Do you use incidental music or underscoring in your plays but are never quite sure about the copyright implications? This tweet opened my eyes to the Free Music Archive – an enormous archive of free music.
The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.
Each song has detailed licensing information; most appeared to be free for non-commercial use as long as the author receives credit. A note in the program should suffice.
I just spent an hour poking around listening to random clips. The quality and variety is amazing. I particularly fell in love with the Old-Time / Historic section. There’s something about that old scratchy phonograph song that captures my heart.
Yesterday I talked to THIS first year drama in education class. 107 students, not all heading to be teachers but a good chunk of them. I talked about having a non-traditional arts career (there just aren’t that many publisher/resident playwrights out there) and the importance of arts education in my career.
A lot of drama eds get treated like second class citizens when they’re mixed in with Theatre students. That somehow teaching drama is less important than being an actor or a director.
Of course, I believe the total opposite. I strongly believe in the importance of drama in the classroom. That drama is one of the few places teaching real world skills: communication, self expression, creative thinking, creative problem solving. That drama teachers are necessary and needed.
So it was pretty awesome to have students come up to me afterwards and declare their intentions to be a drama teacher. With pride and enthusiasm. They’ve got more school to get through, and you never know how your life is going to turn out. But in the moment it was a truly thrilling moment.
The latest issue of Spotlight! is now available. This month, we offer an All Exercise Issue in Playwriting. How do you write specific, vivid and dynamic dialogue?
Did you see that moment on the Oscars? The composer guy? What he said? No, me neither. I was already out. I don’t really believe in the validity of award shows. Who’s to say what’s the best? It’s all subjective. Personally, I mainly like seeing all the pretty, and not so pretty dresses. It’s amazing to me how some of those folks, with buckets of cash and supposed ’stylists’ are allowed to leave the house looking like they do. And how do some of those women sit in those dresses?
Anyway. Back to the composer guy. Michael Giacchino won for best original score for Up. Which by the way, awesome movie. Up is all about the characters and the story. Story, story story. John Lasseter was recently interviewed about how it’s not about the tools that you use, it’s the story you start with. No amount of bells and whistles can disguise a bad story.
Anyway. Back to the composer guy. Click on the video below to see his acceptance speech. Sorry, there’s a commercial.
First off, I love that he never had his creativity squashed. Second I love the word choice. ‘Creativity is not a waste of time.’
Creativity often gets saddled with such a bad rap: that it’s frivolous, that you have to be born with creativity, that it’s playing games, that it’s only for artistic types. None of this is true. I especially hate the way the school system would like to stamp out creativity. Facts, math, science. There is one multiple choice way to do things. Testing is good. Testing may be good for statistics, but for students? Really?
Creativity is such an important tool in every profession. It’s not merely an artistic stranglehold. Scientists have to be creative. Creativity is thinking outside the box. How do you think new inventions come into being? They are invented by creative out of the box thinkers. We must encourage creativity at every turn, in every occupation, in every human being. Creativity is not a waste of time.
Welcome to this week’s Spread the Love. We are still in Dallas at TETA, The Texas Educational Theatre Association conference, where we are launching a brand new product Seasonal Skits and Performance Poems for K to 3 by Mrs. Evelyn Merritt. The title really says it all. You’ve got skits, you’ve got poems on calendar days and holidays all throughout the year. Craig what do you love about Seasonal Skits and Performance Poems for K to 3?
Well, what I love about Seasonal Skits and Performance Poems for K to 3 by Mrs Evelyn Merritt is that once you have it, it’s yours to keep. You can perform the pieces royalty free, you can photocopy the skits, and at any point in your career you have a whole bunch of fun drama pieces to pull out and do at a moment’s notice. Lindsay, what do you love about Performance pieces, no, what is it? Seasonal Skits and Performance Poems for K to 3 by Mrs Evelyn Merrit!
Craig you should really know the name of our plays. What I love about Seasonal Skits and Performance, oh I should say it right, Seasonal Skits and Performance Poems for K to 3
By?
By Mrs Evelyn Merritt, I love a couple of things. I love the variety both in subject matter and in structure. If you want readers theatre, you got it. If you want choral speaking, you got it. If you need a piece on Groundhog’s day, you got it. And I also love, quite seriously here, serious moment – I love the ability this book brings for teacher to introduce drama into the classroom, right from the get go, right from the start, right at an early age. And we support that 100%. That’s it for Spread the Love.
Lindsay spreads the love for Theatrefolk’s Middle School Material. Middle School Monologues for Girls, Middle School Monologues for Guys, and our brand new Middle School scene book.
January started with a simple goal: to have 1,000 Facebook fans and 1,000 Twitter followers by the end of the year. We’re lagging on the Twitter front (my fault, totally) but the Facebook thing is getting crazy! We’ve reached the 1,000 mark nearly ten months early.
We want to thank you. I mean, really thank you. We’re blown away by your support and your contributions to the page. So we’re giving away free plays all day long.
Visit our Facebook page and/or Twitter account frequently today. That’s where we’ll be announcing each free play giveaway. Stay on top of it! Scripts will only be available for very short time periods.
And please help us spread the word. Tell your friends about us. When we hit 2,000 we’re going to have to give away something REALLY good.
“we have a responsibility to continue the tradition to entertain, to educate and to enlighten our audiences, without whom we couldn’t exist.”
World Theatre Day is coming up at the end of March. Click here to read the Message for 2010 from Dame Judi Dench.
I want to pass this great idea on for World Theatre Day especially for folks on the Internet. Record a short 1-2 minute video of yourself on the theme “Why I love the theatre.”
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Yesterday I talked to THIS first year drama in education class. 107 students, not all heading to be teachers but a good chunk of them. I talked about having a non-traditional arts career (there just aren’t that many publisher/resident playwrights out there) and the importance of arts education in my career.
