As we prepare to open Love Taps next week, we near the end of our story show making process for this season. Every year, this process while familiar becomes a bit like reinventing the wheel as we push ourselves to explore new genres and choose which conventions to play up and which to pare down. Because we are (from our research) the only tap company in America and maybe even the world creating full length story shows, we have the luxury of defining what the tap opera looks like but also the drawback of not having many sources from which to draw inspiration or how-to's.

Over the past several months, Love Taps has grown from a seed of an idea, to a full fledged show. It all starts with a lot of talking and brainstorming and writing the story bible which serves as the skeleton on which we build the show. The story bible is open to change but serves as the jumping off point and guide for the music, character development, and choreography. Because we are so often inspired by movies, our story bible sometimes has some really funny moments written into it that just aren't meant for the stage. My personal favorite this year was:

POLLY IS ABOUT TO CROSS THE STREET, WHEN SUDDENLY IAN YANKS HER BACK FROM A BUS DRIVING BY WITH AN AD FOR THE WEBSITE ON THE SIDE. POLLY THANKS IAN, AND SHE WALKS OFF.

From the story bible comes the music. This year, Drew wrote most of the show in chronological order instead of jumping from one scene to another and then back. The music takes the audience on a thoughtful and multi-dimensional journey - it really showcases his knack for structure and pace. Different from Little Dead... which Drew also composed all the music for, this year's music has yet another layer of brilliance in the form of lyrics and voice. (Visit Drew's blog for sneak peeks of the music - it really is amazing.)

The music inspires the choreography. Luckily, Mark is always inspired by Drew's music and has created some really great pieces this year. Mark considers the music as well as the character descriptions to choose steps that make sense for each character. If you're gentle, the steps need to match that - likewise if you're a sleaze-bag. This often means that Mark has to step into each roll himself and feel what it's like to be all those things - which you can imagine can have its funny moments.

Once the music and choreography are given to the dancers, it becomes our task to transform our characters from a one sentence description, music, and steps to a multi-dimensional person the audience can relate to. We decide how our character moves, what their voice might sound like, and what they are saying with every tap sound. We figure out how that character relates to the others around them. We even write back stories for our characters to make sure they are real people in our minds.

One of the final things that informs our characters and the overall feel of the show is of course, costumes! For this show, we are again working with the brilliant Anna Glowacki who created the costumes for Little Dead.... Anna's task this year has been to create costumes reminiscent of the real world without looking too pedestrian. Like Mark and Drew, Anna gives a lot of thought to each character's costume, always coming up with creative ways to tell the audience about them through what they are wearing.

It's not until we finally get into the theater that everything really comes together. It's then we finally see the world these characters live in when the lights, set, and props come into play. The amazing people we work with to create these elements really have a difficult task because we are asking them to straddle the two worlds of dance and theater right along with us. The light, set, and prop needs for theater are very different from those for dance. We have learned a lot of valuable lessons about this over the past several years. This year, we are pushing the element of projection farther than we have before. This gives us the benefit of not losing valuable stage real estate but can make the job of lighting everyone a larger challenge. (Here's a sneak peek of one of the projections Drew is working out. Eventually, it will show all the characters signing up for LoveTaps.com but he has used himself as a placeholder in the meantime.)

If you want to see how all these elements come together, you'll have your chance to starting next weekend! Join us for our first ever performance at the lovely Theatre Building starting March 19th and running until March 28th. Visit the event page for more information. We can't wait to share this show with you! ♥ CTT