That kind of blows my mind really. If you were to ask me over a year ago that LAN'ded would have evolved into a musical web-series, I probably would have laughed and said "Sure, that would be nice" and walked away. I never would have thought it'd turn from a cabaret act, into a two-act play, into a web-musical. At this stage in the game I look back on the past iterations and wonder if I sacrificed anything real juicy early on in the development cycle in favor of the new directions we've taken and nothing really comes to mind.
I began making up all the information for the program on Monday and I was told that it may be a good idea to include a "Writer's Note" inside with a message to the audience. So...I began writing one! It's such an interesting experience doing that! I felt like I kept sounding like "Hey, I wrote this, go on" so I re-wrote it several times and I'm pretty happy with it now. Yikes. How do directors and writers do this for every show? Crazytown.
BeeTeeDubs, have you guys been checking out PuppetFix to see the evolution of Cortex and Wally?
LAN'ded has been incredibly fulfilling, particularly in the last week or so. I've written scenes, one-acts, and other various theatrical material before but the thought of writing music always eluded me. I just never fully grasped it, it seemed like something I never had the skills for. In teaming up with Ryan Cavanaugh, I've discovered it isn't anything too scary. First off, having worked with Ryan on several projects before, I really enjoy him onstage and respect him as a performer and musician. Secondly, the whole process of writing the music was totally "process-based" and not "product-based." Ryan would bring in some compositions that he liked and I'd see how my lyrics lined up with the music. After some tinkering and twiddling, we'd determine if something fit the tone and character of the show. It was never "Well, this song needs to sound exactly like this" or "The opening song needs to have 3-part harmony and end with a huge solo." We always worked towards what worked best and never focused on achieving a certain sound because truthfully, there was never a pre-determined sound to work towards.For instance, we were aiming to have 3 songs in the final script of the reading. The opening song "Here and Now" had its lyrics changed around three separate times. The song I was most excited for, "What It Takes To Be A Zombie" turned out to be best suited for a movement piece. We ended up taking the music that Ryan proposed for "WITTBAZ" and using it's for "Lenneth's Song." In the end, I think the musical decisions we've made really worked in our favor and hopefully that will be reflected Sunday onstage.
I think the trickiest part, on the director's/writer's/audiences' part will be Alyx. Alyx literally enters the show on the last page of the script. I guess we'll see how it works out when I see the feedback forms. Admittedly, Alyx was a planned part of the show from the start, but my implementation of her probably should have been looked at a bit closer. Then again, we've condensed the script to accommodate a shorter run-time so the exclusion of details on her may benefit us. I wish the reading were tonight so I could get everyone's feedback and start re-tooling it and see what the show looks like with a Third Eye right now!
Ah well...I'm off to accumulate the rest of the props for the show. Look for updates every day from here on out as part of the countdown to the reading!
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