Publicity image for CROSSxROADS, supplied.
Well, it sure as hell ain’t easy.
But CROSSxROADS is, amazingly, about to happen. It’s been quite a journey. In one way, you could say that the premiere makes the journey worthwhile; in another, the process is its own reward, and its culmination in production is another thing altogether – a thing that makes you, in Little Red’s words, “excited and scared”.
Why do it? I suspect that for Anthony Costanzo, my remarkable collaborator, the question doesn’t really arise. Music comes so naturally to him that music theatre is probably something he can’t help doing. For me, as a writer, it’s not such a natural choice. Other kinds of fiction are much safer, because they don’t need other people. But when they work, creative partnerships add some other pretty exciting dimensions – I like that. And I like the way music and song can work with or against dialogue. Sometimes it’s about saying things that prose can’t say; sometimes it’s articulate subtext. Sometimes it can play in ironic counterpoint to the line of action, and suggest other layers of thought and emotion. And there’s always the authenticity issue – how do we make audiences believe in the genuineness of ‘real’ feelings when our performers are bursting into song in the middle of a conversation? It’s such a complex beast. I really like that about the form; so much can be going on at once. That’s where high risk yields high reward.
But getting it to the stage, with all its creative and technical departments, is like reversing a battleship into a car park. It needs a lot of help.
Our show had some of that ‘help’ almost before it began, with the offer from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) of a fortnight of intensive workshops in June 2013. We had two songs that might fit a kind of show about a troubled love story; I invented a couple of notional scenes at a graduation and an art gallery (where there was an exhibition of paintings of penises – and yes, that scene is still in the show). We had eight terrific students in the room, but we had to keep feeding them; my musical flowerchildren was running at the time, and I couldn’t stay away – so it was 9 to 5 at the VCA, 7 to 11 at the Comedy, then two scenes before I fell asleep. Anthony was on his own version of that crazy schedule – with a business to run as well…
At the end of a fortnight there was something resembling a first act, and a few ideas and songs that might appear in a hypothetical second. We’ll always owe the VCA a debt of gratitude for providing that space to throw ideas around, and those students to try them out. Lesson one, then, for writers and promoters of new Australian musicals – try to access the opportunities that our actor-training institutions can provide, and to grab every opportunity to put your work on the floor with performers whenever and wherever you can. I suppose the accompanying lesson is to do that in a creative environment where everyone in the room feels free to make suggestions. Actors are a writer’s main resource (after words, I guess); what they say, from the perspective of their role, is always important to hear (even if you don’t act on it; you also need to be confident in your own judgements – another balancing act).
CROSSxROADS kept growing. Somehow, in a couple of months, we had a second act, and with the aid of some generous and talented friends brought it to a public reading in The Loft at Chapel off Chapel in December 2013. The response was wonderful. But still there was a long way to go. It was workshopped informally several times through 2014, and the infant continued to grow. Lesson two – push it early to some form of public reading, but don’t feel rushed to get it to the stage. We’ve waited nearly two and half years between a fairly euphoric first showing and opening night, and while that’s sometimes felt frustrating, the truth is – ​it needed all that time.
Then we locked in season dates, and a director. Tyran Parke came on board in September 2015, and has had a crucial role in the show’s evolution. Lesson three, then, might be – find yourself a really good director, as soon as you can.
Our next lesson (this makes four) was a practical one. We knew we were going to rely primarily on personal finances to do this; you can’t wait around for a rich guy with a cigar to tell you he’s going to make your show a hit. We had a few generous supporters, and found a funding ally in the Stonnington Council’s arts program. There are comparable sources of support at Theatre Works, and probably elsewhere. Writers aren’t used to thinking like producers, but in our arts climate they have to learn to do that.
Lesson five was about letting go. That started quite early for us in the process of workshopping CROSSxROADS. There were songs that were stunning in themselves, but stalled our story-telling; there were some very funny scenes (I thought!) that elaborated things we already knew about characters and did nothing to advance the plot. Who knows – maybe one day the CD of the Cut Songs from CROSSxROADS will become a cult thing, and a collector’s item.
In the US you get the sense that there can be multiple try-outs. In Australia your first production could very well be your last, and you have to make your one shot count. So the streamlining has to be done constantly, and done well. You can’t carry into its first production things that you sense, deep down, you’re only just getting away with.
And so to the final stage of letting go. In a week or so, this infant of ours toddles out into the big wide world, and takes its chances as they come. I’m pretty sure it will walk sturdily on its own two feet. Who knows? It might even take wing and fly.
CROSSxROADS
Book by Peter Fitzpatrick
Music and Lyrics by Anthony Costanzo
Directed by Tyran Parke
Chapel off Chapel, Prahran
15 – 30 April, 2016
More details at www.rlproductions.com.au
