By Katy Yocom, Associate Director, Spalding low-residency MFA
An award-winning Off-Broadway musical-theatre team is taking their collaboration into the Spalding MFA classroom this spring to offer a workshop in writing for musical theatre.
Spalding MFA faculty member Charlie Schulman and guest faculty Michael Roberts pair up to co-teach the workshop, which focuses on book and lyrics and is open to Spalding MFA students in any genre. The workshop takes place during the MFA program’s spring residency, May 25-June 3 in Louisville.
Limited to 10 students, this generative workshop explores the techniques, structure, and styles of writing book/libretto and lyrics for musical theater. Students will collaborate or work solo on book/libretto and lyrics to write and revise scenes and songs for an original musical. In addition, songs and scenes from several well-known musicals will be analyzed. Students from any genre are welcome, and no musical skills are required.
The application deadline for the MFA program’s spring semester is February 1. Prospective students may email mfa@spalding.edu with questions or to request a code to waive the $30 application fee.
Michael Roberts received his Masters in Music Composition from Indiana University. His
Katy Yocom’s fiction, poetry, essays, and journalism have appeared in Salon, The Louisville Review, 2nd & Church, and elsewhere. The 2016 recipient of the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature, she holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University.