What Should Dramatists Know About Working with Orchestrators?

Nov 01, 2018

Clockwise from left: Daniel Ellis, Michael Vigilant, Karen and Steve Multer, Elise Thoron

I can only dream about a legendary orchestrator like Sid Ramin doing for Attack of the Killer Grasshoppers as he did for West Side Story. (Honest, that bug musical is a real title that makes royalties!) For my composing partner Gerry Castle and me (the lyricist) the composer also functions as the orchestrator—for most of the work. For the projects we do, that means maximizing what we can get out of a piano. It is our orchestra. When we think big, it’s to make something small and efficient.

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Michael Vigilant

is a playwright/lyricist with nineteen produced works, fifteen of which have been published. Two musicals recently out of the creative crock pot with composer Gerry Castle are The Wedding Ring and Kip Trash. Mike’s holiday play A Tree-Mendous Christmas was published in 2018. Another play, Adventures in Theatre Management is under development.

Karen and Steve Multer

’s original musicals include code name: CYNTHIA (Pallas Theatre Collective, Washington D.C.) and Buried In Prosperity (The PiTCH Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival). Their original music for TV and film is licensed for HBO, Amazon Originals, CBS, ABC Family, and Netflix, among others. Their jazz and Big Band compositions have been featured on four compilation disc releases by SONY/BMG.

Elise Thoron

’s music theatre pieces have been produced in the United States, Europe, Japan, Cuba: Green Violin, music by Frank London, (Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays); Prozak and the Platypus, music by Jill Sobule (CD/graphic novella); Charlotte: Life? Or Theater? based on paintings by Charlotte Salomon music by Gary Fagin. Recycling: washi tales with Japanese paper artist, Kyoko Ibe and traditional Japanese musicians. Her Afro-Cuban Yiddish opera Hatuey: Memory of Fire with Frank London just had its North American premiere at Peak Performances, after a Spanish production at Opera de la Calle in Havana. www.elisethoron.com

Daniel Ellis

is a veteran writer and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and writers’ wing of the Theatre Arts Studio. Based, in Oregon, his work has been featured widely and includes some twenty television and movie projects on record with the Writers Guild of America. His most recent efforts are Put Up Your Dukes (A Farce in Two-and-a-Half Acts) and I Think My Dog Is Jewish. In the works is a political satire, House of MisRepresentatives. Ellis also lectures nationally and is available for reviews and consultation.

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