First Rant of 2005

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H-Bomb Explosion

Well, I've been able to delay my first rant of 2005 for 4 whole days! It has been building up, building up, and now the pressure is just too much and I must unload. Before I begin, I must say it is possible that I have been misinformed about this, as I so often am. If that is the case (and I hope it is!) I would appreciate being set straight.


I've been a member of both SOCAN and SAC since I started writing songs in earnest, over 15 years ago. When I first started writing I turned to Nashville and the NSAI for the nuts and bolts of Tin Pan Alley writing (with a country flair of course). They offered course upon course with actual writers, workshops and symposiums that focused purely on writing and pitching. SOCAN and SAC picked up on that thanks to a lot of cross pollination with NSAI and people like Ralph Murphy.

I have since benefited from SOCAN and SAC's growing body of support for pop/rock/country writers, in the shape of workshops and sponsored events.

However over all this time there was never any mention, in any courses offered, SOCAN publications and magazines or SAC events of support for musical theater writers. I had heard of ASCAP's musical theatre workshops and BMI's Lehman Engel musical theater writing bootcamp. Every time I would browse through my SOCAN magazines I would see listings, happenings, and awards for all musical types: Rock, Alternative, Grunge, Jazz, Classical, Folk, Country, Kids, Pop -- except Musical Theater! Puzzled, I assumed that I was the only person in Canada interested in writing musical theater.

It also baffled me since over the last decade or so musical theater has brought a fair bit of coin into Toronto...remember Phantom? Admittedly the majority were not written by Canadians, (although there are a ton of great Canadian writers, I'll go into that another time) but didn't that suggest that Canadian talent should be nurtured?

So I had to look outside of Canada for training in musical theater writing.

I'm currently travelling to Chicago once a month for Theatre Building Chicago's Musical Theatre Writers Workshop. Also, I have since joined the ACLCL and discovered a huge pool of writing talent, and tons of activity going on in the "musical theater underground". So why are Canadian musical theater writers completely ignored by SOCAN and SAC?

True, musical theater pieces haven't been on the radio in some time (Memories...) but isn't the failure to invest in or at least profile our musical theater writers a self-fulfilling (defeating?) prophecy? Obviously, ASCAP and BMI see the value in it. Am I missing something?
By Suzy Conn on January 4, 2005 12:27 PM | | Comments (0)


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