From Pitch to Performance: Making of a Musical

Johnson & Wales University’s drama club, the JWU Players, produces a musical annually. Each production is led entirely by undergraduate students from a variety of the university’s colleges. During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Players produced Bright Star, a bluegrass story about love, loss, and family. Bright Star generated new funds for the club and met several of the objectives set forth by the production team. Once a production team is elected in December, they immediately begin the planning for show weekend. The weekend of performances is slated for mid-April, giving the production team four months to create a show. During this time, scripts, musical tracks, costumes, and props must be ordered and prepared. Sets are built, sound & light cues are designed/programed, and rehearsals are run. A variety of marketing materials are also developed: a trailer to be shared on a variety of platforms, letters to senior administration of the university, posters to be hung around campus, and graphics to be posted on social media. Sixteen hours a week, the cast meets to block the show, learn the songs, and choreograph several dances. The production staff meet for two hours to update one another and ensure positive progress every other week. At the outset of the production, there were several goals for the show. The production was intended to welcome friends, family, and members of the university back to live theatre. The club also sought to increase alumni attendance at the production through targeted marketing materials. Despite not being a university department or college, there was an overwhelming attendance of alumni, which included three of the club’s past presidents. Due to the outreach by students to market the production, the creative work of the cast & crew, and passion for the performing arts, Bright Star was a successful production on all counts