AI, a creative director's wet dream

Before I retired I ran a small marketing communications company. We were actually the first web design firm in Colorado, an e-boutique of sorts, it's a long story, but the company was called Viewmark and we designed websites for several fortune 500 companies. I had come out of the engineering software market and had plenty of expert knowledge on 3D modeling and CD/ROM development before I started the company, but the web changed everything.

April Alsup on the nose of a B-17

I hooked up with some really talented software engineers and the next thing I knew we became one of the most successful web design firms in Colorado. I was the President/Creative Director and managed a team of a dozen graphic designers. We worked with Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and several large management consulting companies so they mostly managed the client side and provided us with high level creative strategy documents. I'd use the documents with designers on the execution of their websites and it was a match made in heaven.

Now, some twenty years later I use ChatGPT in a similar way, but these days it's just for my personal projects. I write my own creative strategy documents and use them when discussing designs with ChatGPT. I admit I miss the human interaction and there are plenty of things AI isn't very good at yet, but the process is fast and we work well together as a team. The promise of technology has always been to make life better and I'm sure this technology will make a profound contribution to the creative process.

Absurd Hero ticketing for Edinburgh Fringe Festival

All music theatre productions have a set of milestones. For example, your first official press release, auditions and cast announcements, providing a complete performance package and of course there's ticketing. For the Edinburgh Fringe there are lots of checkboxes that need to be completed for that. Keep in mind it's the largest performing arts festival on the planet and the organization is dealing with shows from all over the world. Then, they have to coordinate your information with all the various venues across Edinburgh to get final approval. They do a great job and they even communicate with you on any issues they encounter.

In any case, experience counts, it really does help to have gone through the process before. You're just better prepared and more familiar with the various parameters and pitfalls of implementing your show's ticketing through the fringe website. We've participated in the festival the last several years, but this was the first time we made the first cutoff of shows on the Fringe website. The event sets off an alarm bell to start implementing your marketing strategy. It's always cool to have more butts in your seats. The teams that manage the festival do an awesome job and the ticketing software is state of the art. Here's a link to Absurd Hero ticketing. See you in Edinburgh!

A rolling stone collects no moss

I've been living in the DTC area for the last few years. I like all the conveniences and Greenwood Village is a nice and safe place to live, but over the Winter I started to feel like I needed a change and as the end of my lease approached I decided to plant my flag downtown near Union Station. 

April plants her flag near Union Station

Living in an urban environment is different and moving is hard, but when it is all said and done starting a new chapter fills the air with optimism and exciting, unexpected experiences. I admit I was worried the movers would have a mishap with my piano, but that's a distant memory now. The view from the piano is so inspiring, I like looking out over the Denver skyline while I play.

Absurd Hero to debut at Edinburgh Fringe

Our life becomes a unique tapestry of color and images. Each one of us paints a picture that is unique and our own. It's full of success and failure, virtue and flaws, celebration and wonder. I could have never imagined that a short trip to a small Hebridean Island of Eigg in 2019 would result in a three-peat of my music theatre works being performed right on the Royal Mile in Scotland. I've had the pleasure of working with some of Denver's most talented actors and along the way have built some pretty cool friendships here and abroad.

ABSURD HERO Website

This year we're performing Absurd Hero, a show that reminds us of the resilience we all have as human beings, even when faced of overwhelming obstacles. The Absurd Hero acknowledges the absurdity of life yet chooses to celebrate it with purpose and passion. The show will be directed by Kelly McAllister with choreography from Heather Westenskow and staged in Colorado using local talent. We'll be performing at Riddles Court, which is truly one of the most charming venues at the festival. So stay tuned, we're planning on a few days of auditions in February and please visit our website for more information.

Happy New Year from the heart of Las Vegas

This year I went to Las Vegas to bring in 2025! I got reservations for New Year's Eve at Hell's Kitchen and we were able to watch the festivities right from our table. It was amazing and everyone was very accommodating. 

April Alsup celebrating New Years at Hell's Kitchen in Las Vegas

Earlier in the day we were able to see "Postcard from Earth" at the Sphere. Everyone has been talking about the aerial photography in the show so you knew I had to see it. The production team did a great job and the finished product really shows that. I'd like to think someday I could create a show for the Sphere.

BANNED nominated for 8 Broadway World Awards

Our Summer performance of BANNED the Musical received 8 Broadway World Award nominations recently. The media outlet asks Denver theater goers to nominate their favorite shows for the year so you might say it's a "People's Choice" award, but it's a bit of a popularity contest too; in any case, it's nice to be selected by your peers and we would appreciate your support.

Here are the categories we've been nominated in:
Musical: BANNED the Musical
Director: Kelly McAllister
Choreography: Heather Westenskow
Performer: Tracy Denver
Supporting Performer: Lars Preece, Olivia Kisicki, Star Ilalaole
Ensemble BANNED the Musical

Here's the link if you'd like to vote:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/denver/awards

New performance packs for BANNED! & Eigg Musicals

It's that time of year again! No not the Holidays... oh but that's good too! No really, it's when music theatre creators put together their latest project packages and submit them to the various festivals and artistic directors looking for new works to perform in the coming year. I have an all new show headed to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025, but I wanted to make sure and get Eigg (2023) and BANNED! (2024) on the radar for other events around the world looking for great new shows.

Both BANNED! and Eigg the Musical were last performed in Edinburgh and it was pretty easy to take the sound recordings from our performances to create a rudimentary cast album soundtrack to follow along while reading or reviewing our script. The fringe format is 60 minutes, but both these shows can be easily built out to the 90 minute or two act formats. We have everything you need to perform these thrilling new works and please keep your eyes out for upcoming announcements of our 2025 show Absurd Hero.

Summer vacation in Bavaria

My first visit to Bavaria was 40 years ago and I was immediately drawn to the area's beauty and charm. I'm fortunate to have friends there that have always been welcoming as we have often visited each other over the years. This year's trip was a bit nostalgic since our kids are now grown up and have their own lives. We played the whole trip by ear, Denver has a nonstop on Lufthansa now so I flew into the new airport near Munich and stayed outside of Augsburg.

Google map of Bavaria

First, we spent a day exploring Munich and the next in and around Neuburg on the Danube, then it was off to Austria to visit the Mozart museum and the Salzburg castle. The next day we travelled to Linz and that evening we headed back to Augsburg for some late night family fun. Producing music theatre works for the international theatre scene is hard work and this year's trip to Germany was a perfect way to get away from it all, unwind and put things into perspective.

BANNED performance video from Edinburgh Fringe

Miss our Edinburgh fringe show? No worries, we got you! Here's the next best thing to being there.

BANNED Cast & Crew

Each night we setup a video camera in a different location in Greenside's Willow Studio at Riddles Court. Our performance run was from August 2nd through August 10th, 2024. The timing of the show was sixty minutes to fit the Fringe format. The theater is an immersive black box with a 3/4 thrust. The stage size is 4x3 meters so there isn't a lot of room. We brought the piano façade to double as the bar and used 6 rehearsal blocks instead of chairs. At the end of the run we donated the set and props to a local theatrical school.

The Scotsman review of BANNED the Musical

Denise’s husband has started wearing women’s clothes. Ana has surprised herself by falling for male-identifying gender guru Carl. Above all, Theo wants to capture their eight-strong gender identity group’s lives and loves in a brand new musical, to be staged at a prestigious international festival (sound familiar?).

There’s no denying the sheer ambition of April Alsup’s big, bold musical, in terms of its web of intertwining storylines, its eclectic and diverse characters, and the sensitive issues of gender and sexuality it attempts to address. There’s no denying, either, the sheer panache and energy with which it’s pulled off by its eager, energetic, ten-piece Denver-based company – no fewer than nine actor/singers, plus Alsup delivering an impassioned keyboard part.

Alsup’s songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos. Eli Harvey is a troubled and vulnerable Ana, with a voice as honest and open as their character, while Tracy Denver makes a petulant Denise, at first horrified at her husband’s new apparel interests though later easing reluctantly towards acceptance. Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.

Despite the stage-filling collection of disparate characters – nicely choreographed by Heather Westenskow – there’s nonetheless a convincing overall story arc, as well as fulfilling individual plotlines for several of them (even if others inevitably feel a little underwritten). Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more. It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.

By David Kettle
Read the complete review

Opening the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

This year we were given the honor of opening the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the song 'All we want is S.E.X' from my new musical BANNED. The event took place at the Greenside press launch on George Street and I was able to snap this picture right before the cast took the stage. There were twenty acts in the showcase and we were lucky enough to be given the opening slot this year. 🎭

Program for BANNED Musical at Fringe

We've finished up our program for the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival now. Converting a Microsoft Word document into a PDF and then an interactive flipbook is an eco-friendly way to provide your show's programs to your audience. The process is fairly straight forward and it's a "win-win" for audience goers, producers and our environment. The only downside is it requires the user to have some sort of electronic device connected to the Internet.

Here's a quick look at our interactive program. There could be tweaks hear and there, but it's pretty close. We'll create QR card and a sign for the audience to access the program at Riddles Court and we typically have a small number of the shortened program for individuals who may not have an electronic devices.

Growing up in a small town

I wrote this song about someone reminiscing their memories of growing up in a small town. The family moved to Vienna, West Virginia in 1958 when their youngest child was just one year old. All the children left the area after college, but frequently brought their families home to visit as their parents aged.

4202 3rd Avenue, Vienna, WV 26105

Three generations of the family had a presence in the Parkersburg area for around 60 years. The parents passed away in 2011 and 2013 and the original farmhouse was torn down in 2018. The song is about time, coming of age and finding refuge in the family memories one holds in their heart and mind. 

     

5207 3rd Avenue, Vienna, WV 26105

Green screens are fun

Chroma keying, is a visual effects technique of putting two or more images together based on their color range. The technique is used to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video. This technique can be referred to as color keying where a green (or blue) screen is used because they differ from the hue of human skin, but at the end of the day no part of the subject should have the color used as the background.

BANNED cast spotted at the Cavern in Liverpool

We recently used a green screen to create a cast announcement for the musical BANNED! Going along with the shows theme of a group of individuals being banned, the green screen technique allowed us to create a "mugshot" of each of the cast members, as well as, to spot the cast in various locations in and around the United Kingdom leading to the Edinburgh fringe festival where the show will debut this Summer.

BANNED! cast announcement

Mobile phone prop for BANNED txting

I've always enjoyed making theatre props, especially when it requires technology and a little out of the box thinking. There's a famous story about how Hitchcock placed a battery-operated light within the glass of milk that one of his characters fears is full of poison. The milk glows ominously, emphasizing her suspicions while her motif is played in a minor key. All the characters in Banned! the Musical use their cell phones to txt one another so I wanted to implement the same sort of effect. The timing on these sorts of things is critical so it was important to give each actor the ability to turn on their phone as well as a theater tech the ability to flip all phones on and all phones off.

So it was off to Home Depot to figure out how to make 10 of them. I found some relatively thin puck lights that fit nicely between several electrical wall plates. I used the wall mounting #6 machine screws and a nut to fasten them together. Then I added some foam padding to reduce vibration and stress. Then it was off to the local arts and craft store (Michaels) for some personal design paper with an adhesive backing to differentiate each phone.

Here's a video of the final prototypes working in unison. See you in Edinburgh!

Long ago and far away

I purchased my Real Book in an alley near the Berklee School of Music in 1977 and I've been playing the charts ever since. A few years back I decided to learn to play accordion and found the instrument to be a natural fit for playing jazz standards. The stradella bass system is powerful and I decided to go through the charts and add some songs to the YouTube Channel @accompanists.

Long Ago (and Far Away) is a popular song from the 1944 musical film Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly credits to Kern/Gershwin - Real Book circa 1977.

Edinburgh shoutout for BANNED the Musical

Things have really started to pick up for the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Last week outdoor advertising became available and this week they added over 1,300 shows to the festival's online ticketing portal. It was a pretty big announcement and they even had a shoutout to Greenside and BANNED at Riddle's Court. With that many venues and performances on the calendar it's hard to get visibility for your show.

2024 Edinburgh Fringe Shoutout for BANNED!

The Fringe's online ticketing system has lots of options and the Fringe organization has been super helpful with explaining all the ins and outs. Our venue is Riddle's Court and the theater is Willow Studio. It has a three quarter thrust stage and roughly 60 seats. We've tried to set the ticket prices at a reasonable price to accommodate everyone who wants to see our show. During the preview week we have all sorts of specials, the weekdays have some special offers too and of course the weekends are crazy. Hope to see you there!

BANNED Poster Concept

We've been putting the final touches on our marketing plan for BANNED. The process all starts with the creative strategy document, but it sure doesn't stop there. It's important for any campaign to have some sort of basic marketing manifesto, but you still need to be flexible in the tactics. Here are several high level assumptions we made early on:

• Find an abstract artistic treatment that captures the spectrum of gender, include the use of electronic gadgets and create a modern genderless world.
  
• Find a background element that shows gender diversity in the public space and can be reused.
  
• Provide elements that show the broad spectrum and various dimensions of gender and speaks candidly to an audience of all ages.

BANNED Poster in four colors

At some point we realized that using color might be a compelling way to individualize each character while maintaining the sense that there is a group of individuals in society that are being marginalized for not abiding by traditional gender norms. We're planning to print and distribute the posters in four different background colors using the original artwork created for the logo. We'll hang them around Edinburgh, the venue and provide signed copies to our donors, friends and family.

BANNED Rail Board Concept

The overall concept worked nicely with our outdoor advertising campaign too. One of the first advertising milestones for the Edinburgh Festival is when outside advertising products become available to the public and this year we were able to snag several rail boards in prominent areas around Edinburgh this year. More to come!

"When it Rains it Pours" says BANNED Finale

I wrote the single "When it Rains it Pours" (WIRIP) way back in 1985. I always liked the hook and knew one day it would end up in one of my music theatre shows. It's funny how songs you may have written years earlier can fit so well in your newer shows. This song was a perfect fit for the closing song in BANNED the Musical, after all, I was looking for an upbeat song with a great hook. You see in the the closing scene the "Organized Confusions" are reinstated as one of the Musical acts at the "New Horizons" theatre festival and the whole community celebrates that the ban has been lifted on the new groups' show.

April Alsup · Master Track: WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS

It's sort of a toss up how people interrupt the saying "When it Rains it Pours" as a metaphor these days. In our Musical BANNED it's used for bad news and good news, but you'll have to see the show to learn more. 😀

BANNED the Musical to debut at Edinburgh Fringe

I enjoy participating in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and it seems like I always find a great team to share the experience with. This year I'm taking the show BANNED and I'm sure it'll all start coming together in May and June. We're staying at the University again and Kelly McAllister is directing the show, he did such a great job with Eigg! You know he won "Best Director of a Musical" from Broadway World for his effort last year. He's planning to start some preliminary readings, choral work, blocking and choreography soon. Creating theatre is truly a godsend and I'm particularly proud of this work. Here's a link to the official BANNED press release.

Eigg wins "BEST MUSICAL" of 2023

Eigg the Musical recently won four 2023 BroadwayWorld Denver Awards. The annual BWW announcement represents the best in regional productions, touring shows and more. Eigg wins included "Best Musical", "Best New Musical", "Best Director of a Musical" and "Best Supporting Performer in a Musical." BroadwayWorld entries come from regional performances between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023. Audiences members and their friends make their selections on an online portal for the best in each category through December 31, 2023. Winners were announced on January 9th, 2024.

“I’m ecstatic and very proud of the work that the cast & crew have done and proud of the show too,” said April Alsup, producer and composer of the new Musical. “The amount of time and effort that goes into a production like this is unreal. To see those efforts acknowledged in a regional and statewide way is really fabulous."

2023 Regional BroadwayWorld Awards 

"The people voting validate that the work we’re doing is high caliber and at an elite level. It acknowledges the hard work that the leadership team have put into developing the show and the performances of the actors.” BroadwayWorld is an international organization that’s broken down in different regions across America, Canada, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. “This is a peoples' choice award and it's really the only theatre award like it in our area, so it’s a big deal,” Alsup said.

Eigg performance at Vintage Theater 

Eigg the Musical was performed at the Vintage Theatre in July 2023. Situated in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, the Isle of Eigg has a fascinating history of sovereignty. Not long ago, the inhabitants of Eigg faced a different type of invader; a celebrity Laird looking to create his Gaelic island utopia. The transfer to community ownership hatched on Eigg is arguably the most captivating example of Scottish land reform. "Our shows were packed at Vintage and it's a good feeling to have your theatre friends support and vote for you," Alsup said.

Bold Journey magazine interview

Here's a link to an online interview I had with Bold Journey Magazine. They ask me about optimism and said that they believe it is the invisible ingredient that powers so much of the incredible progress in society from entrepreneurs and investors to artists and creatives who believe in something and are optimistic enough to risk their time, money, and reputation. I told them; "if you don't have something good to say just don't say it." I think the publication believes we can all learn from each other and they look for stories that will inspire their readers.

Click HERE to learn more.

BANNED headed to 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

It was inevitable that "BANNED the Musical" would be performed across the pond someday. Some of our UK peeps come from our relationships with streaming music sites like Spotify, Deezer and Tidal, but the BANNED show has a real universal theatre appeal too and is very relevant with the polarizing discourse around gender and the proliferation of social media these days.

Willow Studio @ Riddles Court

We had a small theatre troupe at Fringe a few months ago with the show "Eigg the Musical" and we were hoping to get a spot in 2024 program. Our dates this year are August 2nd through the 10th. We're part of the evening lineup in Willow Studio @ Riddles Court. It'll be nice to see all our Greenside friends again and meet up with the European folks we know from a far next Summer in Scotland. Stay tuned for more details!

World on a string

Autumn is a great time of year for aerial photography. The change of color can be breathtaking in Colorado and the Fall foliage makes way for some excellent pictures. I usually start by powering up the batteries in my drone early in the day and get everything prepared for an early evening photo shoot. This year I headed out to Wallace Park, it's near the interchange of I-225 and I-25 and has a backdrop of the Denver Technology Center and the Colorado Mountains.

Wallace Park at Denver Technology Center

I decided to do something a little different. I wanted to get a picture of a kite flying over a park with the Fall foliage, the high rise buildings and the mountains, but hanging my 360 camera under a kite seemed time consuming and problematic. The solution was to use the drone to carry the camera and add the kite in post, but getting a image of the string of the kite would be a challenge.

Drone Flying at 150 feet above Wallace Park

As usual the local Home Depot had a nice solution, but as often is the case, this kind of thing can be a bit trial and error. It was easy enough to find a bright yellow string and a small pully and attach the pulley to the bottom of the drone. Then I fed the yellow string through the pulley and attached the old bullet time string to my old Insta 360 camera and knot them together.

Go fly a kite

I enjoy flying the drone, but in this case I had to manage a lot of different things. I put the Insta 360 in photo interval mode and launched the drone. It was set to take pictures every 60 seconds. The camera was spinning wildly so I wasn't sure how well the images would turn out. Sometimes you just have to wait until you back in your studio to see the results and in this case a lot of the images were blurry.

Little world mode of drone on a string

Fortunately I was able to use some of the pictures and the yellow/orange string looked perfect. The Insta 360 software has some cool image modes and I used a fisheye effect on the first image and little world on the second one. I then touched up the images in Adobe Lightroom and used Photoshop to remove the drone and add the kite.

World on a string

All in all, I'm happy with the results. The first image was a panoramic image I took using the drone's Hasselblad 1" sensor on an old Mavic 2 pro. The other two were from the Insta 360 and I did some post framing and color correction on them, but it was a fun day for aerial photo content creation before all the leaves drop and Winter time comes in Colorado.

Eigg the Musical in pictures

In my storage space I have all sorts of scrapbooks that my parents would make after they would take a trip. My sense is that these boxes will probably end up in the trash or one of my son's garages someday. Lots of us like to gather up and organize all the pictures and collateral from the shows we've been a part of and put them into a scrapbook. It takes a lot of time to bring a new musical work to the stage and along the way you accumulate all kinds of knick knacks, but these days it's mostly digital or can be easily made to be. Here's my latest one, it's for Eigg the Musical and goes all the way back to 2017. It won't end up in a garage somewhere because it's safe in the cloud...right?

Eigg the Musical in Pictures

360° video sample of Eigg Musical at Riddles Court

I've always wondered how well a 360 degree camera would work for theatrical stage performances. The Insta 360 camera is fairly old technology, but it has a gyro mechanism built in to the enclosure that orientates the lens to the proper horizon. I'm not really sure if it's a physical gyro mechanism or done through software, but the results work well for me since I often hang the camera from my drone or some sort of ceiling fixture.

Here's the first scene from our show Eigg the Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I used the bullet time string to hang the camera from the chandelier at stage right of the theater. The Greenside @ Riddles court venue is over 500 years old and once held a coronation party for King James V1. Check out the ceiling!

 
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Life was meant for good friends and great adventures

In 2019 I visited the tiny Isle of Eigg for a little theatrical research. I stayed at the Glebe Barn and made friends with a group of lovely people from Ayr, Scotland. During the day we explored Massacre caves, the singing sands of Laig Bay and hiked up Mount Squrr to Loch nam Ban Mora. In the evenings we drank scotch and discussed the history of Eigg. One of the members in the group was connected with Keith Schellenberg and later the Island Trust. It was very insightful and had a lot of impact on the Eigg show.

Drinking Scotch and exploring the Isle of Eigg in 2019

Four years and a pandemic later they came to Edinburgh to see the results at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It takes several years to write a full length music theatre work and this one included moments from our visit 4 years earlier. It was so rewarding and truly one of the most meaningful moments of this year's trip to Edinburgh and one I will always cherish.

Good friends at Eigg the Musical in Edinburgh

Developing the Eigg show's musical score

The Eigg show has been a wondrous musical journey. Early on, I knew we needed to supplement the score with traditional Scottish music and after visiting the island I decided on the instrumentation of the music ensemble (accordion, violin and keyboard). My goal would be to compose and perform the work with the ensemble, I like to call it method composing. I had never played an accordion before, but it felt so natural. Well, I searched the internet and found Sandy Brechin, a Ceilidh accordion maestro from Edinburgh. He knew all about the story of Eigg and of many others too, he'd even performed on the island and knew some of the locals. So over the next year we used the marvels of technology to connect with each other and he helped a lot with my playing.

Sandy Brechin and April Alsup using Skye

On Sunday August 6th we met in person for the first time at Ensign Ewert tavern, a small pub which ironically is a stone's throw from the venue of our show. Then, on the 10th he came to our show I was able to return the favor by performing for him. It was truly a special moment for me. I find traditional Scottish music to be comforting, honest and humble and hope I was able to capture some of it's beauty in our show.

Sandy Brechin with Eigg Ensemble (April, Mark and Cieran)

Cast and Crew of Eigg the Musical

Here's an image of our cast and crew a few minutes before entering the Willow Studio at Riddles Court for our debut (albeit preview) of Eigg the Musical in Edinburgh Scotland. 

Cast and Crew of Eigg the Musical

Eigg troupe press photos

The Eigg show has been in the works for quite some time now and we've decided it's time to unveil our upcoming shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Here's a couple Eigg the Musical troupe photos we shot for the press release. Tracy Holt Doty took the picture during a rehearsal break the last part of June 2023. We were missing a couple of cast members that night since it was early in the process, but I'm sure we'll add plenty of images of the whole team on the Musical's website soon.

Eigg the Musical cast and crew

Eigg the Musical cast and crew

The process of writing musical theatre

I've been writing music theater works since I was a child and one thing I've learned is no one can give you a blueprint, a formula or a road map. I try to go into the process with an open mind and I sometimes just let the music show the way. My guess is my colleagues would tell you that I'm not the easiest person to work with. I enjoy collaboration, but there are often disagreements. My latest work was developed with Mark Sbani and started quite some time ago.

Eigg the Musical writing team April Alsup and Mark Sbani

The intersection between music, dance and storytelling is magical. I'll never forget coming home from Scotland after a little onsite research and discussing how we should retool the whole work. My sense was we needed to set the show within the events of a Scottish ceilidh dance festival. We then focused on just a few highland tales and the traditional music provided the authentic atmosphere we were after. Fast forward through a pandemic, learning to play accordion, a lot of give and take and it all started to come together. Next month we are headed to Scotland to perform our show at the biggest performing arts festival on the planet.

Visiting Saint Thomas in Leipzig Germany

In 2019 I visited Saint Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany. It is probably most famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as the music director from 1723 until his death in 1750 and is the current location of his remains. There's so much classical music history in Leipzig and musicians from all over the world travel here to experience the atmosphere. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn all performed in this place.

April Alsup at St Thomas in Leipzig Germany

Ceilidh dancing for the Eigg show Miss McLeod's Reel

In 2019 I travelled to the Isle of Eigg for a little theatrical research. During the trip I was exposed to the atmosphere at a ceilidh dance and I knew it needed to be integrated into the Eigg show. Over the pandemic I learned to play the accordion and now I can actually play with a ceilidh band. Here's a 360 video of the Eigg cast learning the dance steps to Miss McLeod's Reel. Our dance instructor was Tim Luscombe and he studied dance at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It was a lot of fun and very informative too.

New media content from Breckenridge Colorado

Every year I meet my brother in Breckenridge Colorado for a family ski vacation. We've been doing it for a long time and it's become a tradition. I was really looking forward to skiing this year, but my back was a little sore from a recent move. At some point I just decided to figure out something else to do during the day and grabbed a few content creation gadgets before heading off to Breckenridge.

Drone launch point and historic main street

A. For the first project, I drove out past the B&B trailhead as far as I could go so I could get a long shot of the city and the ski slopes. Then I launched my drone and sent it up a little over 250 feet to frame up the area through the wooded valley just east of town. My drone has a Hasselblad 1" sensor and can take up to 26 high resolution raw images for a panoramic picture. I used Lightroom to stitch the images together and Photoshop to make the postcard below.

My postcard from Breckenridge Colorado

B. Next, I thought it might be fun to create a 360° immersive video of historic main street, so I placed an old Insta 360 camera on a selfie stick and secured it under the back windshield wiper of my SUV. Then I just drove north on main street with the camera recording 360 video at 4K . You can adjust the speed using the video settings. I've always loved the atmosphere in Breck. It's a pretty neat little town.

360° immersive video from historic main street 

C. Finally, it was up to Hoosier pass for a 360° aerial photo of the continental divide. Once I got to the top of the pass I sent my drone up about 400 feet to get a 360° panoramic picture of the mountains to the east and west and the valley south down to Fairplay and north down to Breckenridge. It's super bright at this altitude and I used a ND16 filter to compensate. I don't think blogger has a VR gadget, so you'll need to select the image below to get the 3D experience. VR headset highly recommended.

Select image above for 360° immersive photo experience