Sheri Sanders

ICP

Personal Statement

In 2004 I realized the Popular Music was dominating Musical Theatre and I created the masterclass, and subsequent Hal Leonard Published book, Rock The Audition, How to Prepare for and get cast in Rock Musicals. When published in 2011, I began to visit Musical Theatre programs all over the country, and introducing the students and their teachers to all the Popular Music that is represented on Broadway and how to perform it. 92 Colleges and Musical Theatre programs later, I have a clear understanding that I couldn’t have done ANY of this pioneering alone in a bubble. Every single actor, every teacher and every song was an act of collaboration. It was me meeting an actor and their teacher in a style- and collaborating on how that style needs to be lived in that person. Because there is no “type” in performing popular music, each person is different, and every person lives in each style of music in a different way. So the collaboration between the school/universities program, their teachers, the actor, the accompanist and me, is what lead me to this moment. And within all this, I am also looking at the collaboration of body, the voice, the emotional life, the relationship to history and the persons response, and then ask everyone, how do you translate all of that -on camera for self-tape auditions?

       Click here to read the digital workbook!

Line of Enquiry 

The Broadway musical theatre process doesn’t believe in Dramaturgy. In fact, many dramaturgs were let go of in the pandemic and never brought back. So I am particularly interested in the advancement/elaboration on the position of the Dramaturg. Can the role and the way we collaborate with the other members of the company extend past protecting the show by facilitation the story in the script into the entire culture of the production? Toenail to Curler?

Because all Musical Theatre is born out of Popular Music, I offer you a Berklee School of Music description of a Dramaturg:  

“Also called the Literary Manager, Dramaturges are a behind-the-scenes resource for directors, actors, and playwrights, providing context, research, and feedback to help improve the quality and accuracy of a production.”

What I understand About the WONDER that is Dramaturgy here in the UK, is that when a Dramaturg enters a project, we’re looking for that person to have an understanding of the culture of the piece: form and structure, tone, etc. This comes from a personal experience combined with training and a clear understanding of who the audience is. If theatre companies are doing it right,  it’s making sure that a Queer person Dramaturges a Queer show, a Black Person Dramaturges a Black show. (hopefully!) 

My line of inquiry is..is that all? Is that where it stops? Being Black or Queer isn’t mutually exclusive.  Every single human being is intersectional in some way. Every musical is intersectional. So what does it look like to be a Dramaturg with a focus on cultural consciousness that is intersectional? Can a Black Dramaturg also be trained in all the intersections that come along with being Black AND otherwise? What it is like to be mixed race? What about being Mixed AND Queer? Or Mixed, Queer AND Disabled? We are not trained to be looking at shows, or the people that inhabit these shows through an intersectional lens. 

We have all witnessed the industry undergoing a cultural reckoning in the last 5 years. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a lightening rod moment for the epidemic of police violence against people of color in America, conversations in the theatre community and their organizations around equity, inclusion, and representation amped up, then leveled out as quickly as they came. In the United States, DEI is over. The Trans/non-Binary/Queer Communities are in a consistent state of harm. Because the most current cultural coaching practices have only attempted to address one lens at a time—either race, or gender, or disability, or queerness, or body positivity, etc…there is still no unified structure that integrates all people and their nuances throughout the production. At least not what I’ve seen!

Documentation

Over the course of the last weeks, I have participated in many collaborative processes with my fellow MA students and in observing undergraduate classes and productions. It was in the mini workshops where I noticed the need for an intersectional lens on the intersection of the music, lyrics, book, performance and culture of the company.

This was a wonderful festival of new works at school. There was one in particular,  Sado-Masichism, the musical. It was simply Masochistic. Created and facilitated  by two cis straight white guys, the music was fun, some of the show was even funny. But there were a few elements of the production that were crystal clear there were no conscious eyes on it, and as we were watching, we could feel it.

This is a college production. So some people are not sexual…yet, or at all.

There was a character that was intending to be trans, and there were no trans people, so they just picked a young girl in the company, and we could feel the discomfort.

So thats, Sexuality, Gender, and now Race. One of the students from China was asked to play a diabolical kind of character that was unhinged and nasty. The actor was clearly working with a language barrier, and she was grossly mishandled. Was there someone who could do intimacy direction? Because I believe there is a place for that in the training of a Dramaturg as well!

We met with Gus on a debrief on the New Works festival, in particular to this show. This was only the second time in my entire life that we as a company of people sat down and talked about the harm it caused, and what we can do moving forward! When I decided to come to Leeds Conservatoire, I asked Scott if I could also study Intimacy Coordination. In Gus’ session, I asked out loud, and he’s looking into bringing it to the Dramaturgs next semester!

A collaborative experience I absolutely LOVED  that really worked was observing the piece about Dick Whittington!

This is Evie and Evie collaborating on Dick Wittington!

There’s something you do here in the UK called devised work, and it allows the actors to improvise and come up with scenes that help the writers clarify, and elaborate on the story and the character work. They were ALSO able to comment on their experiences and contribute to the bigger picture and I felt that that was hugely successful as well as meaningful for all parties!

We also have these wonderful workshops where the students share little pieces of theatrical material were working on. We all watch and give feedback to each other. And I really loved the training that we have with Liz Lermans ways of giving feedback. In the States, there isn’t really a consideration for how the creator is receiving the information. It’s really on us to process it however we need to process it, no matter how it is given to us. And typically, it’s intense and quick, sometimes curt or terse depending on the stress of the show. Being in a process where we say we have feedback, and ASK if they would like to receive it does something I wish happened at every turn of the work we do. It is a gentle, thoughtful introduction to an exchange of understanding that supports and uplifts the person presenting, as opposed to traumatising them with the feeling of judgement or failure.

In addition, in Ruby Clarkes class, she sent us a signed letter directed from the community specifically to dramaturges as well as a multi-page doc about an abusive director who committed suicide because he got caught, and the many people harmed by this person, as well as the people who were complicit. It was written by a complicit person who worked for him and was also abused by him. While I found this excruciating because it reflected the American theatrical system that refuses to address the abuse its caused marginalised communities, myself included, I was very very glad to see that it was passed out to all the dramaturges possible in the theatre community, and that Ruby cares in the way she does. It was a cry for help to say, ”you are in this very particular position to do something, DO SOMETHING”. And the something that needs to be done is for there to be someone who is skilled at not only preventing but addressing the dangerous things that are going on in the moment to move forward in a healthy way. It goes so far past the script and the writer, and protecting the value of the piece. It is the wellness of the community.

Reflections/Analysis

In reading two different UK books, Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology – and Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music I noticed two entirely different marginalised communities asked for the same exact things from their theatrical communities and collaborators. I combined some of the questions, and believe all of the other marginalised communities would ask the same questions. So my question is: isn’t there a holistic Dramaturgical practice that is both intersectional, and not just working on the script and clarity in storytelling, but that someone like me could live at the intersection between music, lyrics, book, performance and production,  and then be able to look at the intersectionality of the entire production process. Not just in the play, but in the room, in the relationships.

          Here is a combination of questions asked by the Queer and BIPOC Communities in these books:

•  Are language, dialects, musical styles, and movement vocabularies being used thoughtfully and respectfully?
•  Is the portrayal rooted in character and story, or simply aesthetic or exoticizing?
•  Does the work perpetuate dominance, romanticization, or erasure?
•  Are non-Western or BIPOC musical forms being used? If so: Who composed or arranged the music?

• Is the music being used as Style, Symbol, Subject?
• Are musical idioms (e.g., spirituals, hip hop, gamelan, Afrobeat)
  being flattened into pastiche? Or deeply engaged with in a meaningful way?
• Is there space for actors’ identities to inform the performance?
• Has the creative team reflected on their own positionality (race, class, gender, cultural background)?
• Is there an ongoing process of consent, reflection, and adjustment throughout development?
•  Are marginalized collaborators given authorship and agency, not just advisory roles? Are power dynamics between Western and non-Western traditions acknowledged?
•  Are local and global audiences considered in how meaning will be read?

•  Have you received feedback from diverse audiences and communities the work may impact?
•  What are the risks vs. rewards of telling this story?
• Creative Consent Agreement: Document shared expectations and sensitivities across collaborators.

• Are you interrogating cis-heteronormative assumptions in plot, character arcs, or music?
•  Do queer characters have full emotional arcs, flaws, dreams, and agency?

•  Is queerness more than a “trait”—does it shape how characters see and move through the world?
•  Does the narrative avoid trauma-only storytelling or “bury your gays” tropes?
•  Have you considered camp, pastiche, subversion, and genre-bending as queer musical tools?
•  Are you questioning binary casting practices (e.g., “male lead,” “female ensemble”)?

•  Are you engaging critically with musical theatre’s history of heteronormativity (e.g., romantic plotlines, gender tropes)?
• Are you aware of how audiences of different identities will interpret your choices?

•  Are there clear avenues for resolving conflict around identity or representation?
•  Have you built in time for intentional reflection and revision?
•  Can you articulate why your show tells this story now, and what it offers queer audiences?

Conclusion

I have been an actor auditioning for 30 years. I’ve been a teacher, a production coach on 11 college and teen productions, and I’ve spent the pandemic with 3 different colleges creating advocacy programs around race, body positivity, mental health, and disability. I moderated crucial conversations between students, teachers and administration. So I am very very certain there is a cap to the role of Dramaturg, and a lack of that role altogether in the US, unless it’s a straight play.

Moving forward from here

As I continue working in various collaborations over the course of this MA and in future professional practices I am here to develop a format that allows the following:

• Integrating cultural consciousness from the seedling idea through final performance.
• Create company codes of conduct, accessibility, transparency, and continue to dismantle the hierarchy so the actors, MDs, and any other creatives are allowed to contribute in constructive ways about what they’re experiencing in the audition, rehearsal, and production.
• Find out what is the best place for my sense of intersectionality and how to sew all the misusing pieces together without overstepping.
• Provides a repeatable process for educators, directors, music directors, casting teams, and performers for the future of productions.

I will focus this new lens directly on the current intersection of music, book, lyrics, history, choreography, dramaturgy, stagecraft, and – as is the point – our current cultural climate. I will examine the means by which all elements coexist and impact each other. I will evaluate current pedagogical and dramaturgical methods—both those that continue to serve well and those that no longer do—and offer a model for a more nuanced evolution of collective storytelling. 

These questions invite a simple, but radical, shift in perspective by digging deeper into equity and ownership by identifying the true cultural sources of musical theatre, asking: “who should be performing, producing, and – as is the point – liberating these stories today? These questions challenge how we tell these stories and dismantle the oppressive systems that have been keeping the stories from being told authentically?

An Important Ethical Consideration

This work aims to address the many existing ethical blind spots in musical theatre storytelling. I will and cannot not make cultural determinations alone—the goal is to know who to reach out to ensure accuracy, care, and respect. That will be encouraged as a formula moving forward.