Paramount School of the Arts and the Paramount New Works department are partnering to offer a Weekend Intensive for musical theatre writers.
This is workshop is intended for adultes 19+
Paramount School of the Arts and the Paramount New Works department are partnering to offer a Weekend Intensive for musical theatre writers. Designed to support individual writers as well as collaborative teams, this weekend intensive provides a chance for writers to gain information and valuable new tools for developing musical theatre work, and present work for feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Appropriate for playwrights, lyricist, and composers with projects at any stage of development, the intensive weekend is designed to be a creative kick-starter for new work or offer fresh perspectives on projects already in process.
In addition, the weekend offers a deep dive into two contemporary musicals: In the Heights and Dear Evan Hansen, two modern day mega-hits that employ timeless craft principles.
Writers can register as an individual (1 person) or a Team (maximum 3 members).
The workshop is Saturday October 19 and Sunday October 20 10 am- 5 pm each day.
Registration fees cover both days of the workshop.
- Individual $200
- Team (2-3) $300 per team.
Featured Teaching Artists Info:
CHERYL COONS (she/her) has co-written more than a dozen musicals that have received professional productions, including River’s End (ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Original Script and Score, Theatre for the American Musical Award, NYMF and NAMT Festival selection), At Wit’s End (Carbonell Award for Best New Work), Sylvia’s Read Good Advice (Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work), Female Problems (After Dark Award for Best Music) and Phantom of the Country Opera, published by Music Theatre International. She contributed lyrics to Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s award-winning productions of Merry Wives of Windsor and Measure for Measure. Her work has been produced on the stages of Northlight Theatre, the Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Florida Stage, and Marin Theatre Company, as well as other theatres across the US and internationally.
Cheryl’s musicals have been developed and showcased at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Music Theatre Conference, the National Alliance of Musical Theater’s Festival of New Works, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), Berklee College of Music, and the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University. Projects she has written have twice been selected for the prestigious ASCAP Workshop. Cheryl has been an instructor at the Kennedy Center’s National Playwrights Intensive, the Dramatists Guild Institute, and Chicago Dramatists. She has also designed and taught musical theatre writing and musical theatre history courses for Northwestern University, Columbia College, Porchlight Music Theatre and National Louis University. She has mentored writers through the American Musical Theatre Project, also at Northwestern University. She serves on the National Council of the Dramatists Guild.
J. Sebastian Fabál (he/him/his) is an award-winning musical theatre dramatist, educator, and former Executive Director of Underscore Theatre Company focusing on the development of new musical theatre based in Chicago. A Cuban-American from Miami, Florida, he lived in NYC where he received his MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. As a composer, lyricist, and bookwriter, Sebastian’s work explores the complexities of the second-generation Latinx experience, specifically the weird identity spectrum of neither being American or Cuban enough to be immediately accepted in either community. Since moving to Chicago, he’s worked as a musical dramaturg with The Second City, taught several musical writing classes (Chicago Dramatists, the Dramatists Guild, Porchlight Music Theatre), has created original work for Chicago Children’s Theatre, and was the composer/music director for Remy Bumppo’s production of Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics. Full length musicals include The Tenth Floor (music/lyrics) and Yoey & Yeya: A Santeria Musical (book/music/lyrics). TYA: Help Wanted: Pirates! (music), The Elko Aliens (music), The Princess Prob-llama (music/lyrics), The Adventure of our Lives (So Far)! (music/lyrics), Be Real, Macy Weaver (music/lyrics). Be Real, Macy Weaver was commissioned and recently received its world-premiere production with Cape Fear Regional Theatre in Fayetteville, NC.