These are the standards we hold ourselves to in the Advanced Writers Lab:
- Is the proposed project viable? Would a theater company ever do a piece like this?
- Do the authors have a clear idea of their intended audience?
- Are the authors open to feedback and significant, even radical, revision?
- Is the proposed project likely to develop as an effective piece of theater?
- Is there a clear story line (spine)?
- Does it have distinct main characters with clear objectives and power to achieve them?
- Are the stakes high enough for the audience to care about the outcome?
- Is the story developed so that each scene has a turn?
- Is each scene truly about the characters on stage and not some third party?
- How does the story lend itself to heightened song moments?
- Do we understand characters through their music as well as through their words?
- Is the music melodically and harmonically coherent?
- Is there variety in tempo, mood and ensemble from song to song?
- Is song structure (including standard structure) used to forward the story?
- Is the word setting natural and intelligible?
- Do the vocal lines show a knowledge of singing technique and vocal ranges?
- Is the style of the music appropriate to the subject matter?
- Does the choice of words reveal character and motivation?
- Do the lyrics forward the story? Are they appropriate for the dramatic moment?
- Do the lyrics show rather than tell? Do they employ subtext?
- Do the lyrics contain imagery appropriate to the character and environment?
- Do the lyrics use rhyme and rhyme scheme effectively and creatively?