How Do You Approach Bookwriting a Musical as Opposed to a Play?

Nov 01, 2018

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The difference, to me, is analogous to the difference between driving with a manual transmission and driving with an automatic. The shifting of gears in a musical must be more defined and more deliberate than in a play, because these changes in tempo are literal. In a play, the writer can focus more on destination. The writer of a musical has to pay minute attention to the engine.

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Carolyn Gage

is a playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of 75 plays, seven collections of plays, and three books on lesbian theatre, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially those reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history. Her catalog is online at www.carolyngage.com.

Gabriel Flores

is a Tampa, FL-based writer, director, composer, occasional actor, and proud DG member. His work has been accepted by the Tampa Bay Theater Festival, New York New Works Festival, New York Theater Festival, Midtown International Theater Festival, Manhattan Rep, and a featured playwright at the Midwest Dramatist Conference in Kansas City.

DS Magid

is a playwright, composer, lyricist, director, Broadway veteran, poet, and all-round energetic sort. Magid is an emeritus Cleveland Public Theatre Artist and alum of the Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit, and a Fellow of the Women’s International Study Center and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

Related Dramatist(s)

Carolyn Gage,

Gabriel Flores,

DS Magid