A Tale Of Two Writers

In the past week, I have had the chance to interact with the writers of two separate pieces of musical theatre. It has been the best of times and the worst of times.While the projects are extremely different, they both are very good and have the potential to be highly successful. One is a rock opera based on a classic horror story, and the other is a musical based on a famous and hugely unpopular criminal. These projects represent dramatic departures from the corporate, franchise driven works based on popular movies that are so prevalent in the industry today. They are both the kinds of work in which I believe.The two writers are similar in many ways. Both make their living in the arts, one as a director and performer in not-for-profit theatre productions, and the other as a composer, orchestrator, arranger and musical performer. For both writers, these theatre projects would be their first to be commercially produced.There is, however, one striking difference between the two writers. One maintains that he is the only person who can understand his piece, or make contributions to his piece. Although he has been told many times that the book of the show is far below the quality of the quite phenomenal score of the show, he refuses to work with a dramaturg or another bookwriter. His goal is to get his play to the stage with as few changes as possible, with as little input from others as possible. He wants his singular vision to remain intact.Not surprisingly, this project is stalling. Several producers have passed on the project, because the writer is not open to compromise. Investors are holding back, unwilling to commit funds until they see that the writer has the ability to successfully revise the book.The other writer is hungry for feedback and input. He wants to find opportunities to have the play read, solely for the purpose of getting criticism so he can make it better. He wants to find a director who will bring his or her own perspective to the piece, to help take the story the writer has laid out and translate it into visual images and physical movement.In other words, one of these writers believes in the myth of the lone genius, that his best bet for success is to preserve his vision as best as he can and limit input from others. The other writer understands that creativity requires collaboration, so that his play can become greater than anything that he could ever accomplish on his own.It is at times like these that I am most acutely aware that while talent is a necessary requirement for success in any creative endeavor, it is not the only requirement. In fact, it may not even be the most important requirement. A talented person who refuses to work with others simply has a much lower chance of producing a work of genius, or even getting a work produced.This is why I believe we need to change the way we train writers working in theatre today. We simply do not teach writers how to work with others, how to collaborate. It is one of the factors contributing to the crisis facing the musical theatre industry today – the failure of new voices to emerge in meaningful numbers.