C&S: How and when
did you become involved with the musical adaptation of Sweet Land? Were
you familiar with the movie before you started working on the project?
LFH: My collaborator
Perrin Post originated the project seven years ago. I came on board as lyricist
and co-bookwriter over four years ago, and shortly after that, composer Dina
Maccabee joined the team. I didn’t catch the movie in the theater when it came
out ten years ago, but I did watch it before I was attached to the project and
I immediately fell in love. It’s a beautiful film.
C&S: I've seen
readings or excerpts of the musical four times in the past three years (I'm
basically a Sweet Land groupie). How has the piece changed in that time
and what do you learn from readings of a work in progress in front of a live
audience?
LFH: I love this
question, because it goes right to the heart of the role an audience has in the
development of a new work. We learn so much from putting our work in front of
people. We’re watching a test drive of the material—it’s very helpful to see
what lands with the audience, and what doesn’t quite hit the mark. After a
reading, a good talkback can help us answer all kinds of questions about basic
things like story arc as well as more nuanced questions about character development
and relationships. My favorite kind of talkback is one where we have an
opportunity to ask questions of the audience: What moved you? What confused
you? Did this or that work? Having feedback can be very productive. Sometimes
it helps to sharpen your own critique of your own work. I know I can speak for
Perrin and Dina, too, when I say that we are very grateful for the people who
have followed this project through its many workshop iterations. (Thanks for
being a groupie, Jill!)
Throughout our
process, we’ve used various workshops to focus on a very specific set of
questions. For instance, when Ben Krywosz at Nautilus Music-Theater invited us
to do a Rough Cuts, we chose to explore a few songs that were either new or
potentially on the chopping block. In fact, we trotted out a new song for the
end of the show, and it was met with a resounding thud. That was great
information to have, and a very safe place to learn that the song wasn’t
working. Perrin received an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State
Arts Board that allowed us to get up on our feet and explore movement with the
immensely talented Brian Sostek and Megan McClellan of Sossy Mechanics. The
History Theatre specializes in new work. They provided us with two workshops,
Raw Stages, where we worked on music and orchestrations with Robert Elahi
(composer of C. and Twisted Apples) followed by a Next
Stages workshop with our choreographer Joe Chvala. And of course, all along the
way we’ve been tweaking the script. Tweak, tweak, tweak. It never ends.
As for how much
the show has changed over time, I would say that it’s grown more than changed.
Since we’re adapting from the movie, our basic storyline is the same as when
the process began, but there have been significant edits, including new songs.
C&S: Will Weaver's
short story A Gravestone Made of Wheat, upon which the movie Sweet
Land is based, is elegantly simple. It's short and sparse, and
screenwriter/director Ali Selim really fleshed out the story and the
characters, and also shifted the focus of the story from Olaf to Inge. Did you
go back to the original story when you were writing the musical, or is it
mostly based on the movie?
LFH: We did go back to
the original story and found it to be a rich source of inspiration. I agree—I
love its elegant simplicity. It’s no wonder that that story spoke to Ali Selim
as well. By the way, Will Weaver will be at the History Theatre opening night.
C&S: One of the
things I love about the musical is that most of my favorite lines from the
movie have become songs - "you're ducky," "I took a bath,"
"ducks dream." How much of the lyrics come directly from the
movie/short story, and how did you decide which lines/scenes to turn into songs
vs. dialogue?
LFH: This may sound
weird, but a great line or strong image will often demand to be musicalized.
Although there’s always the exception. (No amount of begging and pleading on my
part would convince my collaborators that Too
Many Beans was a good song title.) But generally, a memorable line signals
an important moment that bears musicalizing. By finding those beats, we find a
map for where to place a song.
This is one of
the fun parts of working in this form. A line hits you and suddenly a whole new
world of possibility emerges. “You’re ducky” is a great example. The line is so
satisfying in and of itself that it becomes the hook of an idea, and ultimately
the hook of a song.
I look for ways
to drop images or lines from the movie and short story into the song lyrics
themselves, even if they are transformed somewhat in the process. Listen for
the title of Will’s story in the opening number, as well as the quote at the
top of the film.
C&S: Whenever a duo splits music and lyrics duties in writing a musical, I'm curious how that works. Which comes first, the music or the lyrics? What is that collaboration process like, especially since Dina is not local?
LFH: Our process is generally one where I write lyrics first and then Dina sets them, but before I even get to writing, Perrin, Dina and I have already talked a lot about what the song is going to be. Dina is a lyricist in her own right. Her feedback is an important part of the process and we’ll go back and forth a lot as we get finalize the song. We work via skype, phone, or email, and we’ve also spent a good deal of time in person together. It doesn’t feel like a long-distance relationship, although we’re not always in the same time zone—or on the same continent, for that matter.
C&S: Fun Home
made history last year when it became the first musical written by an
all-female team to win a Tony Award for best score. Sweet Land also has
an all-female creative team. Why do you think there's been such a lack of
women as musical theater playwrights and composers, or at least a lack of recognition
of them, and what are some current initiatives (both local and national) to
support women writers in musical theater?
LFH: Thank you for
asking this question, because it is an important one and near and dear to my
heart. The Lilly Awards are partnering with the Dramatists Guild in an ongoing
study of gender parity in American theater called The Count. I saw the data
from the very first Count at the 2015 Dramatists Guild Conference, where Lisa
Kron from Fun Home unveiled the
results: only 22% of the productions that were counted were written by women.
I’ll never forget what Lisa said next: female composers were virtually unrepresented in the data. When
Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori won their Tony for Best Score for Fun Home (the first time an all-female
team won) their acceptance speech wasn’t shown on TV. If you missed it, Jeanine
talked about how she didn’t know she could have a career in music until she saw
a woman conductor on Broadway. In her words, “You have to see it to be it.” Visibility
is everything.
This phrase
“virtually unrepresented” has stuck with me ever since, and has made me more
intentional about supporting and signal boosting initiatives that support women
writers and writers of color, such as The Lilly Awards, the New Griots
Festival, The Interval, the International Center for Women Playwrights, the
Ziegfield Club, and twitter handles like @womencompose.
And while I take
stock of the #genderparity issues around the country, I can’t help but feel
grateful for the community in which I live and work, and the developmental
support and first productions I’ve had at the History Theatre under Ron Peluso.
They have produced four of my original musicals, including two new works
written with my collaborator Marya Hart (a woman composer). They HT celebrates
40 years next season, and a look back at their catalog shows just how committed
they have been to the development of new work from women and artists of color
over their entire history. Look across our Twin Cities and you’ll find women
playwrights thriving. Three women have national playwright residencies at
Minneapolis theatres through the Andrew Mellon Foundation: Christina Ham at
Pillsbury House Theatre, Aditi Kapil at Mixed Blood, and Kira Oblensky at Ten
Thousand Things, and all four of the current Jerome Fellows are women. And yet,
even if it feels like our ecosystem is healthier than most, issues of
#genderparity permeate our national conversation and still demand examination
and understanding on the local level.
Here’s a link if
you’re interested in learning more about The Count: http://thelillyawards.org/initiatives/the-count/.
C&S: Is there anything
else you would like audiences to know about the world premiere of Sweet Land
the Musical?
LFH: When we started
on this project we couldn’t have imagined the political climate we’re living in
today—a world suddenly turned upside down with (among other things) hysteria
about people who “don’t belong here.” Every day we’re reminded how important it
is to act with love in the face of fear and rejection. Inge and Olaf help us
remember to do just that.
Previews for Sweet Land, the Musical begin this week and the official opening is Saturday April 29, with performances continuing through May 28. See the History Theatre website for more information and to purchase tickets.
This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.
This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.