A Short Statement of Appreciation on the Topic of Collaboration

Hi. I wrote last month about being about to head into a little workshop of a musical that is going to have its world premiere this summer at Barrington Stage Company in Massachusetts. As a reminder, the musical is called fuzzy, and it’s a personal story told completely with puppets.

We (and I’ll get to the “we” in a second) workshopped it once last year to find out what we have and then again for a couple of days last month to sharpen what we have in preparation to, like, do the thing for human beings at a theatre that is surprisingly and blessedly producing our crazy little experiment. And I just want to report that the four days we spent doing that honing work was as joyous and creative as any days I have spent as a writer in almost 20 years of putting pen to paper as a professional endeavor.

And the reason for that joy? Collaboration.

I am working with some remarkable artists, and will continue to on not just this project but another one that I will no doubt be writing about here in this space (where it’s very possible I’m literally writing a letter to only myself) in a matter of days.

First among them is my co-writer and full partner in all professional crimes Will Van Dyke. Will is exceptional in every way, and I spend a goodly portion of literally every day thanking whatever spirits exist in a space that I definitely do not believe in for sending my way. He is a truly gifted (where “gifted” = “brilliant”) musician, both in the practical sense (he is a world class pianist and technician) and the creative sense (he is a composer with an ear for both melody and dramaturgy - he knows how to implant a worm in your ear but that worm also reaches into your brain and heart at the same time; it’s a parasite that actually feeds your . . . soul?). BUT the thing about collaboration is, if he was not the perfect business partner, patient and opinionated and kind while also keeping a sharp eye on how to make the art exist in a way that could be translated to others, then he would just be a great artist. He is my lucky star, and he’ll never see this, so it’s the perfect place for me to say it.

But nothing gets made by the writers alone, especially in musicals, where it quickly becomes the teamiest of team sports, and in the case of this tiny little weirdo of a show, our director Ellie Heyman is integral to what we are doing - spirited and smart and a tornado of creative energy - we would be lost without her. Balanced by Patrick Sulken, our music director - proof that a quiet voice can say the loudest things when it comes from somebody who is both smart and sensitive and also the best version of kind, because he is nobody’s pushover.

We are also lucky enough to have done both steps of development with (and now will also be joined in production with) three actors who have shaped every single decision we are making: John Cariani (a walking exposed heart), Cass Morgan (a soul with a link to the eternal) and Teddy Yudain (a sensitive and gifted actor who selflessly (and selfishly) knows how to embed his very essence into furry little lumps of fabric and turn them into living beings).

We are building it together, one word and note at a time, and we are all very involved in boiling it down to its best, essential self every single time we are in a room together. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is the best definition of collaboration I can think of.

Collaboration can be hard. I’m not saying anything everybody doesn’t know. Human beings are messy, artists even more so, and setting your ego aside to let a piece of writing become a living thing requires so much of everybody that inevitably things can get mucked up pretty quickly. So when you are in a circumstance where that hasn’t happened once in over two years, you learn to stop waiting for the crash to come and just look forward to every chance to get back into the room and work.

We’ll all be together in June to start putting it on its feet. In June we will continue our collaboration in person, and no matter what happens, that is the kind of food that can keep you full for a lifetime. I can’t wait to feast.