About

~ the gist ~

hi! my name is zazu and i’m a writer, pr professional and musician living california.

this podcast is a journal of sorts of the process of writing a musical while thinking a lot about the theatre industry that musicals are created within. working on long form and long-term creative projects like this can be daunting, anxiety-inducing, and downright confusing most of the time. but when you have an awesome community to share the process with — to send songs to, to commiserate about writer’s block and to learn from — it becomes a lot more fun and rewarding.

to me, musical theatre has always been about collaboration and an exchange of incredible ideas. that’s what i hope to encourage through this podcast: to build a writer’s community where we can share our work, learn how to get our shows onstage from those who have done it already, and enjoy ourselves along the way.

~ the academic version ~

This project explores the musical theatre creative process and the ability for the art form to encourage civic imagination and social change. Musical theatre, whether experienced as an actor, crew member or audience member, has the power to shift social conversation and action through the embodiment of new and alternate realities, yet various monetary and educational constraints limit access to the theatre arts. This project aims to discuss the systemic issues within the theatre industry that create barriers to democratization, while providing a road map for the process of creating new musical theatre narratives as an independent creator through my own experiences. Through this project, I hope to demystify the musical theatre creation process and open up new avenues for connection amongst creators, while also exploring theories for creating a more democratized musical theatre industry landscape.

Share your work

If you’re an aspiring musical theatre writer, we’d love to hear your work! Every season, we’ll follow a different show on its path to creation, and we’re planning on doing some mini audio showcases as the show grows. Interested in being featured and working with us? Send us an email at zazulippert@gmail.com