November 22, 2004

News, Musical Theatre

Theatre Workshop Hosts Indiana High School Students

The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop hosted four teams of musical theatre writers from the Valparaiso, Indiana High School recently for a special session.

Valparaiso High School students gather after a special session of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop with moderators and committee members (seated) Jane Smulyan, Nancy Golladay, Frank Evans, Rick Freyer and Pat Cook. Photo: Dana Rodriguez

Workshop Artistic Coordinator and First Year moderator Pat Cook and First Year co-moderator Rick Freyer gave the young writers a crash course on the craft of writing music and lyrics for the musical theatre. During the school year, the students participate in a musical theatre writing course led by Alice L. Gambel, which employs the teachings of Lehman Engel.

The songwriting teams presented works in progress to Cook, Freyer, Librettist moderator Nancy Golladay, and committee members Jane Smulyan and Frank Evans for their critiques and advice.

The night before, the group of 30 students and their chaperones saw a performance of Tony Award-winning musical "Avenue Q," written by Workshop members Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Marx led a talk-back session for the students after the show.

Students from Valparaiso visited the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in 2002; the Workshop also hosted a similar event for winners of the Scholastic Writing Competition.

In this story: Lehman Engel, Frank Evans, Rick Freyer, Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx

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