ANMT's Musical Theatre Boot Camp is
a summer series of workshops, lectures, and practicums designed to give
participants a chance to work quickly over a concentrated six week period.
It's also a great place to check us out before committing to our full curriculum
in the fall.
The 2009 Boot Camp will take place
between July 6 and August 14 (with a few pre-camp courses in late June).
Join us for an exciting live internet streamcast of a masterclass of lyrics in musical theatre.
As part of the Academy for New Musical Theatre's summer Musical Theatre Boot Camp, the Academy's lyric guru, Scott Guy, is conducting something he's calling a Lyric Intensive. It's a high-level, in-depth analysis of lyrics for three masterworks from three different epochs of musical theatre: Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls,, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years.
Scott will be spending six hours study on each show. He'll gather a small roundtable of lyricists who will study how dialogue leads into and through lyrics, as well as the lyrics themselves: structure, progression, metaphor, character diction, point of view, rhyme scheme, prosody, metric variations, and other specific details of specific songs.
You'd get the most out of it, of course, if you were able to attend in person in Los Angeles. But, presuming that's not possible for you, perhaps the next best thing is for you to observe the masterclasses via a live streamcast. You won't be able to interact with us, but you will be able to watch and listen from your own computer.
Lyricists enrolled in Los Angeles will be paying as much as $250 to participate. The beta test will be only $50, to cover broadband fees.
The live broadcasts will be on three Sundays from 2pm to 8pm Los Angeles time: July 12, 19, 26. Your $50 broadband fee will entitle you to watch all 18 hours of the masterclasses, or log in and out as many times as you please during the broadcast. These sessions will not be available for subsequent viewing; they'll only be available live.
Click here to receive your registration passkey, and be ready in time for the first streamcast on July 12th!
High-level, in-depth analysis of lyrics for three masterworks from three different epochs of musical theatre: Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls,, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. Six hours study on each show. We’ll study how dialogue leads into and through lyrics, as well as the lyrics themselves: structure, progression, metaphor, character diction, point of view, rhyme scheme, prosody, metric variations, and other specific details of specific songs. We’ll provide scores; bring pencils and coffee -- these are long, tough sessions!
Nothing is more important to a musical than the outline. Peter Stone used to say that the book is the structure of the evening. Go from idea to final outline in five weeks, one guided step every week. The goal is to have a rock-solid outline by the end of the Lab, so you're ready to begin writing your musical with confidence!
The Book Lab focuses on the spine of the musical: its structure. How does a musical tell a story in a way that's different from any other medium? How do you set up a song? How do you keep the story going during a song? How does a musical handle exposition, character arcs, conflict, ensemble point of view, etc. A fascinating and fun way to study how musicals are structured. A required element for the ANMT Core Curriculum, this course is also available online.
A concentrated version of the full Lyric Lab offered as part of ANMT's Core Curriculum, with a unit a week instead of a unit a month. (If you're planning to take the Core program, this course will fulfill your Lab requirement). Topics covered will include: prosody, structure, rhyme, the verse, the chorus, the refrain, spotting songs, and progressions. Lectures and tests are delivered online; the in-person meetings are for discussion of assignments. We won’t lie to you: this is a tough course, with lots of work. But it’s a lot of fun, and should help you sharpen your lyric writing tools!
