Show Tunes

Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.

Growing up in the 50s-60s, show tunes were ridiculed by my generation. The hip, cool kids made fun of the musicals because they were old fashioned and it was time for the rock and roll.

I remember “Oklahoma”, “The King and I”, “Fiddler On The Roof”, “Camelot” and “Carousel” were popular in the record bins. All the high schools were doing scenes from one of them regularly.

The musical just seemed like a play where everyone sang the lines then jumped and danced around. They were usually a love story with one star and a bunch of wannabes. It was fluff.

On second look, the musical and their show tunes are an important factor in performance entertainment. It has it all and I didn’t notice.

While all stage presentations are to tell stories, the musical has a variety of methods to accomplish the task.

Slow pacing, singing in German and stories no one remembers or understands holds Opera back. Symphonies are stoic with classical music hundred of years old and formal wear by seated actors except for the guy with his back to the audience and swings his arms. Plays have actors who walk around and shout at each other, then the scene changes during intermission and they go back at it again.

Musicals were sort of between a novel or a play and a hopped up opera. A musical can take a simple story, add some color and singing, throw in a dash of dancing and the audience will be entertained. The show tunes were little ditties written by pop jingle tin-pan alley writers that were short and sweet and simple to remember.

Seems any book or movie can be transposed into a musical. Cartoon characters, biblical stories, animals, gangs, newspaper boys, strippers, cowboys, nannies, horror, and a plethora more subjects have become Broadway hits.

The musical with its catchy show tunes, choruses, dancing, costume changes, sets, lighting, sound are as much of a rock show as a brief entertainment excursion. Actors and singers can become celebrities’ overnight and movie, television and stage celebrities can hold on to their career a bit longer doing a musical.

If you can’t get to New York or Chicago to see the original, don’t worry. The musical and cast will come to you. Movies have been made about popular musicals and vice versa.

So now that rock and roll has lost its edge and pop music is itself a commercial, the music is not a bad selection for singers, dancers, performers being supported by writers, riggers, artist, designers, directors, gaffers, agents and an industry trying to bring the unknown into the spotlight.     

Not sure a musical could be made from “Schinler’s List” or “The Exorcist” but you never know.

How To Be Creative

Creativity 101: I got nothing.

I do have some ideas of what ‘creativity’ is and how we use it.

My hypothesis is that we all are born to be creative. Like breathing, the moment we are born we start feeling for our surroundings in search of food and shelter. We just came out of a very warm and soft environment to this shocking world of noise and light.

Once our survival skills are rewarded by medical professionals and hopefully parents, we can start exploring this new world we’ve been dropped into. We are naturally curious so we listen and look and touch and taste and try to make some meaning for this thing called “Life”.

Without asking for classes, we start to communicate what we are learning. We begin to make sounds that some day may become beautiful arias or thoughtful oracles. With minimal motor skills we scratch in the sand or mark on walls with simple patterns relating what we have seen and experienced so far.

We are being creative.

As we grow older a stick may become a saber or spear or a tool for scratching in the dirt. A cardboard box may become a fort or a dollhouse or a space ship. Whatever our imagination tells us we can be creative with it.

We are using creativity to expand our consciousness.

We are taught letters and numbers and words bringing us new horizons of wonders. We are shown science and history and math which all can be used in a new creative exploration.

Somewhere along the way we are told we must be responsible for this entire creativeness is too much fun and “Life” isn’t about having fun.

Some will retire to a dull world of accounting or sales but even then there are the choir singers and the square dancers and quilters and knitters who are being creative without thinking about it.

Some will continue to follow the fun and become artist, painters, dancers, musicians, authors, playwrights, actors, singers all trying to express their experience of “Life” to others.

Social media has allowed every individual to become a moviemaker and critic. Everyone has a camera now to record a sunset or beach vacation or a family member to present to the entire world. Keyboards click away our ideas, thoughts, fantasies, fears and dreams.

We are being creative.

Even though we might think we are not creative because we cannot play the piano, we can plug into a song that might make us dance or sing along. We might not believe we can draw a straight line but find skill in woodworking or pottery or fiber design.

We are being creative without even thinking about it.

Enjoy.

Window Shopping

Back in the day of downtown department stores, people would walk the streets gazing in windows to be enticed by the latest fashions, appliances, and toys to bring shoppers in to spend their hard earned cash.

See the photo above? What do you see?

A man in a hat holding the hand of a child looking in a window display of toys? Then there is this woman dressed in dark color away from the man and child but looking in the same window.

Take a closer look. The man’s haircut, hat, overcoat and baggy pants appear to be 40’s style. The woman’s shoes confirm the timeline. The child’s knitted hat and the woman’s bundled scarf indicate that the weather is cold.

This is perhaps a family Window Shopping for Christmas? Why aren’t they all together?

There is no one else in the picture and no seasonal decorations so it is just these three people staring into a window of toys. 

The man and the child seem to be looking at a doll so perhaps the child is a girl, but she is wearing pants. Remember it is cold outside the window.

The woman stands apart looking at another item in the window. What is the fascination? Is there a conversation going back and forth? Will they go into the store and purchase a toy or are they just looking?

Photos are not always what they appear to be. Assumptions of what the photographer saw at that very moment might not be what the viewer interprets.

Take a closer look. You didn’t expect that.

Inspiration

What do you do when your creative runs into the wall and you blank out? How to get back to the inspiration?

Even the most creative’s can have their vision hit a dry spell and need something to kick-start them again.

Sometimes trying a different medium may help. Maybe some collaboration with another might make a spark.

Here is a suggestion: try something you’ve never done.

Going to a museum for an artist is reviewing the same styles and techniques you learned in school. Going to a gallery is a museum for the living artist. New styles and techniques may inspire new ideas.

The same goes for dancers and musicians. If you continue to go to familiar shows or hear the same music then what will inspire you. Try a different music station or go to a club you’ve never attended or see an off-show with experimental sound and dance and lights.

You may not like it but the change will inspire you.

When you go back to your routine of creation you will view it in a different way.

Give a try and good luck.

Sorry You Cannot Retire

If you are a painter, dancer, musician, writer, or any other form of ‘artist’ I am sorry to tell you that you cannot retire.

For ‘artist’ is a special sort of person. They are constantly viewing colors and sites and hearing colors and motion and participating in the nature of life.

While a coal miner or insurance salesman or computer programmer can work for a company for so many years and retire with a gold watch and a pension, an ‘artist’ can’t.

For the creative mind of an artist can’t be turned on and off. Even though styles may change through the years, the mind continues to imagine. When the body cannot perform the techniques, the ‘artist’ will teach others to view the possibilities.

Creativity has no deadlines.

The illustration is by 16-year-old Shania Coleman.

Recital

One of the most nerve-racking requirements of growing up is to recite. We did it in school when we had to stand in front of the class and repeat a poem or passage that with repetition was to test us. If we were musically talented we were to perform for free showing our achievements and skills.

Don’t we do a recital everyday?

A painter brings their blood, sweat and tears for a viewing with hopes of selling some of the work. A teacher stands before open minds everyday hoping to make a connection that can be regurgitated. A lawyer references previous cases and judgments to sway a jury. A preacher quotes scriptures and verse to persuade a congregation to believe in smoke and mirrors. An advertising salesperson convincing another person to part with their money for a possible reward, just like Vegas or Wall Street.

Some of these attempts are paid for expecting a return on investment. Some hope for donations.

Now established artist or dancers or musicians present shows expecting ticket sales before a performance, but before they became a household name they had to give recitals. Once they drop from fame and lost the attention of the media they are back to giving recitals.

Should a recital be a test? Should it cause such emotional distress?

A recital should be the first presentation and appreciated for the effort. Throw a few coins in the bucket for someone who made the attempt.

When is Art finished?

The ultimate question for every designer, composer, choreographer, writer, poet……the creative process is never done.

A book or play can be rewritten and edited and rewritten again. Dance moves can change on a beat. A poem might be put down and come back to later with a different inspiration. A painting can be painted over.

Artist, like all the rest of us or maybe more so, change what they like. Artist can change media, materials, or even methods of expression. A painter may start with watercolors and move to oils or silkscreen. A writer may start with poetry and move to novels or screen writing. A dancer may start with classical and move into free form. A musician can learn popular rock and roll only to become interested in the roots of blues or classical. A musician may turn to weaving or a weaver may turn to stain glass. It is all a process of growth and experimentation.

So the question is “When is Art finished?”

When does the artist put the pencil down or the writer leave the keyboard? In some media there is a limit to space or materials and when they run out, the art is finished.

Deadlines can finish artwork due to the time has run out. Whether for a show or a commissioned piece, there is a deadline. A publisher has deadlines to guarantee printing and distribution. Concerts have deadlines of when the performance starts and ends.

Yet any artist continues to create. The former ideas and thoughts may lapse into new expressions or may be a rework of previous expressions. Composers will write variations on a theme. Painters will make several paintings of a subject, even changing media and materials. Writers will continue with a theme to make a series of novels with similar characters.

So “When is Art finished?”

It is never finished.

A song is covered and redone and covered again and each has their quality and originality. An idea from a poem can be transformed into a book or a movie with a different point of view. A color or a statement can inspire another’s thoughts to a new presentation.

So borrow my idea and increase the thought and give a variation on a theme to create something new. Creativity is a fluid process and must continue to flow.