The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) recently featured Millikin University's New Musicals Workshop in an online news article. The article highlighted the Workshop's 10th anniversary featuring works by Sam Carner and Derek Gregor, as well as songs by Kooman and Chris Dimond.
"My initial inspiration for this program was in a breakout group at the 2004 NAMT Conference, moderated by John Sparks," said Lori Bales, associate professor of theatre and dance at Millikin. "In 2009 we began working with solo writing teams Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond, and Jeff Thompson and Jordan Mann. We've had the privilege of collaborating with many other truly gifted writers: Adam Gwon and Sarah Hammond, Andrew Lippa, Marissa Michaelson, Amy Engelhardt and Marc Acito, Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham."
Millikin's New Musicals Workshop provides different experiences, styles, approaches, experiments and people with which to collaborate every year.
The workshop provides professional writers with a laboratory environment where they can use the talents, skills and resources that Millikin theatre students and faculty have to offer. Millikin students have the opportunity to serves as actors, production managers, stage managers, directors, accompanists, coaches and apprentice playwrights.
This year's cohort workshopped Carner and Gregor's "Unlock'd" and "Island Song.""Unlock'd" was presented in a public showing on Jan. 23, in Kaeuper Hall on Millikin's campus. "Island Song" garnered five MAC-nominated songs and was being workshopped for licensing. "Unlock'd" was produced off-Broadway at the Duke Theater in summer 2013 and was being workshopped for a large production in Houston, Texas, in early 2018.
"The shape of our process is always driven by the needs of the writing team," said Bales. "In general, we lightly prepare the existing material to show the writers upon their arrival. The window for our workshop is up to three weeks including a residency. Writers are here for the time their schedules allow. While the writing team works on revisions we continue to polish existing material and respond to new material as generated. The culminating event is a public staged reading which includes a feedback session driven by questions from the writing team."
To celebrate the 10th anniversary, this year's cohort hosted a "Silver and Gold Cabaret" on Jan. 22 in Kaeuper Hall. The cabaret featured material from Carner and Gregor's "Island Song" and student writers as well as honored the collected works of Michael Kooman and Chris Dimond. Kooman and Dimond are the first solo writing team to develop a new musical with the workshop, and received the first developmental production on Millikin's School of Theatre and Dance mainstage production season.
"Hands down, participating and sharing in the creation of new art is exhilarating," said Bales. "The interaction between students and professionals impacts students in a profound way unique to this process."
Founded in 1985, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre is a national service organization dedicated to musical theatre. Their mission is to advance musical theatre by nurturing the creation, development, production, and presentation of new musicals, and to provide a forum for musical theatre professionals.