Musical Theatre Choreography

Linda Sabo

Description

Musical theatre choreography has indisputably evolved over the years and choreographers develop methods of working and philosophical approaches that should be documented but rarely are. Textual information is limited, and what has been written is generally more practical than theoretical, and is minimal compared to those books written for choreographers of modern and contemporary dance. By pointing out the similarities and dissimilarities between concert dance genres and theatre dance, and by identifying the specialized demands of crafting artistic and script-serving theatre dance and staging, this text differentiates musical theatre choreography as a separate and bona fide art form and suggests that 1) universities recognize it as such by offering training possibilities for future musical theatre choreographers, and 2) established choreographers of musicals begin to write down their own artistic processes to help fill the choreographic toolbox for young choreographers wanting to work in this field. In 1943, a light switch was flipped with the musical Oklahoma! when Rodgers' and Hammerstein's mission to keep the book absolutely central to the making of a musical was established. After that, other musical theatre artists followed suit causing standards to change. Now, no other artistic element in a musical makes a move without first ensuring that it serves the script. By creating original material that is integral to the telling of a story, composers and lyricists came to be thought of as dramatists. Likewise, Oklahoma! choreographer Agnes de Mille seamlessly integrated her dances and staging into the action and created character and situation-specific movement that actually helped forward the plot. Because of her groundbreaking advances, choreographers are now also expected to create dances that serve the script and help to tell the playwright's story. The choreographer, like the librettist, composer, and lyricist, is now positioned as dramatist, as well. In Part 1, the choreographer as dramatist is stressed as the author uses each chapter to reflect upon ways she analyzes librettos and scores to determine the function of each song in a musical and the stories that should be told through dances and staging created for each song. Drawing from her own experiences as a musical theatre director/choreographer, she reflects upon and shares her artistic process, not in a linear way, but anecdotally, to illustrate the kind of thinking that will lead her to effectively tackle the job at hand. At the end of each chapter, assignments are suggested that may be useful to aspiring choreographers and directors of musicals. This text is a valuable resource for teachers designing a course in theatre choreography on either the undergraduate or graduate level, as well as for professional directors and choreographers who want to think more deeply about their own work. Students of choreography will be asked to reflect upon and to work with techniques that are sometimes similar to, but also often oppositional to those learned in modern dance choreography courses. Part Two offers an overview of the scope of literature and representative articles that have been published on both topics, modern dance composition and musical theatre choreography, as it concisely traces the history of modern dance choreographic pedagogy, aligning it with concurrent trends happening within the American musical theatre since the mid-19th century.

Sujets

• Styles
• Genres
• Musicals
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 18 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781977205827
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Musical Theatre Choreography Reflections On My Artistic Process For Staging Musicals All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2020 Linda Sabo v8.0 r1.0
The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Farnham Academy Press
ISBN: 978-1-9772-0582-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908914
Cover Photo © 2020 Scott Muthersbaugh. All rights reserved - used with permission.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dedication
To Fritz, because he always believed in me…
To my mother, because without her I would never have become a dancer…
To my father, because he shared with me his love of movie musicals…
To my children, because they inspire me and give me hope.
Table of Contents
Foreword

Special Thanks and Acknowledgements

Tables
Illustrations
Lyric Permissions

Preface

Introduction

PART ONE
Telling the Story

Chapter 1
I Could Write a Book
The Musical Theatre Choreographer as Dramatist

Chapter 2
In the Beginning…
Starting a Choreography Project

Chapter 3
A Brand New World
Working With The Director’s Overall Vision

Chapter 4
Gotta Find My Purpose
Why is This Song in This Musical in This Spot?

Chapter 5
What’s the Buzz?
Staging Exposition to Give Important Background Information

Chapter 6
On My Own
Staging the Who, What, When, Where and Why of the Inner Monologue and Solo Song

Chapter 7
Were Thine That Special Face?
Staging Character Development and Relationship

Chapter 8
Muddy Water
Choreography or Staging? Or Both?

Chapter 9
Aftershocks
Additional Useful Tips for Teachers of Undergraduate Choreographers

A Postscript to Part One
A Glimpse of the Weave

PART TWO
The Development of Choreographic Theory and Teaching Practice
A Chronology of the Development of Theatre Dance and a Review of Prominent Literature in Modern and Musical Theatre Choreographic Pedagogy

Overture for Part 2

Choreographers Teaching Choreography

Early Musical Entertainment in the Colonies

Early Documentation of Modern Dance Choreography Technique

Early Documentation of Popular and Musical Theatre Dance Forms

Academic Dance and Early Analysis

Dance in the Musicals of the 1940s and 1950s

Existing Texts of Musical Theatre Choreography Pedagogy

Appendices to Part One

Bibliography
FOREWORD
Christmas of 1960 was the first time I saw Peter Pan , starring Mary Martin, on television. I was Hooked . I made my parents buy me the LP and I wore out the album and my parents memorizing every line and performing every role. I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and 275 miles away in McKeesport, Pennsylvania another little girl was letting this production inform who she would become, memorizing every line and ruining her life for the better! That little girl was Linda Chiaverini Sabo.
When Linda arrived at Elon University 20 years ago she already had a full career as a performer and educator. After years of professional work as an actor and dancer, she created a musical theatre program with Brent Wagner at Syracuse University, continued to choreograph professionally, and taught musical theatre and dance majors at academic institutions like the University of Michigan, Iowa State University, and Interlochen National Music Camp, as well as at professional schools and dance companies around the country.
While at ELON she was the director and choreographer for seventeen productions (some of my favorite being 1940’s Radio Hour , The Light in the Piazza , She Loves Me and 110 in the Shade ), and she and I joyfully created twelve productions together (some of our favorites were Sweeney Todd, Children of Eden , The Secret Garden , Titanic and Jekyll and Hyde ).
When I direct, Linda is my favorite choreographer. The love of music theatre is in her blood. In musicals, when a character can no longer express what they desire in words, they sing. And if singing cannot satisfy the need they dance. The beauty of storytelling through dance is that it is not bound like language to nationality and culture. Linda’s storytelling through dance always takes the audience on a truthful and emotional journey to further the plot and to "enlist empathy and understanding for the characters and their experiences."
I took that last part from her book…the book you are about to read.
Musical Theatre Choreography: Reflections on my artistic process for staging musicals
is an essential handbook for aspiring and experienced choreographers and directors. Linda Sabo’s clear and practical approach uses well-defined methods for choreographing any production. This book needed for a long time presents theoretical ideas to consider and practical solutions to apply when choreographing and staging musicals. In Part One she sets out to demystify the process by clearly organizing and unfolding a course in development and progression starting with analyzing the libretto and then taking the reader through various ways of approaching staging with the purpose of the songs clearly in mind. Each chapter ends with in-class assignments and/or homework making this book an excellent guide for teachers and students. In Part Two she explores the evolution of the theatre choreographer and historical information about teaching with passion and detail.
This book is for all of us – every choreographer, director, and actor who wants to learn more about their craft. It is for all of us who found our passion and our light when we experienced our first musical be it The Phantom of the Opera… or Peter Pan .
Catherine McNeela
Catherine McNeela is Founder and Director of the Music Theatre Program at Elon University where she also served as Chair of the Performing Arts Department for twelve of her twenty-five-year tenure. Catherine is a member of Actors Equity Association and has performed professionally throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe in more than one-hundred plays, musicals and operas. She has directed almost as many musical productions while training kick-ass singers and actors as she established Elon’s now nationally known program. Catherine is a proud recipient of the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching and the William S. Long Endowed Professorship.
Special Thanks and Acknowledgements
To Dr. Kathy Lyday, Professor of English at Elon University for lending her love of theatre and her meticulous eye and ear for grammar to the editing of this book.
To my dear friend and former student, Broadway performer Johnny Stellard, for investing his time, editing skills, and musical theatre knowledge into shaping and inspiring this book.
To my former UNCG Professors Ann Dils, the late Jan Van Dyke, Susan Stinson, Jill Green, and Larry Lavender for nurturing this old dog with new tricks for both dance and writing. I am so grateful to them for giving me a late-in-life opportunity to gain more knowledge and insight into the nature of dance and art and to allow me to create an inroad for theatre dance to be considered and studied alongside modern dance.
To my extended family for always being right where I know I can find them, with arms wide open. My family is my anchor. Each of them contributed to who I am and what is in this book.
To all of my colleagues and teachers, past and present, who have shared their skills and their hearts with me, but most of all to my two main partners in crime over these past many years, Brent Wagner and Catherine McNeela, who have shared with me their extraordinary knowledge of music and acting, and their considerable expertise creating musical theatre, deepening my own understanding and appreciation for these art forms. I will remember mostly the fun we have had doing it, and for that I am most grateful.
To every student I have ever taught. You have taught me more. I am in awe of your abilities, yes, but also of your drive and your love for what you do. You have provided me the use of your lived bodies, extending them to my own in empathy and expectation…and love… so that we could create together. I have made art with you and the artistic theories and philosophies that drive this text are because of you. It has been a joyous forty year process and I love you all.
The photographs in this book represent my more recent work at Elon University. This has more to do with technology than anything else and does not diminish the artistic and personal influence of the commercial work I have done or of those early days and my work at Syracuse University. In my mind, that was only yesterday.
TABLES
Table 1. Comparison of Elements used in Play and Libretto Analysis
Table 2. Comparison chart: Brechtian Influences Seen in A Chorus Line
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1. Opening look of 110 In the Shade . Scenic Design by David Minkoff, Lighting by Bill Webb, Costumes by Matt Emig. Elon University Archives, 2010.
Figure 2. Abstraction and realism in 110 In the Shade. Elon University Archives, 2010.
Figure 3. Foreshadowing romance in 110 In the Shade. Elon University Archives, 2010.
Figure 4. Wagon area during the day, 110 In the Shade . Elon University Archives, 2010.
Figure 5. Using projections to evoke history in Rags. Performer, Kendra Goehring, Scenic Design by Dale Becherer, Lighting & Projections by Bill Webb, Costumes by Tracy Justus. Elon University Archives, 2002
Figure 6. Unit set. Jane Eyre, the musical. Scenic Design by Dale Becherer, Lighting Design by Katherine Lowery Frazier. Elon University Archives, 2005.
Figure 7 . Ensemble as n