Whew!
It's been a couple months since my last post because I was finishing up my latest musical "Drag Drama"!
This story had been building in my mind for almost 20 years. I worked for a LGBT bar/restaurant/theatre and nightclub business in Ohio and with some of the most influential drag queens in the World.
When Covid happened and I lost my job, I decided I would take the time to see if I could flesh out my ideas for a drag musical.
And here I am today, proud to say that it has become one of my best works yet!
The process of writing a musical is never the same as the one before it. I had just put away a show that wasn't working, and wasn't looking to start another, but before I knew what was happening, I had a full outline begging for me to write.
The writing process for this latest work was so much easier -- it came to me as a dream and aligned with the goings on in my life. While writing the script I even questioned myself, I wondered why it was going so smoothly... I thought maybe it would become a pain when I started composing the score...
But even that process was smooth. I would sit down at the keyboard and soon a memorable melody was on my sheet music paper...
Okay, if the initial draft and the score wasn't going to be hard, then maybe the rewrite would be...
Nope. It was a breeze too. Just for comparison, I am currently sitting on draft 11 of Short North The Musical with no hope for an end, but Drag Drama only got to draft 3. And that was after 2 theatre friends read it and a professional provided script coverage...
So I guess, I just have to accept that this musical only took 9 months to birth, whereas the other one, is 4 years into it with no end in sight.
I think the moral of this post, at least for me. Is that I need to trust in the process but not lock myself into rigid structures or expectations that it will have to be a challenge. Cause this one wasn't. In fact, I had a really great time writing Drag Drama and though I'm excited to produce it as soon as it is ready, I'm a little sad that I won't be spending every day with these characters.
But I've already got two new ideas I'm playing with so I'll be moving on to new characters in no time...
Alan Saunders, WRITEineer.com
Friends told me I was late to the game for writing musicals, even though I've been writing them almost my entire life. so this blog is my journey into writing professionally for the stage.
Check out WRITEineer.com for how-to articles and resources for writing your own musical for the stage!