Michael Halberstam, Jan Tranen, Josh Schmidt and Kevin Gudal

From Page to Stage, an annual joint program between Writers’ Theatre and select North Shore libraries, officially began Tuesday, April 21st.  Gathered at the Women’s Library Club for the kick off event were Artistic Director Michael Halberstam, lyricist Jan Tranen, composer Josh Schmidt and Kevin Gudahl, who plays Rev. James Morell in A Minister’s Wife, the world premiere musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s play, Candida.

Featuring about an hour of lively discussion and insightful questions from the audience, the creative team first discussed their history with each other and with the play, Candida.

Michael Halberstam first directed a production of Candida at Writers’ Theatre in 1998, with William Brown, Scott Parkinson, Kristine Thatcher and Karen Wodistch Janes.  Josh Schmidt first started sound designing for us in 2001.  A few years later, Michael was invited to direct Candida in New York for the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre.  Writers’ Theatre paid to fly Josh out to New York to compose incidental music for the show in order to lay down the foundations for creating a musical out of the show.  Michael met Jan Tranen when he was invited to stage a reading of a musical called Crazy Mary that Jan had written lyrics for.  Her gift for words stuck with him and he brought her into the process.  Kevin joined the cast in the summer of 2008, having known Michael since their days at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival back in 1990.

From here the conversation exploded into a myriad of fascinating topics.  Michael talked about the three main obstacles facing a contemporary audience in understanding Candida and how adapting the play into a musical removes those barriers.  Jan and Josh explained how they set about finding where to put songs and then creating the necessary lyrics and music.  Kevin discussed his work in rehearsal coming to understand that Josh and Jan’s songs continue the narrative and are not just melodic embellishments to the dialogue.

One audience member asked a great question about the amount of reverence creators have to pay to a classical text when adapting it for a modern audience.  Michael explained that the only thing that keeps classics vital is their ability to be reinterpreted for the current climate.  Otherwise they become historical footnotes.  He cited the fact that during Shakespeare’s time, his plays were not done with period sets or costumes or accents that perfectly represented the setting he was portraying on stage; his actors wore their everyday clothes when they went on.  Why should we be purists when the Bard wasn’t?

From Page to Stage events continue through May 30th at select North Shore libraries.  For a complete list, please visit: www.writerstheatre.org/fpts

A Minister’s Wife Blog EntryGeorge Bernard Shaw once said: “Hell is full of musical amateurs.”  Well, fortunately, professionalism was leading the way to heaven at Tudor Court last week.  Writers’ Theatre has gathered remarkable array of talent to transform George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play Candida into a scintillating new musical.

A Minister’s Wife Workshop

A Minister’s Wife tells the story of Rev. James Morell, a Christian Socialist minister who believes himself to be happily married to his wife Candida—until that stability is threatened by the amorous advances of the young poet Eugene Marchbanks.  Tony Award nominee Austin Pendleton is responsible for adapting the Shaw play.  Jan Tranen is the lyricist and the music is composed by Josh Schmidt, whose musical Adding Machine was an off-Broadway hit last year.  The production is directed by Writers’ Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam.

During the last workshop in October 2008, the creative team identified a major hurdle still left to be overcome: the inability of a contemporary audience to fully grasp Morell’s status in Victorian England.  The audience Shaw wrote for would naturally know what kind of man he was and the good work he was attempting to accomplish.  Christian Socialists were some of the most influential activists in the later 19th century.  They were able to preach their cause to people all over the political, social and economic spectrums.  However, to an American living in 2009 much of the political landscape of Shaw’s play holds no meaning or relevance.  Morell is in fact achieving the contemporary equivalent of preaching both to the NRA and the ACLU and inspiring them to a common cause.  Without this insight into Morell’s character, he can come off as slightly comical – a windbag even – which diminishes the dramatic potential of the play’s exciting final scene.

The answer to this conundrum came in the form of a new eight minute opening number, entitled “The Sermon.”  To start off the show, we are now treated to a rousing oration from Morell on the ills of society and how Socialism is the way to a better future.  As a result, both his good intentions and his talent at earnestly winning over his listeners are on display from the beginning of the musical.  Furthermore, it holds almost epic scope as an overture, sweeping us thrillingly into the world of the music setting up all of the major themes.

Kevin Gudahl who is playing Morell, performed a heroic feat learning the sizeable song which was only completed days before the workshop began.  Some of the cast had participated in a previous workshop this past October and were familiar with most of the material.  Those who were new to the process had the difficult task of learning a significant amount of challenging music in only a week, which I am pleased to say they accomplished magnificently.

The October workshop had been mostly consumed by the task of learning music.  This time around, Richard Carsey (Musical Director) and Tim Splain (Assistant Musical Director) were able to utilize two rehearsal spaces and accomplish considerably more in half the time.  The speed with which our artists were able to learn the new music allowed for deeper exploration of the text this time around.  Characters were developed and motivations established as an increased command over the music empowered the cast to focus on scene work.  Jan and Austin were able to subtly shape the words on the page as Michael and the cast brought the scenes to life like never before.

The end result of a week of hard work was astounding.  An invited read-and-sing through of the piece on Saturday morning was remarkably polished for such a short rehearsal time.  “The Sermon” was very well received and the musical as a whole played better than ever before.

But most importantly, the creative team now has in their possession a musical that is ready for the stage.  Some changes may occur before everyone regroups in April, but the development of a new musical that began four years ago is nearing readiness for production.  Soon enough, A Minister’s Wife will enchant Glencoe audiences.  And it will, I am confident, be a heavenly experience.

This has been an exciting year to be touring a show about the Civil Rights Movement to schools. We kicked off the tour on January 19 (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and continue to tour

The MLK Project through the end of February. This year, the election of the first African American President has brought Dr. King’s dream and the Civil Rights Movement back into our national dialogue. Many students see this past election as an important step in our continued fight for civil rights in this country and they enjoy discussing what might be next.

One of the most interesting things about bringing The MLK Project into schools is that you never know which parts of the play are going to be of most interest to students. Some students are most interested in the production and what it takes to rehearse and stage a play, some want to discuss the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or the poetry and music used in the performance. Each school has a new group of students with their own interests and ideas, which is the most exciting part of working on a touring production.

One particular story that students ALWAYS want to discuss is that of Emmett Till.

There are many students who attend The MLK Project who have never heard about how Emmett Till at the young age of 14 was viciously beaten and murdered for saying hello to a white woman in a store. There are so many reasons that I think this section of the play stands out to students not the least of which is that they are all about the same age as Emmett was when he was murdered.

Recently we were engaged in an incredible post-show discussion after a performance of The MLK Project at a school on Chicago’s far south side when a teacher raised her hand and commented, “I’m actually related to Emmett Till. My father’s first cousin was in the house with Emmett the night that the white men showed up and took him away from the house and killed him. That is something we have always had trouble talking about in my family. Until very recently we did not discuss what happened to Emmett when he was killed that night. I just want to say thank you for sharing this today. It may not be easy but we all need to hear these stories so that we can keep moving forward.”

It is wonderful to think about how far we have come in the past few decades, especially in the light of our recent, historic presidential election. But it is easy to forget how much more work there is to be done. I’m proud to be able to share The MLK Project with students so that we can “keep moving forward.”