Shoshana Greenberg

It wasn’t really a vacation (aside from the three days I spent down the shore), but I did have a fun, productive summer. The biggest developments have been with the musical I am writing with composer and co-bookwriter Hyeyoung Kim, which is inspired by the activities of The Weathermen/Weather Underground Organization and The Black Panther Party in 1969 and the early 1970s. After our wonderful experience with 4@15 back in April where we presented a 15-minute version called “Days of Rage”, we have been working to complete a full-length version with the goal of having a first draft by the final weekend in October.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3waIJyvwAA&index=1&list=UUlZ8t63ht0Zn7Gs70QTFMeg

The song “Necessary Violence”at Hyeyoung Kim’s cabaret on August 21, 2014

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to spend six days at the beautiful Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, NJ, as part of a writing retreat through our graduate program (the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts). We stayed in an adorable apartment overlooking one of the rivers and worked all day in the spaces at the theater, including the stage. We also met with the theater staff and received feedback on our work.

One evening, all the writers at the retreat presented a song for an audience of theater staff and friends of the theater. We presented a song we wrote in the past two days called “Tom,” in which one of our main characters, Jean, remembers her brother fighting in Vietnam. We then had a short Q&A with the audience, during which we talked about our show and why we are writing about this time period. The people who have lived through it are surprised that younger people are interested in it, but it’s hard not to be interested in this time in history. And there are so many parallels to today.

One of my other shows, Lightning Man, with book by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Jeffrey Dennis Smith, is also progressing, and I should have more news on that show in the coming months.

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While the search for Avonte was a shared NYC experience, I think it had a different resonance for people who have seen a severely autistic family member bolt away. I can still see clearly in my mind my 8-year-old brother running down the road before I chased after him almost 20 years ago. When I watched the security footage of Avonte running out of his school, I thought, “I know that motion. I recognize that speed, that force of will.”

What made the search for Avonte so important to me was that suddenly so many people cared about the fate of a child who would otherwise have been invisible to the mainstream media. The fact that the Department of Education was responsible ensured that his face was inescapable in the NYC subway system, and like many people I kept seeing his face in strangers and having fantasies about discovering him on the street and returning him to his family. Back in October, when there was still a strong hope of finding him, I jotted down this little poem as I was walking:

I thought I saw Avonte
Upon the thoroughfare
But then I saw his eyes betray
A not-so-vacant stare

His clothes were clean and fitting
His pallor hardly wan
I should have asked a question
Just to check, but he was gone.

I’ve found it a bit incongruous that everyone in the city of New York would be sharing an experience that would otherwise have been smaller and more personal, and I wonder how different this story would have been if Avonte had bolted from his home and not his school or if he had been 22 instead of 14. I would have had the same reaction, but would have the city?

The day Avonte’s death was confirmed, I was reading Amiri Baraka’s poem “The Incident” and these lines jumped out at me:

“Pictures of the dead man, are everywhere. And his spirit   
sucks up the light. But he died in darkness darker than   
his soul and everything tumbled blindly with him dying…”

Just as I will always remember my brother running down the road, I think I will always see Avonte’s face on those ubiquitous pictures that forced an entire city to confront what for me had once been so familiar.

Disclaimer: I only rank shows that I watch (and I did not watch Breaking Bad or Orange is the New Black, etc.). Also, there are some spoilers. Read at your own risk…

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Last year, I read 13 books! This year I read 12, although 3 of them were A Series of Unfortunate Events books I am reading to my babysitting charge. However, last year many of my books were very short (3 The Walking Dead trades, for example) and 1 was also a Series of Unfortunate Events book, so I think I’m pretty even this year.

1 of the books I had started reading in a previous year, but it was a long book (Backlash) and I was only halfway into it. Overall, I read 4 Children/Young Adult series books, 1 classic novel, 5 non-fiction (1 biography, 1 history/personal account, 1 humor biography, 2 feminist texts–well, 1 feminist text and 1 pseudo-feminist text depending on your views), and 2 adult fiction series. All but 1 were by American authors. 2 were by an author I work with. 1 I read because it related to something I was writing.

I did also read 14 New Yorkers and 5 New York magazines in between each book, plus some New York Times and various other magazine and website articles.

My favorite books of the year:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Backlash

Worst book of the year:
I didn’t read any bad books this year.

The List:

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My chorus, Essential Voices USA, is in the midst of a busy concert season.

Last week, we celebrated the great lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, Fiorello!) at our Composer Speaks: Reason to Be Thankful event. Composers Larry Hochman, Roberto Sierra, John Glover, and librettist Kelley Rourke joined Sheldon on the stage for interviews after we sang their pieces.Sheldon has been my favorite lyricist for many years, not only because his lyrics are the perfect combination of brevity, wit, and feeling but he is kind and always eager to talk to fans and fellow theater people. During our first conversation back in 2007 we discussed productions of Fiddler on the Roof in Israel, and every subsequent encounter has been just as meaningful.

 This week, my chorus sings with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall for “Under the Mistletoe with Ashley Brown.” We are singing a wide array of Christmas music from traditional carols to contemporary holiday hits. I’m looking forward to singing at Carnegie Hall once again with so many consummate musicians, both within my chorus and those with whom we are collaborating.

Tickets are still available for this concert here.

On Monday, July 15, I was honored to be one of the seven featured musical theater writers in Sparkification Productions’ An Evening Celebrating Emerging Female Composers. It was a lovely concert with wonderful women writers and singers. The great Mary-Mitchell Campbell music-directed, and a slate of Broadway performers sang two songs by each writer. Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid, Master Class) sang “New Year’s,” my song with composer Tina Lear, and Christiane Noll (Ragtime, Chaplin) sang “The Decay,” my song with composer Jeffrey Dennis Smith.

Check out the videos:

It was thrilling to have these brilliant performers sing these songs, not just because I’ve long admired their work but because it reminded me of how far these songs have come. Here’s some history for those of you who enjoy learning about the origins of songs…

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