All Posts

Welcome to this week’s edition of Summit Stages News! I’m Rebecca Burnham and this is where you get weekly updates about musical theatre that promotes wholeness and belonging; learn about visionary creators, producers and others; and discover some mighty stories that need to be turned into musicals. I’m on a collaborative mission to give cynics reason to become connectors, drifters hope to become builders, and enemies understanding to become friends, all through musical theat

André De Shields (as Hermes) tells the story of Eurydice (Eva Noblezada) and Orpheus (Reeve Carney) in Hadestown (Photo: Matthew Murphy) I watched Hadestown today. It was highly recommended to me in August, when the filming of its West End production was playing in theatres, but I missed my chance because I was in the middle of rehearsals six days a week. At least, that’s the story I told myself. But I also did not squeeze in a matinee showing, because I couldn’t imagine myse

Welcome to this week’s edition of Summit Stages News! I’m Rebecca Burnham and this is where you get weekly updates about musical theatre that promotes wholeness and belonging; learn about visionary creators, producers and others; and discover some mighty stories that need to be turned into musicals. I’m on a collaborative mission to give cynics reason to become connectors, drifters hope to become builders, and enemies understanding to become friends, all through musical theat

Welcome to this week’s edition of Summit Stages News! I’m Rebecca Burnham and this is where you get weekly updates about musical theatre that promotes wholeness and belonging; learn about visionary creators, producers and others; and discover some mighty stories that need to be turned into musicals. I’m on a collaborative mission to give cynics reason to become connectors, drifters hope to become builders, and enemies understanding to become friends, all through musical theat

Welcome to this week’s edition of Summit Stages News! I’m Rebecca Burnham and this is where you get weekly updates about musical theatre that promotes wholeness and belonging; learn about visionary creators, producers and others; and discover some mighty stories that need to be turned into musicals. I’m on a collaborative mission to give cynics reason to become connectors, drifters hope to become builders, and enemies understanding to become friends, all through musical theat

Thorns, an adaptation of the Rapunzel story, premiers this Saturday in a natural amphitheater beside the old tennis courts in Magrath, Alberta. I can hardly wait! Bard, young Rapunzel, young Callan, and Mother Gothel at the Thorns set I have a vested interest in this production, not only because I get to play Mother Gothel, but even more because the playwright , producer, director, and composer is my youngest son, Sam Hudson. After producing and directing Pirates of Penzance

I apologize that I missed sending out my weekly post last week. Between working on music and running a rehearsal for the Drop In mini-musical project, plus a five-day Improv and Nonviolent Communication Camp for 12-15 year olds, I couldn’t make it happen. But oh, what an incredible couple of weeks I’ve had! It started two weeks ago, with a Aug 20-22 weekend workshop where 6 actors gathered to represent competing perspectives on Main Street and a Truth and Reconciliation Drop

Tomorrow, here in Cardston, we’re starting something different – a weekend workshop to write a mini-musical that aims to bridge a divide. The goal is not to convince people that one side of the argument is right and the other is wrong. Rather, it’s to build a connection that allows people to step across the abyss between them and look at the problem from another perspective. I’m hoping this will inspire us to want to sit down together and look for solutions that serve us all.

Last year, I wrote a post about why we need to follow a pattern for writing musicals, in which I compared the message of the musical to a cake, and the artistic craftsmanship to its frosting. I might have said some dismissive things about musical productions that seem like they’re all frosting, and very little cake. This week, I want to moderate that position a little because there was so much good going on in local productions that I would have earlier dismissed as just fros

Today, I’m writing about a musical that I believe ought to be. It’s on my eager list to write (once we’ve finished the Eyes Wide Open beat sheet, and revisions to Neverland: Wendy’s Story). But first, I’ll need to find the right collaborators — with views different from my own — who are willing to tackle it. And that may not be easy. It’s a “Mormon” musical, in the way that Fiddler on the Roof is a Jewish musical – meaning that it’s richly informed by the theology of the Chur

The Eyes Wide Open weCourse is ready for you at last! This is an 8-module workshop on navigating media in a way that strengthens our relationship with truth and with each other… with some very fun 50’s flavoured songs and a few sneak peaks at the plot of an upcoming musical thrown in. Module 1 is live now. Module 2 and a facilitator’s guide should be ready for you tomorrow. And you can look for the rest of the modules to be ready for you within the next two weeks. It’s fun. S

In terms of what it produces, Setting the Blocking (Step 5 in organic rehearsals) may look more like traditional forms of directing than the previous steps (Reading Rehearsal, Communion Rehearsal, Walk & Talk Rehearsal, and Scene Combing). What’s different is that it comes quite a bit later in the rehearsal process and so it needs a different approach; one that is more collaborative and promises a deeper connection for both actors and audience.

I’m celebrating this week with a heart that is full of hope, especially after the Braver Angels Convention in Philadelphia that I attended last week. It was an experience like I’ve never had before. I gathered with approximately 800 others who believe that our differences are not as important as our belonging to each other and that our very future depends on our learning to embrace each other and problem-solve together.

“Anger” is the song that I think best conveys the musical’s disarming, tongue-in-cheek approach to a topic that has many of us wringing our hands. “Biased” is important in a different way. It opens our weCourse on navigating the news toward truth and it features a song battle between the editors of two rival newspapers, each of which is blind to their own bias but quick to point out the bias of the other.

I’ve taken my song “Anger” on a journey from something I threw together with AI, to a fully produced song with human collaborators. It’s been amazing. It’s enriched my life and convinced me both that AI has a very valuable role in the creative process, and that skillful human collaborators can take a song to a level that AI simply cannot touch.

​ ​ Today I heard a story that broke my heart. It was told by Maury Giles, the new CEO of Braver Angels, an organization devoted to depolarizing our politics. But his story wasn’t about the organization. It was deeply personal. ​ Maury and his wife Jody (the widow of his best friend), have ten children between them, all adults now. They stay in touch by way of a family chat, called “The Vibe” that unexpectedly blew up last September, after Charlie Kirk was assassinated just 2

Ira Spornova is a villain on a mission This week, Summit Stages is launching its first contest! When we officially launch our Eyes Wide Open we-course (a hybrid learning model where you take an e-course together, as a group), we want to have some swag – starting with a T-shirt and some decals.. The we-course is important in and of itself, and we want to build buzz around Eyes Wide Open, The Musical. Our plan is to bring the musical to some school and community stages in the f

Meet Samuel Carter, 25, the newly hired history professor at Hallelujah College. It’s 1950, and Hallelujah is expanding to meet the demands of educating young WWII veterans. Samuel, a Quaker, served as a medic. His heroic record, impressive academic credentials, clean-cut appearance, and quiet charisma all make him a no-brainer choice for filling out the faculty. But that’s because nobody bothered to read his master's thesis.

According to music historian Ted Gioia, society leans toward its own self-destruction by dividing into enemy factions. But music is a mighty tool that can help us reconnect. It's not just theory. I saw it in practice this week in my tiny town's elementary school gymnasium.

Kurt Bestor is an accomplished musician and composer who has scored films, written for the Olympics, and popularized instrumental Christmas music. But "Prayer of the Children" is his most famous piece of music, and he didn't write it to share. It was an outpouring from his heart that he threw into a concert last minute. And it has been touching hearts ever since.