The Super Secret Project...FINALLY

Have you ever had a dream come true?

I live near Disney World and there's a lot of talk about dreams and following your dreams around here. Which I love, but no one talks about how HARD that can be. Walt Disney had everything on the line -- his home, his life -- when Snow White hit the big screens and took off. He'd had properties/characters taken by previous studios, risked and failed, risked and failed again... His family must have thought him insane. He borrowed money, leveraged himself AND his brother out to make this show happen. That's how hard he believed.

And we can all see the result of his dream...but we miss the true miracle: that he didn't quit.

I keep that story in my pocket. We've had a secret project (that I've occasionally talked about here, because, you know, you're my buddies) and with several false starts, things have suddenly changed.

What changed?

Us.

My project started as a literal dream. I woke, ran to my piano (keyboard), and picked out the song I'd been listening to in my sleep -- a musical about a vampire, where the vampire was the good guy. (This was pre-Twilight, so...) I played and sang the song for my husband and his jaw hit the floor. When he returned from work several hours later and I had TWO MORE songs, he suggested we should take a week and just see what happened. By the end of that week, we had 10 songs and most of the storyline.

That was the FUN part. The creative process usually is.

Fast forward 22 years, three separate starts, NYC, finding a producer, losing a producer, two previous creative teams, three previous readings... And finally the show made it to the stage.

This last month, we hosted a benefit reading to rave reviews. I'm glad the audience got to enjoy it. I sat in the front, madly conducting the entire show while my poor husband sat in the tech booth, head down to make sure we didn't miss any lighting or sound cues. WHAT A RUSH.

No one was privy to the mountain of work behind the scenes: two years of planning, workshopping, casting, reworking, recasting, transcribing sheet music to a new scoring program, the creation of 200 learning videos, financial planning, team recruiting, mixing music (2 hours worth of audio), rehearsing, adjusting, designing...

THEY only saw the final product. The real miracle is what happened before.

And so let me unveil for you the project that has consumed half my life -- my second baby.

Check it out. Follow on Facebook. Join our insanity. GIVE US MONEY. 😂 (But seriously.) And if you'd like to be kept in the loop on our exploits, join the newsletter list (at the end of this post.)

Phase one is finally complete. In the next couple weeks we'll have the audio and video back to form a new highlight reel with these incredible performers. Now we lay the groundwork for phase two: the world premier with a live orchestra. With any luck, this show will hit the stage in 1.5-2.5 years, with a social media campaign to launch it toward Broadway (2030?).

There you have it. It's happening. Why? Because we are willing to work ourselves into the ground to make it happen. Any truly amazing dream is worth the blood, sweat, and tears. You have to believe your dreams into reality because otherwise they remain only that -- dreams. 

What secret projects are you chipping away at? What dreams are you pursuing? Who do you look up to as a dream-accomplishing hero/inspiration?

Musical Newsletter sign up HERE.

The Secret Project: Pull Back the Curtain

Eight years ago I wrote a musical about a vampire. For the last 4.5 years we've bouncing between NYC, Upstate NY and Florida in pursuit of this project, including several false starts.

That's not the secret.

INTRODUCING THE SITE: 

www.immortalthemusical.com

Highlights: 

Intro: front page--listen to the opening number...except for the vocals. They will be added shortly...relatively speaking.

1. Story: Read the teaser.

2. Music: Listen to 7 selections of the 34 songs. People who have experienced the entire musical will tell you what you hear represents only a minor dynamic of the show. It is much more varied, and in the next several months we hope to add MANY more numbers (including updated ones of the current features). 

3. Characters: Meet the characters. They have been with us eight years. We love them. You will too.

4. Volunteer: SHARE THE SHOW!!! E-mail a link to everyone! Like it on Facebook. Share it on Facebook. Twitter it! Sign up for a newsletter and receive updates instantly. Donate...if you feel so inclined. In the future there will be more opportunities to get involved. (Contests, events, etc.)

5. Creative Team: Say hello to our AWESOME support group. They totally rock. 

6. BLOGS: A general news blog will keep you up to date, and you can get to know our fabulous team through their own words. BEST OF ALL, get the inside scoop from the characters! They've agreed (though some very reluctantly) to share their story with the world, and you could be the first to learn it.

THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED (Where you come in): We are not shopping the show through conventional means. We don't have money, and we don't know anyone with clout. SO, the only other method at our disposal is a viral approach. We will be promoting the site through contests, youtube videos, and potentially, through an online reality show. If we have enough fans (because we really deserve them, we hope), then we don't need money or clout. We just need you. AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

How to Get to Broadway

When people find out I've written a Broadway bound musical, the next question out of their mouth is "How do you get a show on Broadway?"

I laugh and respond, "Do you want the long answer or short?"

THE LONG ANSWER: How You Get a Show to Broadway

This is a subject of much musing for my husband and I. We've spent 8 years trying to figure it out. Typically a musical begins when one industry artist turns to his friend (I did specifically say "his") and says, "You know what? We should make this story into a show!" They track down a composer, a lyricist, and a scriptwriter (also known as a librettist,) and chart the high points of the plot. (Where it really sings.) Then the composer goes away, writes a song, brings it back, and everyone gives the thumbs up, or thumbs down. Rinse and repeat. 

Step two is to record a CD: the musical's hook. (Costing between 10 and 100k, dependent on the number of instruments/voices involved.) After the CD is complete, a "reading" is in order. This is a dry run of the script with the music. Typically there are a few of these and many many edits between. Finally the show is work-shopped with actors one scene at a time, then test run in front of an audience. 

Staging: Here's where someone foots the bill for production and invitations go out to every major voice in the community. The goal is to get rave reviews so some NYC big wig will pick up your work. If that doesn't happen you move to New York City and pound the pavement until you run into the right producer. Hopefully he even cracks your script open. Then hopefully he loves it. (Again, he, there are no she's in this industry.) The other approach is to hit California and work your way in with a major film company, like Wicked did. 

The expected journey from conception to production (if it ever gets produced) is 7 to 10 years, and the cost for a Broadway run is 10 to 20 million. 

THE SHORT ANSWER: How You Get a Show to Broadway

Most people don't.

BUT WE WILL.

The Secret Project: Revealed

This will not come as a surprise to some of you, but 8 years ago I wrote a musical about a vampire. For the last 4.5 years we've bouncing between NYC, Upstate NY and Florida in pursuit of this project, including several false starts. If you want to read about that I've blogged it in my blog section (the one on the website).

That's not the secret.

INTRODUCING THE SITE: 

www.immortalthemusical.com

Highlights: 

Intro: front page--listen to the opening number...except for the vocals. They will be added shortly...relatively speaking.

1. Story: Read the teaser

2. Music: Listen to 6 selections of the 34 songs. People who have experienced the entire musical will tell you what you hear represents only a minor dynamic of the show. It is much more varied, and in the next several months we hope to add MANY more numbers (including updated ones of the current features). 

3. Characters: Meet the characters. They have been with us eight years. We love them. You will too.

4. Volunteer: SHARE THE SHOW!!! E-mail a link to everyone! Like it on Facebook. Share it on Facebook. Twitter it! Sign up for a newsletter and receive updates instantly. Donate...if you feel so inclined. In the future there will be more opportunities to get involved. (Contests, event, etc.)

5. Creative Team: Say hello to our AWESOME support group. They totally rock. 

6. BLOGS: This is where content will change EVERY WEEK. A general news blog will keep you up to date, and you can get to know our fabulous team through their own words. BEST OF ALL, get the inside scoop from the characters! They've agreed (though some very reluctantly) to share their story with the world, and you could be the first to learn it!

THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED (Where you come in): We are not going to shop the show through conventional means. We don't have money, and we don't know anyone with clout. SO, the only other method at our disposal is a viral approach. We will be promoting the site through contests, youtube videos, and potentially, through an online reality show. If we have enough fans (because we really deserve them, we hope), then we don't need money or clout. We just need you. AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

Immortal, the book

About 2 yrs ago I started penning a book to match the musical. Scared me to death. I had never written for a strictly adult audience because, quite frankly, I didn't (still don't) feel qualified. My hubby liked it though, and he never goes easy on me, so I must have done something right. Let me know what you think--honestly.

*deep breath* Here lies Chapter 1.

Chapter 1

            Rain seeped from the sky as though the heaven’s jugular had been severed. A deafening blast of light scathed the glistening puddles of a flooded thoroughfare, a muddy night-strewn bog at the edge of civilization.

            Phineas eased into the panorama, cautiously, determinedly. This storm, blessing or curse is what allowed him to track with such ease, to move steadily up on the trail, to nearly overtake. It slowed the fugitive.

Three weeks of playing cat and mouse, three weeks and the culprit had not eaten in all that time… He must be weak!

            Phineas pressed into the elements whose beastly force bore no greater wrath or ardor than that ravenous howling in his own chest. He was close. Twenty years of false searches, dead ends, horrendous interrogations and sleepless nights would finally end! One wrong turn, one moment’s hesitation and the instant of triumph would escape him—yet again.

            Phineas crouched to rediscover the tracks, lost almost in soulless dark pools.

            The last impression harbored ridges, the reverse of the creature’s wader, the only sight of him Phineas had ever known—and yet known intimately. That the detail remained, not yet swept away by the deluge ignited a surge of adrenaline down his spine.

            This imprint twisted violently to the right, water strangling a single lengthwise corner and quickly taking away his evidence.

            Where had it gone? Upward?

            He froze.

            The very air had thinned, slowed, chilled… When did that come about—or had he simply not noticed a gradual change?

            Through the curtain of falling water he peered anxiously ahead. The horizon cut vividly against a haze of light: town. He scanned to the right; a thin copse of young spruces. He scanned to the left; a rocky outcropping…

            There!

            Weighty air rasped through his lips, sticking in heightened stillness. One wrong gasp, a single sound too voluminous, a movement—any indication he’d seen it in the sickly moonlight and his chance would vanish.  

            The moment of truth! The final hour, or his own likely demise…

            With methodically hushed accuracy Phineas checked the clasps of the loaded crossbow to his arm, verifying the poised bolt without turning his eyes from the night. Water dripping down his heavy brows fell uninhibited across unblinking pupils, over his stalwart cheeks, off his mustached beard, transversed his pressed lips…

            Phineas released a breath. Rivulets flailed outward, an accost of motion in the uncannily leaded stillness.

            He rose, aiming.

            Rain spattered vertically across a now fully-upright silhouette. Erect atop the rocks, black, smooth, menacing, it waited.

            His heart seized. Fear, dread, terror as thick as tar collapsed his windpipe, worked to rob the very life out of his chest, enveloped him so fully he began to drown in its wake.

            The being advanced.

            Pain registered up Phineas’ arm, a flux of blood potent enough that it threatened to burst straps holding his weapon in place, to rupture the veins, singing out to the enemy…

            He lifted the crossbow. The creature leapt. The machine fired, tiller smacking Phineas’ ribs. The world rocked. Heavy clouds dropped their stock. A jolt to the elbow, back landing in a puddle, a wail…

            Sloshing mud spattered over him. Weight pressed on his chest. Pinned to the ground, blackness above, a hiss, water filling his nose and mouth, something icy at his neck, circling, tightening…

            He flailed at it. No avail. Again! His forearm knocked into something wooden, a shaft protruding from the creature’s chest, a thicker wetness than rain seeping down it.

            Darkness threatened—eternal darkness.

            Wound it! Kill it! End this!

            He punched the bolt.

            Instant pain. A scream!

            Whose?

            Again!

            Another howl!

His chest lightened. He could breath!

            Phineas rolled over, sputtering out water, wheezing in life.

            Lightening.

            A figure trampled on the horizon, lost almost in the storm, leaning, haggard…

            Pain. A new burning heightened Phineas’ awareness of his fist. He looked down. Black liquid…

            He rolled back over, exposing the limb to the full wrath of the elements. He ripped his belt out of its holsters, tightening the synch unbearably about his bicep, staring in dread at the broken skin over his knuckles. Let the rain wash the taint out! Let it take the disease away! Please, God in Heaven, let him not be infected!