First-Year Musical 2019
Executive Production Team Application
Each year, members of the freshman class come together to produce an original musical. The show, an adored Harvard theater tradition, is entirely student-created: written, produced, directed, designed, staffed, and acted exclusively by Harvard freshmen. The First-Year Musical (formerly the Freshman Musical) is the best opportunity you’ll have as a freshman to get fully involved in Harvard theater—no other show will allow you, this year, to have as much responsibility and creative control. Being on the First-Year Musical core production team (Director, Producer, Book Writer, Lyricist, and Composer) is one of the most unique and fulfilling experiences you will have at Harvard. We hope you’ll apply!
Please join us for an info session on Monday, 9/28 from 7-8pm in Straus Common Room, where the core production team from last year's First-Year Musical will be there ready to answer all your questions about the show and the application process.
Applications (for Producer, Director, Book Writer, Lyricist, and Composer) are due Sunday, October 4th at 8:00pm to Leverett G-20 or via email to .
Please email Gita Abhiraman, last year's director, at if you have any questions in the meantime.
Thank you!
We look forward to reading your applications! We will contact selected candidates via email to schedule interviews.
Contact Information
Name:______
Phone:______
Email:______
Room:______
Position(s)—please check all positions you are interested in; please rank in order of preference.
Executive Producer: ______Director:______Book Writer______
Lyricist:______Composer:______
Statement of Interest
Please attach a brief statement detailing why you would like to be a member of the Freshman Musical production team.
Short Answer
What is your favorite musical and why? (Attach a brief response).
Resume
Please attach a brief resume including your previous involvement in theater and any other relevant experience or training.
Position-Specific Requirements
Executive Producer:
Please submit responses to the following prompts.
1. Why would you make a strong Producer? What experiences have you had that make you a good fit for producing a musical?
2. Imagine you are producing a stage adaptation of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Fight Club. Write a few paragraphs telling either the IOP or the Women’s Center why they should provide funding for your show.
Director:
Attached is a scene. Please submit a proposal for how you would direct the scene. This can include mark-ups on the script itself and/or up to 3 additional pages. Use any tools (sketches of characters, costumes, key concepts, ideas for set design & lights, etc.) to convey your vision.
Book Writer:
Book Writer: Please submit a scene from 5-7 pages inspired by (not necessarily containing) one of the following phrases:
- "Love is a battlefield."
- "My child’s an honor student."
- "I won’t let this courtroom become a zoo!"
- "Away, you rolling river..."
- "Here comes the guest of honor."
Characters, plot, wisdom, and honesty are all in the first Google result for “how to write a good play.” You are welcome to use this advice. Humor is mandatory but not required.
Lyricist: Please write the lyrics to either an ode to plagiarism or to a love song written by a bear.
Composer: See composer application on the following page.
For potential Book Writers, Composers, and Lyricists—you may attach an additional sample of previous work if you’d like to show us something else. Composers and Lyricists—1 song max.; Book Writers—5 pgs max.
Composer Application Part 1
(Teams of 2 Allowed)
Composer(s):
1. Choose ONE song excerpt from the attached set and compose the music for those lyrics. Please include chord markings on your sheet music that is entered into a notation program. Orchestration not required, but will be accepted.
2. Compose AND orchestrate (rhythm section can be given as a line of just chords and drum style, have no more than 3-4 additional instruments,) a passage over this short line:
GRAHAM:
Cuz, even when you talk to yourself,
You are still a star.
3. Optional, but very highly encouraged – turn in a CD or add a link to youtube with a mock-up or piano recording.
4. Additional Questions:
- What instruments do you play?
- Will you also orchestrate your own scores?
- Will you be also music directing, vocal directing, and/or conducting the pit?
- Do you have experience directing singers and/or a band?
- What are your favorite styles of music to compose in?
5. You may attach an additional sample of previous work if you’d like to show us something else: one song.
Questions may be sent to members of last year’s music team:
Christopher Lee –
Danny Rodriguez –
Composer Application Part 2
Lyrics Excerpts
all excerpts are from Freshman Musical 2018, Wastelanders
(choose ONE)
Option 1
JACKIE:
Don’t think of it as kidnapping
More like a surprise honeymoon
Don’t fight what is happening
Cause baby I’m gonna get my honey soon
I been watching you for a while now
But I’m done with play pretend
I’m a little plush toy in a big glass box
And I want to be grabbed by the Claw for fifty cents
I’m held against my will here, but I don’t wanna go free,
Other folks might judge it, but they don’t really see
And all I want is all that we can be!
‘Cause Stockholm Syndrome is real love to me
Option 2
SEBASTIAN:
What’s the point? My bruh...
In the angry, scary world in which we live
Many sacrifices must be daily made
But I’ll tell you just one thing that will not give
And that’s that great human desire to get laid.
*spoken*
PEGGY:
Laid, mommy?
HOLLY:
Umm… like an egg, darling.
*Back into song*
SEBASTIAN:
Yeah!
Like an egg that really loves to have sex
*to Holly*
- Holly, don’t look at me like I’m sleazy -
I like my girls like I like my eggs
Sunny side up… and over easy!
Option 3
FRANK:
It’s not so easy being green
It’s such a burden being really verdant...
You all really should know
Us zombies get the short end of the stick
Everywhere we go
Some people are really quite cruel
They seem to hate us right away!
They don’t even take the chance
To get to know us
As we devour their brains!
I know it can be really shocking
But we were once people too
And now our green skin makes us blue
But inside we’re really just like you
There’s no need to be so mean!
Cause, It’s not easy being green!
Option 4
MAX:
There’s….
Zombies, blood gangs and starvation
Running with scissors, that’s impalation
Disembowelment, and decapitation
Taxes, boredom, and some constipation
There’s some
Loneliness and isolation
Getting mugged at a small gasoline station
Eating rocks and some self immolation
And premature ejaculation
Director Application Scene
Attempts on Her Life, by Martin Crimp
Scene 5 - The Camera Loves You
Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crick is a free play, with minimal stage directions, no prescribed characters, and essentially no background whatsoever. It is, however, centered on the character of Anne - little else is clear. As such, it is a director’s best friend (or nightmare!). Feel free to let your imagination run wild.
The camera loves you
The camera loves you
The camera loves you
We need to sympathize
We need to empathize
We need to advertise
We need to realize
We are the good guys
We are the good guys
We need to fell
What we’re seeing is real
It isn’t just acting
It’s far more exacting
Than acting
We’re talking reality
We’re talking humanity
We’re talking of a plan to be
OVERWHELMED
by the sheer totality
And utterly believable three-dimensionality
THREE DIMENSIONALITY
Of all the things that Anne can be
ALL THE THINGS THAT ANNE CAN BE
What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?
A megastar
A MEGASTAR
The camera loves you
The camera loves you
The camera loves you
We need to fantasize
We need to improvise
We need to synthesize
We need to advertise that
We are the good guys
We are the good duys
We need to go
For the sexiest scenario
It isn’t just writing
It’s much more exciting
Than writing
We’re talking actuality
We’re talking contemporary
OVERWHELMED by the sheer quantity
YES BY THE SHEER QUANTITY
Of all the things that Anne can be
ALL THE THINGS THAT ANNE CAN BE
What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba
A megastar
A MEGASTAR
(A megastar? The fuck you are)
The camera loves you
The camera loves you
The camera the camera
The camera the camera
THE CAMERA LOVES YOU
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