Pregnancy Pact opens at the Weston Playhouse this week! By Julia Meinwald (Composer) Well, guys, I am down to my last week here in beautiful Weston, Vermont. The whole show is staged, sitz probe is in but a few hours, and all but the most essential prop babies have been cut from the production. It's time to switch over from the obliquely self promotional acounts of my time here to a straight up invitation for you to come see this show that I am so extremely excited about. We open on Friday, August 31st, with a preview on Thursday, August... Continue reading

A week at Weston Playhouse, so enchanting, with the manicured lawns... By Julia Meinwald (Composer) Monday August 13: Monday is our day off, so I slept luxuriously late, which actually is possible any day of the week given that rehearsals start at 12pm. The first real activity of the day was the annual Weston regatta, for which different departments at the theatre compete to create the fastest boat from found materials (non-flotation devices only) gathered for under $25. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the spectacle was pretty, er, spectacular. Many noble contenders Oh my! After that I set... Continue reading

Toto, I don't think we're in a workshop setting anymore... By Julia Meinwald (Composer) Ok, four days into rehearsal, I think it’s safe to start a list (I love lists!) of ways that a full production feels different from a workshop. Granted, every item on this list basically boils down to, “OMG, we are here for a long time!” but I am going to gleefully enumerate each item anyway. 1.) The pre-packaged uber processed food that it seems really exciting to nosh on for four days away from home is less appealing when you are looking at a month of... Continue reading

The first of my dispatches from Weston, VT: so hot off the presses that I haven't even left the state yet! By Julia Meinwald (Composer) Hello cyberworld! I’m back in the warm glow of Crazytown for the month of August to write about the upcoming production of Pregnancy Pact, the musical I wrote with inestimable lyricist Gordon Leary, at the Weston Playhouse at the end of the summer. This is the awkwardly timed first post, set to go up before I have even left Manhattan, in which I shall prattle on about being generally excited about things to come. (Here... Continue reading

Liking good art makes your prettier…right? By Julia Meinwald (guest for Pam Eberhardt) Last night my boyfriend was looking over my DVD collection, and he noticed that my copy of Resevoir Dogs was still in its plastic wrap, unopened. I should preface this by saying that I love when people look at my DVD collection, which is prominently displayed on a DVD shelf type thing next to my closet, flanked by an IKEA lamp and a large painting of a robot. Despite the fact that my DVD purchasing has dropped off rapidly since college, what with the onslaught of these... Continue reading

They say talking about music is like dancing about architecture… By Julia Meinwald (Guest for Steven Jamail) You guys, why do I hate talking about writing? I like talking to collaborators about specific projects. And I’m more likely to identify myself as a composer than an ironic telephone girl in conversation with just about anyone. But when the inevitable follow-up, “Oh, what’s it like to write songs?” comes, I always freeze up. My first answer is usually, “It’s really fun!” which is somewhat true. Last night at a dinner party I was seated next to a dude who was a... Continue reading

A collection that boasts titles by Wittgenstein and John Bradshaw, all rich with margenalia, DFW's presonal library gives us one more source of text to fawn over. by Julia Meinwald (Composer) Well, guys, I never actually got all the way through David Foester Wallace's Infinite Jest, but I did get through this interesting article about the author's personal library, which is available to the public at UT Austin's Ransom Center. Despite the lack of his titles under my belt, I do find him an extremely cool writer, and I shall tie this article to musical theatre thusly: 1.) The increased... Continue reading

I can sometimes be an, um, exuberent, texter, but even I know to avoid these mistakes: How Not To Text Girls Continue reading

Just to be clear, this is in no way a review, and represents no one's opinion other than my own. Unlike the Lorax, I speak for no one, not even the trees. By Julia Meinwald (Composer) I saw Sleep No More this past Monday night. You guys: I am joining the chorus of people talking about how awesome this show is. Called an "immersive" experience in most of the press I've seen on it, this show is an honest to God choose your own adventure. It takes place in almost 100 rooms spread out over 4 floors of a Chelsea... Continue reading

I've only touched the tip of the ice-berg in reading about the situation in Japan, but I thought this chart was interesting: http://xkcd.com/radiation/ (click the link above for a clearer/larger image) Continue reading

Ya gotta suffer for your craft..... By Diamando Stratakos (actor, producer) The other morning, as I screamed in anguish whilst rolling around on my little pink balls, I realized that the things I do to improve myself as an actor might look just a bit strange from an outside perspective. Lest anyone thinks I am making a sexual reference, let me clarify that the little pink balls of which I speak are made of rubber and are a required tool in my Body Dynamics class taught by Carol Reynolds through T. Schreiber Studio. Body Dynamics is my first non scene... Continue reading

Fellow Crazytown-er Gordon Leary and I are presenting a concert of songs from our new musical, Pregnancy Pact, this Tuesday 3/22 at Ars Nova! PREGNANCY PACT Tuesday, March 22, 8:00pm Ars Nova, 511 West 54th Street (@ 10th Avenue Book & Lyrics by Gordon Leary Music by Julia Meinwald Featuring: Christy Altomare, Ally Bonino, Ellen Condon, Kimiko Glenn, Amy Linden, Angie Perez. Dana Steingold, Phoebe Strole Directed by Jeremy Gold Kronenberg Musical Direction by Rich Silverstein Design by Matt Brogan With a full band including Meaghan Burke, Larry Corban, Eric Day, Sean Hagerty Joshua Samuels, and Rich Silverstein You can... Continue reading

If reading kids' books is wrong, I don't want to be right. By Julia Meinwald (composer) So, this week I have been obsessed with The Hunger Games. I don't usually jump on literary bandwagons; I somehow managed to miss not only Twilight but also all of the Harry Potter books and movies. I picked up this book in part because it reminded me of one of my favorite reads: Ender's Game. Both of these books, in addition to being about kids bred to be brutal killers, are basically children's literature. Anyone over the age of, say, 10, could read and... Continue reading

In which Julia triumphantly returns from Vermont, fully sated on high belting and cheese. By Julia Meinwald (composer) Tuesday: Gordon and I meet Rich and three of our wonderful actresses and (festively!) wait in line on 33rd street until we are allowed to board the Megabus that will take us to Albany (where we will be picked up by Cressa and Bridget, our fearless Weston company management gurus, to drive us the rest of the way.) We commandeer the four person table on the bus, and I feel like the cool kids (a feeling I never quite got on, say,... Continue reading

Finally, I do something in the realm of musical theatre that might actually merit blogging about. By Julia Meinwald (Composer) : Gordon Leary and I are working on a musical about a teen pregnancy pact, and it won a prize! The prize is the Weston New Musical Award, and what is means is that, in preparation to record a 30 minute demo for the show with Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight Records, Gordon and I get to travel to Vermont to spend five days working on the material with 5 actors and Rich Silverstein, our MD and partner in all crimes, musical... Continue reading

In honor of Valentine's Day week, here's a post inspired by rejection. By Julia Meinwald (Composer) This is actually the slightly cheerier of the two topics I was pondering for this week, the other being a post on beauty/physical deformity as inspired by this awesome book I just read.) As a writer, you definitely face rejection fairly frequently (Hello? Prizes? You come now? For mee?), but you can usually do so in the privacy of your own home. (This is where I was when I received perhaps my favorite rejection letter, saying that, out of courtesy to me, the applicant,... Continue reading

by Julia Meinwald (Composer) When I wrote earlier about whether music can be funny, this isn't exactly what I meant, but this video, possibly the first epic fail I've *heard*, still has me giggling weeks after first hearing it. I may still struggle with which side of my fitted sheets is the long one and consistently optimize out key staff systems in Finale (Even After I proofread), but at least I am not these guys. Continue reading

Yes, I am titling this blog with the name of a Sex and the City episode. But instead of being about Carrie's tumultuous relationship with Berger, this post is about marketing. By Julia Meinwald (Composer) I ride the C train to work, which means that this week I've been logging about 45 minutes a day staring at John Gabriel Borkman ads. I don't know a thing about graphic design or marketing, but what I get from this poster is basically: "We are famous actors. Welcome to the winter of our discontent." Which is valid...the show does have an amazing cast,... Continue reading

How important is it to be able to play well with others in the arts? By Julia Meinwald (Composer) As a composer in musical theatre, I'm often jealous of my multi-hyphenate friends. Composer-lyricists can write a whole songs themselves; there's no stressing that you'll disappoint your partner by missing a deadline, making yet another argument for your, like, totally brilliant idea, or splitting your (surely soon-to-be-existent) royalties two ways. Of course, these are also some of the things I love most about collaboration: having someone to hold you accountable for producing work, guide you towards better ideas when yours are... Continue reading

It's time for a little quiz... By Julia Meinwald (Composer) There's a little bit of Miss Jean Brodie in me, I think, because one of my favorite things is putting people I know in categories. F**k/Marry/Throw is one of my favorite games, and I spent the better part of 1997 taking quizzes in 17 Magazine. In honor of this time old tradition of dividing the world up into camps, here's a quiz for my fellow musical theatre enthusiasts. ARE YOU A JOHANNA OR A MRS. LOVETT? 1. Your best feature is: A.) Your long golden locks of hair. B.) Your... Continue reading