Thursdays

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

In-person at 

The Berkshire Museum

39 South Street

Pittsfield, MA

3/24, 3/31, 4/7, 4/14 & 4/21

Five Sessions

This course is offered in-person at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA.  Please note that all in-person attendees are required to be masked at all times and provide proof of vaccination against Covid-19, or a negative test within the past 48-72 hours.

From the initial kernel of inspiration to opening night, this course will focus on the methodology, process, and imagination of the musical theatre director/choreographer. Both professional and university level theatre productions will be discussed to demonstrate how the director/choreographer approaches a musical and the many sets of given circumstances (talent, skill set levels, budget, venue, targeted audience, etc.) and how all these conditions inspire and challenge staging and choreography. A wide variety of archival video clips will be viewed and discussed from Broadway to Regional Theatre to University Theatre. Specific video examples will be presented to reveal the multitude of techniques, methodologies, and means to excite both left and right brains to create a polished musical theatre work. The course will consist of five sessions:

Session 1, Mar 24: Conceptualization: Exploring the creative process to develop the steps.

Session 2, Mar 31: Building on the shoulders of EVERYONE: From the giants of musical theatre to a beginning actor cast in their first musical, the entire ensemble creates outstanding theatre.

Session 3, Apr 7: Work shopping the new musical: Exploring the blank slate with inventive methodology to develop choreography and staging.

Session 4, Apr 14: BLAST!  How the drum and bugle corps, Star of Indiana, went from the football field to the Broadway stage, winning the Tony for Best Theatrical Event and a Tony Nomination for Choreography as well as winning an Emmy for the PBS Production.

Session 5, Apr 21: Musical Theatre’s potential to change people’s lives: A production that transformed my life at age 67.

George Pinney was nominated for a Tony Award and National Broadway Theatre Award in choreography for blast, and received an Emmy Award for outstanding choreography for the PBS broadcast of blast.  George, Professor Emeritus and Former Head of the B.F.A. in Musical Theatre in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance at Indiana University, has directed and/or choreographed for Broadway, the West End of London, national and international tours, regional theatres and over a hundred university productions. Recognized as a master teacher, George was awarded the prestigious Friedrich Herman Lieber Award for Distinguished Teaching, five Indiana University Board of Trustees Awards and membership in the Faculty Colloquium of Excellence in Teaching

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