I am very honored to be included in the book Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium
, by Joseph Church and published by Oxford University Press. This textbook also includes a forward by Alan Menken.
Continue reading “Music Direction for the Stage – Oxford University Press”
Most people know me as a music director, pianist or conductor for live shows and recordings. But what is very dear to my heart are my new musicals. These have all had an amateur 3 week premiere run to work out all the script, score and technical elements. They are all currently unpublished and await a professional run and agent representation.
I hope you will contact me either about agent representation of these musicals, or about performing them with your theatre group. I am very excited to see what other groups will do with these new works!
Overview: Set entirely to William Shakespeare original text. In over 400 years there has never been a successful musical version of Romeo and Juliet using only Shakespeare’s original words. I believe this could be the first.
Reviews: “Revolutionary music”
For more info visit: http://www.RJmusical.com
Overview: A retelling of the Peter Pan and Wendy story by JM Barrie. A new Peter Pan musical with classic score and updated for contemporary audience interaction.
Reviews: “Askland creates magic again”
For more info visit: http://www.PanMusical.com
Overview: The Salem Witch Trials come to life in 1692 Massachusetts.
For more info visit: http://www.WitchesMusical.com
Thank you to Marla Bronstein and Entertainment News Northwest magazine for their cover story on the premiere of my third full length musical: Romeo and Juliet.
Read the full article on the ENNW website at http://issuu.com/ennw/docs/ennw-january_2015
Continue reading “ENNW Jan 2015 Cover Story: Romeo and Juliet the musical”
My upcoming musical theater opera, “Romeo and Juliet” was written with an Akai LPK25 two-octave USB keyboard. What? Muahaha, yes! In retrospect kind of hard to fathom, but there she is. I did all the music composition and beginning orchestration sketches in the Officer’s Bar of a cruise ship on my off time. The Akai LPK25 keyboard has convenient octave switching buttons on the side so I was able to easily navigate through bass and treble parts for fairly effortless composing. It was only a little tedious when doing soprano vocal lines; that’s when I really wish I had that extra octave. But hey, writing an opera on a two octave keyboard that fits in my computer bag – I’ll take that! Thank you Akai for an awesome product!
Continue reading “C.L. Askland’s Romeo and Juliet opera scored on an Akai LPK25”
After the run of my latest musical, “PAN” (http://www.PanMusical.com), I’ve escaped to Europe and the Bahamas to perform, reflect and work on new projects. I love the different musical influences, especially Rome, Italy and Greece where I stumbled upon a concept for a new musical theater work that is dark and engaging.
Now in the Bahamas, I can’t really say that the musical influences of the tropical islands apply to my projects much, unless you need Reggae or club dance music ideas. But it’s good for relaxing and I’ve enjoyed the beaches and tropical locations with my compadres including Nassau, Belize, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Honduras and Jamaica.
So, to current projects: Yes, it’s true that I am working on a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
At present I am totally immersed in the writing, editing and revision process for several musical theater shows. It is exciting, depressing, grueling, tedious and ultimately the most fulfilling of all possible worlds for me. Several other writers have bared their souls on the writing process so I thought I’d share a little of my own experience.
Entertainment News Northwest Magazine October 2012 issue. Cover photo of Witches! the Musical. Photo by Lindsey Bowen. Visit the Entertainment News NW website at: http://www.ennw.info and read their article on Witches! the Musical by Laurel Larsen here: http://www.ennw.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/October-2012.pdf
World Premiere Oct. 19 – Nov. 3, 2012 at the Historic Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon, WA. Presented by Theater Arts Guild. Directed by Jane Skinner. Book, music and lyrics by Conrad Askland. For tickets go to: http://www.lincolntheatre.org/performance/witches-musical
Continue reading “Entertainment News NW Magazine October 2012 Issue – Witches! the Musical”
Witches! the Musical World Premiere October 19 – November 3, 2012 at the Historic Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, WA – USA. LincolnTheatre.org
Continue reading “Witches! the Musical: Oct. 19 – Nov. 3, 2012 – World Premiere”
September 7, 2012 – Mount Vernon, WA
Interview with Conrad Askland – writer of “Witches! the Musical”
Premiere Info
Why did you choose the subject of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials?
Originally I had picked a different subject. But while researching that other project I ran into a major problem with the plot that ruined the project for me. That plot problem became my new focus for a different project which I started working on, and may be my next project. During that process I realized it was just too big to attack for my first full length musical. So I started over looking specifically for an existing story, a topic I felt hadn’t been done well as musical theater in the past, and that incorporated children.
Auditions for “Witches! the Musical” June 5-6, 2012 at the Historic Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon, WA. Show dates will be Oct. 19-Nov. 3 at the Lincoln Theater. This is a world premiere show about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. For more info and audition signups visit http://www.WitchesMusical.com.
Produced by TAG – the Theater Arts Guild of Skagit County.
http://www.theaterartsguild.org