14 stories by "Nathan Christensen"
The hands-down greatest experience of my writing life was not in New York City. It was in the tiny town of Waterford, Connecticut. Waterford may not be a bustling metropolis, but it is somet…
After two installments chatting with the wonderful Cheryl Coons about the wonders of the Chicago theater community, I was all ready to move on and find musical theater magic somewhere else i…
Last time, I spoke with writer Cheri Coons about the winding path of a busy writing career outside of New York. But I also wanted to get more of her perspective on the Chicago theater scene …
"This is just a strange sidebar story that you probably won't ever have time to include in your written piece…""Okay, you have to realize that I am now obligated to share this story. But w…
In earlier installments of this blog, writers Daniel Tenney and Rob Gardner both referenced the challenge of finding a writing partner when you live outside of one of the major theater hu…
Would you like to hear something cool? Something exciting going on in the world of theater that you may not have heard about? Then meet Nan Barnett. "I am the executive director of the Natio…
Let's start with another flashback from Steve Fendrich: "In 1985, I visited this gentlemen who was a teacher in Longmont, Colorado, and his name was Bill Francoeur. He was the music teacher …
Let's start with a flashback. This is Steve Fendrich: "So one time Bill Francoeur came to me and he said, I have this idea. He said, you know, we ought to put out a musical with a cassette t…
"I've averaged about one show per year that I've written and produced. Plus one or two, here and there." Let's go ahead and stop there a moment. We all know that New York is the capital of A…
In the last installment of this series, I got to talk with representatives from community theaters. Community theaters are a topic that has been particularly on my mind of late because my ad…
Ok, let's start with a refresher from our conversation with theater marketing expert Clay Mabbitt: Marketing has two parts. The first part is identifying who's going to love what you're crea…
There are some writers of the Old School (and I admit there was a time when this included me) who feel like self-promotion is a little gross. After all, those of us with real talent just nee…
Meet Rob Gardner. He's thirty-six. He lives in Phoenix, AZ. And he makes a living as a composer. "I just took a leap of faith about ten years ago, quit my day job, and it's worked out. I've …
"I don't like to think of Nebraska as the middle of nowhere," she says with a laugh. Alisa Belflower is speaking to me from Lincoln, Nebraska. And if you were to draw a map of the musical th…
