“You can have a brain and be in musical theatre.” Leslie Arden talking about the profound effect that seeing A Little Night Music had on her.

Leslie Arden discussed the fact that Canadian musical theatre artists aren’t given the same opportunities to learn their craft as American and British composers, because musical theatre is a newer art form here. She chatted with participants about their work and about the tough climate that musical theatre artists have to operate in. Later in the workshop, Arden shared her rules for writing musicals: all the songs have to be active, there needs to be an economy of words, and each character needs a specific motivation for singing. She also encouraged participants to consider that a musical is not finished until you see it up in front of an audience, reasoning, “You can’t do the last rewrite until the audience gets bored when the show dips.”

Leslie ArdenPhoto copyright Joseph Michael