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Sky Masterson pursues Sarah Brown with "I'll Know" Not every musical tells a love story. But a huge number of successful ones do. This is...

Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry in Carousel. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. REVISED with your feedback. When I planned to write this week’s...

Elphaba sings "The Wizard and I" While the opening numbers of a musical give us a taste of what’s coming and get us oriented to the world...

Opening of The Music Man by the Washington Park Playhouse in Albany, NY This is the first post in my Building Blocks of a Musical series,...

Finding a solid pattern is the first step to a newbie making an impressive cake How does one create a great musical?  That’s a question...

Fiona Paloma as Mary and Milo Manheim as Joseph in Journey to Bethlehem Joyous greetings to each of you this season, as we celebrate the...

Could a Musical Tackle Trans Issues in a Way that Lifts and Unites? Lately, I’ve seen some social media posts by friends that I’ve been...

A Voice for Good's 2018 choir and orchestra, that was focused on building people, not highlighting stars. The week before last, I met with Paul Anderson , a veteran director and producer of musicals, oratorios and choral performances, who has been building Beloved Community through the performing arts for years. Last week, I related the story of the experiences that anchored him in a people-first approach to productions. Today, I’m sharing his list of principles and tips for

Paul Anderson (L) and family members on the set of Savior of the World. For Paul Anderson , putting on a professional-quality production is profoundly important. It’s just not nearly as important as the people with whom you're doing it. The performance, he says, should be 20% of a director’s focus. The people should be 80%. And if that’s your approach, not only will you have a stellar production, but you will give people a taste of the beloved community. This will change thei

It’s been 21 years since Wicked  opened on Broadway and I’ve never had the opportunity to see it. That is, until I went to Part I at the...

Photo by Javardh on Unsplash I have a lot of things on my heart and spinning through my mind today. On Saturday, our 10-day run of...

Photo by Michael van Gorkum on Unsplash One of the things I find most challenging about building beloved community through musical...

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash I’ve mentioned a couple times in this newsletter that I am co-directing a community production of...

On the night of August 23, 2020, the streets of Kenosha Wisconsin filled with an angry mob. Earlier that day, Jacob Blake, an African...

Jimmy Levy sings "United We Stand" in Plandemic: The Musical This week, I am visiting my daughter with a two-year-old and a two-week-old...

Mortals and gods sing modern hits in ancient Greece This week, I’m reviewing The Olympians, a new musical recently highlighted by...

Concept art by Sage Booher for The Princess and the Witch I’m writing this today because last week, we blocked the Chava scene in Fiddler...

When you are using musical theatre to build Beloved Community, every aspect of putting on a show becomes an opportunity. Even an issue as...

We need to brave the messiness of those conversations that don’t have a roadmap, because it’s the only way to the Beloved Community.

George Wallace and Shirley Chisholm, photos from Wikimedia Commons This week's newsletter is inspired by an original song I heard this...