Class Description

Instructor: Min Kahng (Playwright, Composer, Lyricist) When we discuss dramaturgy, we may automatically think of plays. But songs for musical theatre bring their own unique dramaturgical questions and challenges. What different theatrical functions can songs in musicals serve? How can you know if your songs are effectively contributing to your storytelling? In this class, we'll discuss the many dramaturgical functions a song can serve by looking at and listening to examples across the years. We'll zoom in on elements both musical (style, rhythm, motifs, etc) and lyrical (rhymes, poetic language, character, voice, etc), and zoom out to see how all of these elements serve the spine, structure and storytelling of an entire musical. By exploring the dramaturgical tools available to writers for the stage, each student will be better equipped for creating impactful, storytelling songs for their own shows. Requirements for this Class: Access to a music streaming service is required in order to complete listening assignments. This class will best serve songwriters who are currently writing or have written a musical, whether as individuals or as part of a collaborative team, as certain assignments will ask them to look at their own songs to identify and explore the concepts discussed. Knowledge of basic music theory will be helpful but is not required. Expectations for this Class: While we will touch on some aspects of craft, this is a theory-focused class that will combine lecture and discussion with listening and written assignments. This will not be a class where students will workshop their material. Students will, however, be asked to submit portions of their songwriting–with concepts from the class applied–as part of the homework. The instructor may ask permission to share a student’s work as part of the following week’s lecture, but this will only be done to show pertinent examples of what is being discussed–not to critique the work publicly. After Completion of Class: Students will complete the course with an array of dramaturgical tools from which to choose and with a better understanding of how their own songs are serving their larger works. MON * Summer of Sondheim – Starts Jul 28 TUE * Writing Disability on Stage – Starts Jul 29 * Crafting Dialogue – Starts Jul 29 WED * Plays by Visionary Women – Starts Jul 30 THU * Submissions Intensive – Starts Jul 23 * Script Rewrite Lab – Starts Jul 31 FRI * Song Dramaturgy – Starts Aug 1