‘Distinctive and original’ music theater works to be developed in intensive summer lab at Yale School of Drama
The Yale Institute for Music Theatre has selected two original book musicals — “Cowboy Bob” and “Gumbo” —for this year’s two-week summer lab. In addition, Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald, authors of “Pregnancy Pact, which was workshopped at the institute in 2011, will return as this year’s Alumni in Residence with their musical “REB + VoDKa + ME.”
The institute will culminate with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on June 23 and 24.
About the 2017 selections
“Cowboy Bob”
Created by Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips, and Annie Tippe
Book by Molly Beach Murphy
Music and Lyrics by Jeanna Phillips
The description for “Cowboy Bob” reads: “Peggy Jo Tallas was a good neighbor, a good daughter, and a great bank robber. Disguised as a man in a fake beard and a 10-gallon hat, ‘Cowboy Bob’ evaded detection for more than a decade. In a score that’s equal parts Riot Grrrl rage and Texas two-step, the small-town legend inspires an assortment of competing wannabe rebels to claim her story as their own.”
“Gumbo”
Music by Brett Macias
Book and lyrics by Christina Quintana
According to the organizers, “Gumbo” is infused with a jazz and R&B score, and “begins on the eve of a monstrous hurricane when a newlywed woman accepts an ominous offer from a mysterious stranger. As the city descends into chaos, her new husband journeys beneath the rising waters to find his wife. Together they must save the soul of the city from the hellish Gumbo Pot.”
Tickets for each open rehearsal reading will be available for purchase beginning April 25 online, by phone at 203-498-3772; and in person starting June 1 at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas box office at INFO New Haven Visitor Center, 1000 Chapel St.
About the Alumni Residency
The institute’s two-week alumni residency, introduced in 2015, provides a safe, intensive environment for a writing team to work on a project already in development. Leary and Meinwald will continue their work on “REB + VoDKa + ME” tells the story of a member of the Columbiners, a secretive Tumblr community sympathetic to the teenagers who committed the Columbine High School massacre. The alumni residency is for authors only, one of whom must be a past institute participant. The team is invited to all company events, but there is no rehearsal or public presentation of their work.
Established in 2009, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre is a program of Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre that bridges the gap between training and the professional world for emerging composers, book writers, and lyricists. The institute seeks distinctive and original music theater works to be developed in an intensive two-week summer lab at Yale School of Drama. The institute matches the authors of the selected works with collaborators, including professional directors and music directors, as well as a company of actors.
Media Contact
Steven Padla: steven.padla@yale.edu, 203-432-1574