Boston Court to Host Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio This Winter

Led by facilitator Ben Krywosz and music director Roger Ames, the two-week Studio is designed to provide an opportunity for five writers and five composers to work with five professional performers, exploring the possibilities and basic elements of telling stories through music, whether the style is opera, musicals, or alternative work.

The studio runs December 3 through 19 at Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA.

Ben Krywosz, who serves as artistic director of Nautilus Music-Theater, says "If you put creative writers, many of whom are new to the form, in the same room with theatrical composers, something astonishing is bound to happen. Provide them with an ensemble of singer-actors, well-versed in developmental work, and you have all the elements required for a creative adventure in collaborative music-theater."

The studio focuses on the process of collaboration through a series of brief exploratory assignments for the writers and composers. Within the two-week period, all composers work with all writers and all performers. Although at the end of the studio an informal reading of all the compositions is held, the workshop is not intended as a developmental session for existing pieces. Instead, it is a laboratory for the collaborative process, nurturing relationships and suggesting ways that writers, composers, and performers can work together.

When it was last in Los Angeles from 1997-2002, the studio was supported by the now-discontinued A.S.K. Theater Projects. Initially created in 1984, Krywosz has conducted over 58 such studios around the country in such cities as New York (through New Dramatists), San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Portland, Miami, and Nautilus' hometown of Saint Paul. All the studios have nurtured collaborative teams that have gone on to develop and produce new work. Previous Los Angeles-based participants have included such writers as José Cruz González, Julie Hébert, Joy Gregory, Caridad Svich, Leon Martell, Bridget Carpenter, Rickerby Hinds, Nick Salamone, and Paula Cizmar. Composers have included O-Lan Jones, George Sarah, Penka Kouneva, Cristian Amigo, Clifford Tasner, Sara Graef, David O, Gunnar Madsen, and Amy X Neuburg, among others.

The Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio in Los Angeles is funded by a generous contribution from Marnie Mosiman. Music Director Roger Ames' participation is made possible through the support of Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment.

Application forms will be available on Nautilusstudiola.com beginning July 11, 2016.

About Nautilus Music-Theater - Since 1986, Nautilus Music-Theater has been dedicated to the creation, development, and production of a new American opera and other forms of innovative music-theater. Nautilus goals include the formation of partnerships between creators, performers, and audiences, and the creation of professional training programs for artists. Nautilus uses music-theater as a tool to create enriching experiences for artists and audiences, and to support the individual and collective growth of the human spirit.

About The Theatre @ Boston Court - Located in Pasadena, California, and founded in 2003, The Theatre @ Boston Court produces passionate, artist-driven theatre, which challenges both artists and audiences. The Theatre @ Boston Court urges its artists to fearlessly and passionately pursue their unique voice and vision. Play selection encompasses a wide variety of genres with a special emphasis on new work, which are inherently theatrical, textually rich, and visually arresting. Led by Artistic Directors Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti, The Theatre @ Boston Court is currently working on its 53rd production, a rolling world premiere of Bars and Measures by Idris Goodwin, opening September 24th. The Theatre @ Boston Court has also co-produced productions in New York City, Boston, Houston, and at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, CA. Concentrating on new work and re-envisioned classics, The Theatre @ Boston Court is the proud recipient of numerous nominations and awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the Ovations, the NAACP and Stage Raw.

To post a comment, you must register and login.