Raw Impressions Music Theatre (RIMT) is a uniquely cool experience. 8 writers and 8 composers who have never met, are paired on a Friday night. Through a lottery, actors are assigned to each writing team. Guidelines and a theme are given, to create a new original 10-minute musical. Then you have:
- 48 hours to write the first draft
- 3 days to complete rewrites
- 4 rehearsals
And a week after the first read, your new show premieres before live audiences.
But what makes Raw Impressions such a rush, isn’t just the timeline. You have to write within the assigned theme of the RIMT event. You must create your story with characters using the actors assigned to you -- which means writing not only to their gender and physical characteristics, but ALSO their individual vocal ranges and performing styles. All of which you have to ask and discover in that first Friday night hyper-social. Because when your actors walk in to rehearsal on Monday, you have to hand them a show.
I was paired with composer David Turner. We had very different styles; I doubt we could’ve found a single common song on our iPods. But David had broad, eclectic taste in music, and was terrific to work with.
In a wonderful coincidence, Lucy Sorensen was assigned to us through the lottery. I’d worked with Lucy on If You Give A Mouse A Cookie with Scott Ethier, and she sang the lead role of Katherine in our 2nd-year project Love and War. I gave her a lot to chew on with our first song, and as always, she was phenomenal.
As it turned out, David and I did discover some common musical ground: Metallica’s S&M concert with the San Francisco Symphony. As a result, David hooked me up with a full Metallica DVD collection. They are sitting politely next to REO Speedwagon.
RIMT was a blast. You can find more information on Raw Impressions at their website, www.rawimpressions.org.
To listen to our piece, "Always Open," scroll up and click on the paper at right labeled "My Show." Enjoy!
Always Open
book and lyrics by Brett Nicholson
music by David Turner
CAST:
Lucy Sorensen
Kevin Hale
Danny Rothman
You can follow along with the script by scrolling through the document below.