Music-Theatre Group is hosting a series of panels/receptions with a constellation of stellar alum from the worlds of Broadway, alternative theatre, and music.  Moderator/Host is Disney Theatrical Group President Thomas Schumacher whose Broadway credits include The Lion King – all time highest grossing Broadway musical – King David, Aida, Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and this season’s Peter and the Starcatcher, Newsies – with combined 17 Tony nominations. May’s panelists were Julie Taymor (Director/Designer Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King, Juan Darien) and her art and life-partner Elliot Goldenthal (Grammy-winner, two-time Tony nominee, and Academy Award winning composer for his score for Frida). After a video screening of Taymor-Goldenthal collaboration replete with puppets (Grendel, The Magic Flute) and movie stars Anthony Hopkins (Titus) Helen Mirren (The Tempest), we settled in for the panel.  Taymor confessed to an “insatiable appetite for theatre.. .and a predilection for the visual and physical” which took her from Boston Children’s Theatre to Sri Lanka (at age 16),  Indonesia, and Paris, where she studied mime, to stints with Joe Chaikin’s Open Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, and Public Theatre, where she worked with Elizabeth Swados on “Haggadah.” Goldenthal confided that “music is my mistress and religion” – and obsession.  “I enjoy failure – my favorite composing tool is an eraser.”  The couple move fluidly between alternative theatre gigs and big-budget Hollywood commissions.  Schumacher noted that Academy Award-winning producer Harvey Weinstein was known to be “very challenging” and Taymor/Elliot responded that it “ helped to be a couple.“ Music-Theatre Group’s June 7 panel features another power/arts couple:  Diane Paulus (Artistic Director of A.R.T. who produced The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) and Randy Weiner (Producer/Playwright: Drama Desk Award-winning Sleep No More and The Donkey Show a disco version of Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Paulus directed.) Diane Wondisford, Producing Director Music-Theatre Group glowed:  “Our mission is helping artists turn inspiration into art. We commission, develop, and produce new works of music, theatre, and opera.  It’s exciting to develop productions like Julie and Elliot’s Juan Darien, see it in preview, and feel the audience response, and we’re looking to the future with musical theatre and songwriters who are now coming onto the scene!”    http://musictheatregroup.org (Photos by Elias Friedman) Happiness/Success Habits Commit to your passion – and relationships!  Your road may take you from puppet-making in Indonesia to Broadway – or to a local arts program (as in Mr. Holland’s Opus – a film about a composer who became a high school music teacher). Everything important takes commitment and sacrifice. Make your eraser your favorite instrument – and enjoy failure!  Writing is rewriting; inventing is re-inventing.  Those bright lights on Broadway would not exist without Thomas Edison, whose mistakes and persistence led to the electric light bulb. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison (Editor: Jay Berman)

Susan (“Dr. Sue”) Horowitz, Ph.D.

Book: “Queens of Comedy” (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and more!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/219367 Musical: “SssWitch”: www.ssswitch.net  www.YouTube.com/drsuecomedian https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos