a year and half, back and forth, music and lyrics, story and score. And now we’re in talks for our first workshop, Broadway performers involved, and looking toward a world premiere in Chicago next season. We’re helping to raise money for The Trevor Project and doing our part to make the country a little more socially conscious of the growing rift between religion and family values, real family values. The ones that keep families together rather than split them apart or leave them in pain.
Today is August 4, 2010, and we are waiting to hear the federal court’s ruling on whether or not California will be forced to repeal Proposition 8 and recognize the same sex marriages that were made legal only a few months before Prop 8 ruled them out. It will be remembered as a day of great joy and progress or as a day of great disappointment. But it will be remembered.
I can only hope that our little family drama helps to move things in the right direction.
(Note: Between the writing of this post and the publishing, Judge Vaughn Walker deemed Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The Federal Court System has chosen equality over prejudice, love over fear, and something potentially huge has just begun. I'll be with you along this journey.)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Welcome to the new blog!
A long, long time ago we began a blog for FACING EAST to track it's progress and creation. Then we all got really, really busy. Since then the show's been completely written, and it's full steam ahead! Lots of exciting things will be happing in the months to come, and this blog will be your inside track to all of it!
In the meantime, if you'd like to catch up... head over to our old blog (here) and read our previous entries. Then come back here and follow us as we bring FACING EAST to the stage!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)