Interview With Composer Adam Gwon
by Joe Drymala at February 7, 2005 - 12:25am
Part One of a Two-Part Series focused on Raw Impressions Music Theatre.

If this is the first you've heard of Raw Impressions Music Theatre, you've got about four years -- and 148 shows -- of catching up to do. Their concept makes makes the Dogme 95 guys look like a buncha posers. Per their website, it goes a little something like this:

8 composers and 8 writers who have never met are paired on a Friday evening. They are given guidelines in creating a new 10 minute music theatre piece. The first draft is sight read by 10 actor/singers that Sunday afternoon. 3 days for rewrites. 4 days for rehearsal. They present the new pieces to the public a week after the first reading.

Adam Gwon (who wrote the riveting Lulu featured in last year's Fringe and NYMF) is one of the 8 composers featured in the latest Raw Impressions installment, which opens tonight (Monday, February 7) and runs through Wednesday at HERE on 145 6th Ave. Shows are at 7 and 9:30 p.m., and tickets are $15 (buy them here).

StageSpace conducted the following interview with Adam over the weekend.

StageSpace: First of all tell us a little about Raw Impressions. What is it, and how does it work?

Adam Gwon: Raw Impressions is a non-profit company that brings together writers, composers, actors, directors and musical directors to present a marathon of 10-minute musicals that are written, rehearsed, and performed in about a week. (Raw Impressions also has a film division that presents a similar marathon of movie musicals.)
The process seems crazy, but is really well-organized. All the participants meet on a Friday night, where writers are paired and guidelines are announced. Each marathon has a theme or assignment that guides the writers as they create. The writing teams are also assigned specific actors for whom to tailor their pieces. The writers have to present their first draft that Sunday afternoon, then have three days to tinker and re-write before the piece goes into rehearsal. Each marathon uses two directors, each directing half the pieces, and they’re really involved in the dramaturgy of each piece, and extremely helpful in the development process. Once rehearsals start, the writers’ job is basically over; we’ll come see the first run-through of all the pieces, and then the official performances in front of a paying audience start the very next day!

SS: You normally work by yourself, or with one longtime collaborator. Did the new collaboration take some adjustment?

AG: It’s funny you ask this – one of my New Year’s resolutions was to explore more of the collaborative process, because I’ve worked so long doing music, book and lyrics myself. Going into the Raw Impressions experience, I thought it would be a great way to start; because of the time constraints of the project, you just have to make your collaboration work. I was lucky to have been paired with a writing partner, Justin Warner, who was a really good fit. We both remarked that our collaboration was freakishly efficient. One of the most important things about a collaboration, particularly with someone you’ve never worked with before – and this is something that Raw Impressions stresses immensely – is setting up the ground rules of your collaboration. Everyone is different, they work in different ways, they have different ideas of what collaboration is. Who exactly is going to write what? Does one writer have the right to tinker with the other writer’s material? After our initial brainstorming session about what our piece would be, Justin and I decided on our course of action. In our case, I love writing music and lyrics, and Justin is primarily a playwright and librettist. The way things worked out – because of our individual interests and the nature of the piece we came up with – Justin wound up writing our scenario out in play form, which I then adapted into lyrics and wrote a sung-through piece. Then, over the course of the re-writing process, we worked hand-in-hand to shape moments, refine lyrics, etc. It was really great. There are moments in the show that I wrote that are 100% inspired from Justin’s work, and vice versa. I think that is what collaboration is all about – mutual inspiration that manifests itself in the work. It makes the piece feel like it is both your own and a product of your work together.

SS: What's the atmosphere like among the Raw Impressions folks? What do they want most out of their writers?

AG: The folks who run Raw Impressions are some of the most enthusiastic, inviting people I’ve worked with. They are genuinely and unabashedly excited about the creative potential inherent in a project like this. In putting together these marathons, I think they have two main objectives. The first is to offer writers the chance to create without the anxieties usually attached to mounting a production. There are no worries about whether or not your piece is commercially viable, whether or not you’re going to get optioned by a producer. There’s no competitive edge, if only because there’s no time for it. Raw Impressions is really a playground for writers, and the great thing is that the fruits of your efforts actually result in a fully staged production, with no apologies for any of the restraints in the process. While there are unique stresses that come with writing a show in about 36 hours, the process is designed to alleviate many other obstacles you normally face when creating a production, and frankly, to let the writers have fun.

I think the second objective of Raw Impressions is to continue to build a community of musical theatre writers, directors, and performers. I came into this project not knowing a single soul who was participating, and I’ve met a lot of fellow artists and potential future collaborators. A lot of these writers are members of workshops like BMI or graduate writing programs like NYU or Juilliard, and Raw Impressions seems like a chance for these writers to come together and create something and get it on its feet without being literally critiqued to death like they’re used to in those programs. Of course, there is a benefit to being critiqued to death, but there’s also a benefit to just doing it and getting it up. It’s a rare opportunity to be forced to do a show from scratch in a short amount of time, and as I said, the whole process is designed to be FUN, so you’re making friends at the same time you’re making theatre.

SS: Was it challenging to fit an entire idea into a ten-minute space?

AG: I tend to think epically, so going in, I was unsure about how to write a piece that was only 10 minutes long. But, at least with our group’s specific guidelines, the impetus for the piece was really based on shaping a single moment, so it wasn’t difficult to stay on track and not go on writerly tangents. And you’d be surprised at how much time you’ve actually got to say something in 10 minutes – it’s more than you’d think. Our piece has a 32-page score, and while it’s completely sung-though, it still only runs about 8 minutes, and believe me, we’ve got A LOT going on in those 8 minutes. It’s also a good exercise in compression for a musical theatre writer; you’ve got a very limited time to craft specific characters and take them on a journey. There is no room for wasted moments.

SS: Do you think the process itself has contributed to your growth as a writer? If so, how?

AG: Yes, I think so. It gets you thinking on your feet. It forces you to spit out material without judging it. It teaches you to trust your instincts. And, for me personally, it was a great way to quell my fears about collaboration. I’m always one to jump right into the deep end of the pool when the water’s cold, and I think this was the musical theatre collaboration equivalent. I think it’s valuable for writers, especially young writers, to work with creative processes that differ from their normal way of doing things. It just makes you more versatile, and more suited to the myriad of collaborative experiences that are out there. As I said before, everyone has a different idea of what collaboration is, so learning to work collaboratively in many different ways is a useful skill.

Raw Impressions Music Theater #16 -- "Afloat" runs Monday, February 7 through Wednesday, February 9. Performances are at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at HERE (145 6th Ave @ Spring Street). Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by phone at (212) 868-4444 or online at Smart Tix.Copyright 2004 Populist Productions LLC. All rights reserved.