The goals of Phase One are to help activate the student's individual voice and to provide the student with a practical and analytical framework for both examining his or her own work and the existing masterpieces of the musical stage and for identifying what works or does not work in musical-dramatic terms. Primary areas covered in this phase include: how words sing (exploring the meaning, feeling, and sound inherent in words); finding rhythm in speech patterns; talking vs. singing; dramatic action in songs and musical numbers; making statements onstage (dramatically and musically); character development through song; and the use of recitative, or sung dialogue.
The Phase One labs are devoted to writing "moments": monologues, dialogues, different types of songs, short active scenes, etc. These moments or exercises develop and illuminate different elements of dramatic and compositional craft. At the same time, students examine the roots of musical theatre in all genres from Greek tragedy to opera to the twentieth-century American musical. Many writing exercises are coordinated with these history seminars to illuminate how the specific areas of craft the students are learning have been handled by masters in different areas of musical theatre.
In Phase Two: The Larger Context and Phase Three: One Acts (both covered in the second semester), students explore storytelling. First, they look at moments as parts of larger contexts to see how the part functions in relation to the whole. They then consider classics of musical theatre in their entirety, with emphasis on musical and dramatic through-lines and continuity. They spend the last part of the year outlining and drafting a complete one-act musical.
