The “Ship Without An Ocean” referred to is none other than Noah’s ark. As in the Old Testament, my tutoring in the reality of miracles has come over time, during the past two decades that I’ve been working on a musical called The Ark, which opens this fall in New York City. (www.TheArkMusical.com)
To put my feelings in context, let me share a brief history of the musical that’s been teaching me so much about miracles.
Back in 1986 my friend Kevin Kelly had an idea for a musical. The theater would be Noah’s Ark. The actors would play Noah’s family. The audience would be the animals. He asked me if I’d be interested in writing songs for the project and The Ark was born.
The first production was about seventy minutes long, and it played in a tiny, tiny space called the Plum Alley Theatre. It was actually a converted rehearsal space we pretended was a theatre. The audience sat on bales of hay, the cast sang along to a hastily put together soundtrack, and the show became a “hit” in its unique time slot: 4 p.m.
The Ark was the coolest after school musical … actually, the only after school musical to play in that theatre, ever. The soccer moms and the grade schoolers who packed the theatre knew the show wasn’t a finished work, but they were wonderfully enthusiastic and asked the producers of the show to bring it back for future seasons.
Kevin got a job in New York City and moved 2500 miles east of his songwriting partner, but the collaboration grew. I would call him with an idea for a new song in the show after he had faxed me outlines for scenes he wanted to include in future productions.
What made this all so interesting is that the show kept growing and developing and actually getting produced in various community theatre locations even though the show
had all kinds of artistic problems; well, mainly one artistic problem: Kevin and I hadn’t taken the time to figure out what the musical was about.
It had a terribly clever premise, some fun and entertaining musical numbers that
people were singing as they left the theatre, but none of the actors played three-dimensional people with character arcs. There wasn’t much of a story, beyond the fact that it rained a long time and a family survived the flood with all their relatives and a bunch of smelly animals. And while some Bible scholars believed Noah’s family probably spent as long as a year on the barge after the rain stopped, we didn’t know what to do with the show after it stopped raining.
More than once, each of the show’s creators sort of “abandoned ship” (so to speak) but the Ark wouldn’t sink. Somebody heard about it and wanted to do a show in Georgia. Some college kids did a production during the summer near Yellowstone National Park. A high school group in New York got wind of the piece and did it as their spring musical. Each show found new songs, new ideas, new scenes, new character development, but nothing that felt “finished.”
But then, a musical miracle in the development of The Ark happened. Kevin had submitted a synopsis of our show along with four songs to the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop under the direction of Stephen Schwartz in New York City. (Stephen Schwartz has composed the scores for some of the great musical theatre pieces of our time including Prince of Egypt and Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.)
The Ark was invited to join five other shows and receive critiques and input from Broadway legends. At each session of the workshop the authors and composers would present songs and scenes from their developing musicals and see what the seasoned pros had to say.
Basically, the writers of these shows got beat up by really smart people, but it was incredibly helpful. With the insights and direction of folks who’ve been creating successful musicals for decades, Kevin and I refocused our efforts on discovering what The Ark was about, who the characters were in the story and what kind of journey the audience was going to take once it entered the theatre.
Following the New York workshop experience we did massive rewrites and saw several productions launched in such interesting locations as: A Circus Tent next to a petting zoo; a college theatre; a quilting exhibition hall at the state fairgrounds … and a space that looked like a huge ark from the outside and was called “the barn.”
A soundtrack was produced and sold at the performances. It was an impressive piece of work, with great arrangements, terrific production values and superb performances, but the album sales at the shows began to fade a bit when each production had new songs added to the show that either weren’t on the soundtrack or were rewritten to match new twists and turns in the show.
After working on a show for several years, writers of musicals often wonder if they’ll ever actually finish the job, or just abandon it. Kevin and I were close to that point when another miracle revived our excitement about The Ark in September of 2000. Our show was invited to be part of the Festival of New Musicals in New York City, sponsored by the National Alliance for Musical Theater.
This showcase took place over two days in the Huntsman and Fairbanks theatres on 42nd Street in New York City. Each of the ten shows invited to participate in the festival were given the opportunity to present between 30 and 60 minutes of their shows to producers and theatre owners from all over the country. It was at this festival that The Ark found the creative team from The Village Theatre in Issaquah, Washington.
For the next few months we were mentored and nurtured by Steve Tomkins, Robb Hunt
and Brian Yorkey, and – in the spring of 2001 – a newly rewritten and staged production of The Ark premiered as one of that year’s Village Originals series. It was the most successful new musical to debut in that series’ history, and after additional re-writes, The Ark appeared on the main stage of The Village Theater as part of their 2002-2003 Season.
On opening night the enthusiastic response of the standing ovation crowd for our “ship without an ocean” was evidence that all the hard work was paying off.
The success of the show at the Village Theatre prompted yet another miracle: producers Erik Orton and Karen Goodwin seriously considering the possibility of taking The Ark on a cruise to New York City. They assembled a team of Broadway pros to help our little musical fill the measure of its creation.
Since June we’ve been doing even more refining and re-defining of the show … and I’ve got to tell you, I’m so excited about it I can hardly breathe. I’ve been discovering that my timetable for things is not the Lord’s timetable … His is better!! And when I trust Divine wisdom and timing, my own heart feels more peaceful and full of light.
So, after all these years, all these productions, re-writes, critiques and audience feedback sheets, what is this show about?
It’s about families and miracles.
It’s about what happens when a family faces things they’ve been trying to run away from all their lives, issues they’ve been avoiding, conflicts they don’t want to talk about … or talk about too much. It’s about learning how to love each other, even when we can’t see things eye to eye. It’s about holding on and letting go. It’s about reconciliation, and forgiveness, and tolerance. It’s about the power of miracles, especially when those miracles don’t come when or how we wished for them, but are miracles just the same.
If there’s any chance that you can make it to New York City to see the show and share in the miracle of it all, please come. All the info is on the web site www.TheArkMusical.com. I’ll be there (herding the animals in each night) until I leave for The Forgotten Carols Tour Nov 16th. If you can make it to the show while I’m there, send me a note. I’d love to say hi.
