Essay Sample on Building The Life Musical: Collaboration & Investment in Production

Introduction

Putting a musical together involves collaboration in sharing ideas, resources, and workloads. Working together seems like a sure way to be productive, but there are differences in approach that can stagnate a production. The book related to working on "The Life" explores this concept of collaboration that not only works for the musical but also reflects on personal life. Investments from each collaborator ease the situation making it feel less like work (Roznowski and Domer78). It can be made possible by creating an environment where the designer, actor, and director want to participate. The premise of the book "The Life" on collaboration is that people need a strong foundation that they can build back from when they fall back.

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Working together to create a musical theatre has some challenges, but then again, it results in picks from the best from each participant. Some of the challenges include time schedules, exhaustion, and budgetary issues (Roznowski and Domer80). The collaborators anticipated a problem when it came to costume construction and scenery. This situation teaches that collaboration requires sacrifice and compromise. It is something that happens sometimes during collaborations that budget constraints can bring about problems in certain areas. One should be able to also anticipate such issues and learn how to make compromises. When compromising, the collaborators need to strike a balance (Cohen 75). The book provides an example where in choosing the musical title they had to input the designer's wishes and the director's wishes incorporated into the production history of the department (Roznowski and Domer 79). Everyone would have their own ideas in truth, and it is common to have contrasting directions. It is where compromise comes in such that discussions can result in picking the best ideas from all the participants (Bickerstaff 43). Therefore, people need to know how to work through the strictures and structures of collaboration and learn about their limitations to achieve success.

Despite the scheduling problems, the difference in ideas, and budget limitations, collaboration at times involves working alone. It is such that people have to work separately and later on bring their products together (Bickerstaff 48). The book mentions that everyone has a part in production (Roznowski and Domer 80). One has to keep in mind that they working with others and as such be flexible with issues such as time, budget, and generational gap (Cohen 3). For instance, the director mentioned that she was working with 18 to 20-year old college students and had to mind the vocabulary (Roznowski and Domer 81). Working alone requires sacrifice too for long hours of research and then working with others towards a democratic outcome. It is exemplified in the book where the director had to do research on prostitution, consider the institution's concerns of vulgarity, and then wait for school to resume after the summer holiday (Roznowski and Domer 82).

Conclusion

The collaborators of "The Life" have impacted my life and there are lessons I can transfer to my future interests. I understand the complexity of collaboration where I have to consider both internal and external factors. The external factors demonstrated in the book include the time schedules and the budget. The difference in ideas and the long hours of research constitute the internal factors. The director was able to overcome these challenges by being flexible with time, budget, vocabulary, and also incorporating other's ideas. I believe I have learned valuable lessons that I can apply to my career. I will appreciate other ideas, work tirelessly on my part, and finally be able to compromise to a consensus.

Works Cited

Bickerstaff, Jimmy. "Collaborative Theatre/Creative Process." Communication and Theatre Association of Minnesota Journal. Vol. 38, no. 4, 2011, pp. 42-54.

Cohen, Robert. Working Together in Theatre. London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.

Roznowski, Rob, and Kirk Domer. Collaboration in Theatre. A Practical Guide For Designers and Directors. New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. Print.