I had the absolutely funnest (yes funnest!) time last night. My producer friend Michael Rubinoff invited me (and I in turn invited Mitchell Kitz) to a Sing and Tell hosted by ScriptLab's Artistic Director and musical theatre writer, Jim Betts. It was held at Gerald Isaac's warm and inviting new studio. Jim has agreed to become ScriptLab's Artistic Director for the next three years, on the understanding that those three years will be exclusively devoted to the development of Canadian Musical Theatre. As you can tell by Jim's Website, Canadian Musical Theatre is something he holds very near and dear.

Jim stated that the purpose of the labs is to get together with writers, performers, directors and producers etc and catch up on what everyone else is doing, as well as to bring some of the more "senior" writers together (ie. legends like Leslie Arden, David Warrack) with some of the "newer" writers (ie. me, Mitchell Kitz). Jim wants to not only help develop new material, but archive existing Canadian musical theatre shows of which there is plenty but which has been sadly neglected. As David Warrack put it, when a regional theatre wants to do one of his shows (eg. All Stressed Up and Nowhere to Go) he has to go down to the basement and look through the Dominion bags full of old shows! I certainly had my eyes opened to the wealth of shows that have been written and produced all across Canada, but notably not in Toronto (which would explain, but not forgive, my ignorance).

So we all sat around the piano chatting and took turns singing a song from a Canadian musical -- past, present or future. We heard songs from favorite Canadian musicals, shows-in-progress and shows that were produced but not-fully-appreciated. I sang "Listen To My Heart" from Plane Crazy! It was one of the most friendly, supportive and interesting get-togethers to which I'd ever been.

Jim talked about an old show done in 1957 that he is trying to archive called My Fur Lady. Check it out -- the poster is to die for!

I also was lucky enough to buy a CD from Charlotte Moore (daughter of Mavor Moore). Charlotte is an incredibly talented singer who recorded a CD of all Canadian musical theatre songs (maybe Plane Crazy will make it onto Volume 2!). It is just fabulous!

I can't wait until next week's meeting!