The Larder

written by Toksvig
 
What is The Larder?

It’s an online social-media-based dynamic information resource for makers of musicals.

By which I mean, it’s a gathering of questions.

By which I mean that you, the makers of musicals, are the people who will be providing us with the stuff we need to make it work, ie: questions.

You are also the people who will throw answers at the questions to which you have an answer.

Which is why I say it’s a dynamic resource. It’s not a wiki, not an archive, not a definitive knowledge base.

Musical Theatre is a dynamic art form, and I wanted to make a resource that can respond to that. Something that gives us all the chance to share our knowledge if and when we choose to, and also allows us to change our minds as frequently as we like.

Here's how it works.

@AnotherNibble

The Twitter feed is for you to throw questions at. Any questions. All the questions you have about writing musicals. Business questions, craft questions: anything that can be answered by someone – or begin to be answered by someone – in a tweet.

This might include answers like:

“Writers should expect to receive 70-80% of licensing fees in a stage publishing deal.”

“That single-tweet summary of your show’s story is a bit confusing: which of them is the main character?”

RT: “How do I get my musical produced?” <- too broad a question. Be more specific?

I suspect that might be one of its most useful functions: to help us find and refine our questions into the most useful ones possible.

Not everything can be said in 140 characters, so there’s also a blog:

LookInTheLarder.com

I might post some questions here sometimes, if it looks like longer answers from everyone will be a useful thing.

And finally, there’s a YouTube channel.

For now, it’s playing host to seven short videos which will lead up to 'The Business of Writing Musicals' event on April 18th 2013.

After that, The Copenhagen Interpretation have a sort of plan to make tiny videos in response to questions about 101 aspects of the craft, as well as questions I find myself asking, like "What is a good warm-up exercise for actors?".

We’re also thinking about hosting some online expert panels, who can answer your questions in live streaming broadcasts.

How long is this going on for?

A month, at first. To see how useful it is, how time consuming for how many people, and so on.

There's a boring disclaimer, isn't there?
Yeah. Sorry. I'll put it in small text.

I just wanted to say that, since this is my party, I reserve the right to have the final say on the content of the blog, twitter feed, YouTube channel, and anything else connected with the project. Also, I won't necessarily agree with anything anyone else posts in comments or on Twitter, because there is no one definitive way to write musicals. No matter what anyone says.

I really strongly want to point out that none of the people offering information, including me, will be lawyers, or professional representatives of musical theatre writers or composers, in any way, shape or form, unless they specifically say so at the time. Please don't take anyone's word for anything: all of your business-related decisions should ultimately be made with the assistance of a consummate legal professional. (I recommend Clintons Solicitors.) All of your craft-related decisions are, ultimately, up to you and your personal, unique creative choices, which is what I favour above all else. So if what anyone says doesn't work for you, then remember that the opposite of what everyone says is also, always, true.*

*I nicked this from Phelim McDermott.