Scott Elmegreen is a playwright, composer, and author based in Chicago and Brooklyn. His shows have premiered on Broadway and off Broadway, have been produced around the world, and have been adapted to film for theatrical release, HBO, and Amazon Prime. His plays include Straight, Expecting, Troll, and Thucydides, and his musicals include Ghost of John McCain, Hip Hop Cinderella, Vote, COLLEGE The Musical, Ivy + Bean, The Magic School Bus, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, and Awesome Allie First Kid Astronaut. He orchestrated S’Wonderful: The New Gershwin Musical, and wrote the music for Colin Quinn: Long Story Short, Piled Higher and Deeper, The Movie, and numerous off-Broadway plays. Under a pseudonym, he has written four science fiction novels published by HarperCollins.
Scott Elmegreen
Courses
TAPS 24080/34080 New Musical Development
This class explores and replicates the professional theatrical process of new musical development, beginning with the concept for a show and ending with its premiere performance as an invited staged reading. Students will serve as book writers, lyricists, composers (Writing Team), and/or directors, music directors, actors, singers, and dramaturgs (Artistic Team) as they work together to craft and polish a new and viable work of musical theater. This class studies the art and theory behind theatrical storytelling, songwriting, directing, and originating new roles as actors, and students will work on their feet each week to bring their unique perspectives and skills to the creation of a new musical script, score, and performance.
TAPS 21860/31860 Songwriting for Musical Theater
This course is a practical introduction to the art and craft of songwriting for musical theater. Students will analyze and practice song form, storytelling through music, and the writing of lyrics and melody for character and tone. In addition to presenting and workshopping new song material weekly, students will learn about orchestration, arrangement, and the structure of the theatrical score by discussing standout examples of the genre. As individuals or in teams of two, students will develop a catalog of character- and story-driven songs to be performed in cabaret at the end of the quarter. A basic ability to read music is expected; experience in songwriting is not required.
TAPS 21880 The Broadway Effect: Musicals and the Shaping of American Culture
This course examines how Broadway musicals have participated in shaping what America imagines itself to be. From West Side Story, to Rent, to Hamilton, students will study landmark productions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to analyze how song, narrative, performance, and spectacle have reframed cultural debates, proposed new social possibilities, and challenged dominant narratives even while operating within the commercial pressures of mass market industries. Through discussion of musical scripts and scores, live and recorded productions, and selected dramaturgical and cultural theory, students will investigate Broadway’s distinctive aesthetic and ideological “effects,” including its role in constructing ideas of race, gender, nationhood, and belonging. The course culminates in a choice between a critical research paper or an original artistic project.