Meet the Fellows:

Brandon James Gwinn

What was your first experience with Theater?

Ok. 3 things come to mind: The first time I can remember hearing a showtune was sometime in elementary school. I was riding in the back of my grandparents’ car and they had various compilation CD’s we’d always hear and I remember making them play the Broadway album (I think it was the cast of Lawrence Welk sings Broadway or something). I was fascinated by “Getting to Know You” and “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.” I remember being intrigued by the style and the storytelling. And, those numbers are just lots of fun. The first professional show I remember seeing was the national tour of Cats sometime in the 1990’s. That original production was such a feast for the senses. I made my mom buy me the cast album. Come to find out she just got me the highlights. We’ll talk about this later Mom. The first Broadway show I ever saw was actually the 2003 revival of Maury Yeston’s Nine. I knew of some of what you might call “classics” and had developed some contemporary favorites, but this show had kinda slipped through the cracks and I had never heard of it. Growing up in middle Tennessee, I had never seen musical theatre like that before. The style and danger in Kopit’s book and Yeston’s score are really sleek, weird, and sexy and I was stunned and moved. It remains one of my favorite productions and I am often very inspired by it. I also saw Hairspray on that trip right after the Tonys so it was a pretty stellar experience all around. Good job, Mom and Dad.

When did you recognize you were a writer? Or when did you start writing?

I have been making shows, skits and scenes pretty much as long as I can remember. My sister and I starred in all of the productions (mostly unauthorized living room stagings of Disney properties). Now said sister works for the mouse in Orlando. (Hey Erin! #sistershoutout) Ultimately, I was studying theatre and music in undergrad at Middle Tennessee State University and was attracted to the playwriting classes taught by Deborah Anderson. I don’t know what it was about MTSU in that era but we all seemed to have a lot to say, and many many award-winning student plays came out of that program while I was there. I won the short play festival one year and pitched an idea for a musical to the incredibly talented book writer and comedienne, Heidi Ervin. We wrote the show, MTSU gave us the space and resources to produce it and not a year later that show was in the NY fringe festival and I was starting my MFA at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. I still sing, play and perform, but I think writing was what I was actually doing first and all along, and my writing was and continues to be incubated and influenced by some wonderful teachers and collaborators.

Where does your inspiration come from? Or who do you look to for inspiration?

The stories I want to tell and the sounds I make to come from the inherent storytelling I see in the world around me. A show I worked on prior to the fellowship (with EllaRose Chary) all stemmed from seeing a teenaged boy smoking a cigarette dressed as Minnie Mouse (with the big plastic head-thing in his non-cigarette hand) when I was in Las Vegas. I saw him and thought, “what’s the story here?” I am interested in starting conversations and talking about real issues with musical theatre, perhaps even polarizing issues. I am interested in telling stories and employing music that I don’t see often used in the musical theatre. I also want to make theatre that is startling and earns its moment on stage. I want to make theatre I would be excited to go to. So, in short, I guess I’m inspired by the world and the theatre.

What are you most looking forward to as a fellow?

I love a group of creatives. I am excited for the exposure to all these different perspectives and backgrounds, particularly this group of playwrights and musical theatre writers. We’re just now getting to know each other and I can already see how really varied and interesting are our styles, disciplines and expressions. I can’t wait to see how much there is to learn from the other fellows as well as the many professionals we’ll be privileged to have dialogue well. Also, my collaborator EllaRose Chary and I are embarking on a brand new project while we are fellows about topics we’re both highly interested in and fired up to talk about. So I’m definitely looking forward to realizing that. I am really happy that we have this opportunity to share this brand new work as it comes with the group. Not to mention, I tend to get a lot more done when there’s a room full of peers waiting to hear it once a month!

What do you find most rewarding about being a dramatist? Or what do you find most rewarding about the writing process?

I think, you have really done your job well as a dramatist when you have effectively communicated the feeling that moved you to write in the first place. I am happiest and most rewarded when the audience “gets it” (“it” being: they understood what I meant, for better or worse.) My job to communicate a story and how I feel about it and why it is important in that moment in time has hopefully been achieved. And, hopefully, you were entertained, scared, enraged, delighted, aroused, invigorated or at least walked away thinking about the character, the music, the story, the topic or just the Theatre. I have been fortunate (and maybe crazy) enough to have on a number of occasions, sat in the back of the house watching an audience watch my work, and those moments when they get it and you can tell everyone is having that shared experience because I communicated it effectively; that is a rewarding moment. And also terrifying.