Vlog #35 – Assignment #5: TENSE

By
Elise Dewsberry
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Whiteboard featuring Elise Dewsberry’s Assignment #5: Tense for How to Get NO Feedback from Elise Vlog #35.

[NoHo Arts District, CA] – Elise Dewsberry’s How to Get NO Feedback from Elise: Vlog #35 – Assignment #5: Tense.

The 35th installment of New Musicals Inc. Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry’s video blog, How to Get NO Feedback from Elise, is part of a short series giving you an ASSIGNMENT for your current musical. Assignment #5 is: TENSE.

In this episode, Elise Dewsberry explores how tense can reveal whether a musical is showing its story or simply telling the audience what already happened. She asks writers to comb through their scripts for past-tense dialogue and lyrics, then question whether those moments could be brought into the present and played out onstage instead. Through this month’s assignment, Elise challenges creators to examine every past-tense moment and consider whether activating it could make the storytelling stronger, more immediate, and more interesting.

Don’t miss Elise’s Assignments:

Assignment: Character Diction
Assignment: Character Identification
Assignment: Transitions
Assignment: After the Song

To see more from this series, subscribe to the vlog at http://nmi.org/nmi-resources/elises-video-blog/

About Elise Dewsberry

Elise joined the Academy for New Musical Theatre (the former name of New Musicals Inc.) as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise also serves as a Los Angeles Ovation Award Voter, and is the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and is the author of a series of video blogs called How to Get NO Feedback from Elise.

https://www.elisedewsberry.com/

About New Musicals Inc.

New Musicals, Inc is non-profit developmental and educational community for anyone who wants to learn how to develop musical theatre! On this channel, we show off the work of our members and co-creators and provide video instruction on every aspect of the craft of musical theatre writing and development.  https://nmi.org/

Elise Dewsberry
Elise Dewsberry
http://www.nmi.org/
Elise Dewsberry Artistic Director, New Musicals Inc. Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc., Elise has been involved in the development of new works for over forty years: as an actor/singer, as a director, as a dramaturge, and as a writer. While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise joined ANMT as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and publishes a monthly blog on the craft of musical theatre available at https://nmi.org/elises-video-blog/.
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