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STEVE CAVERNO: Hi. My name is Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village, and today I'll
be talking to you about playwriting basics. Next, we're going to talk about a certain
type of theater, very successful type of theater and uniquely American, the musical. Musicals
usually feature characters engaged in dialogue and then all of a sudden, they break into
song. Usually, these characters are larger than life, and also, they're accompanied by an orchestra
or a band. There are many examples of successful musicals, "Chicago," "Rent," "Wicked," "Cats."
These musicals usually feature a character coming on stage and engaging in a dialogue
and then all of a sudden the music comes up and usually though, they'll feature long lines
of dialogue and they'll feature the rhythm of the music and they'll usually have large
sets. Usually, a musical can have a set that slides out, and then another set slides in.
They're very spectacle driven. It's just the nature of how a musical goes. So if you're
thinking about writing a musical, first off, you want to think, do have someone who can
write music or can you write music yourself? Do you have the ability to assemble a musical
that you can't--you could potentially do a musical with a little home keyboard, but it
kinda lacks the epic scope of a musical and what a musical is expected to be. These are
some of the things you might look at when considering maybe writing a musical.