Q & A with Creators

Scott Elmegreen & Drew Fornarola

New Years Day, 2005, we were sitting on the floor of our dorm room, brainstorming ideas for new musicals, and we couldn't go five minutes without some sort of major distraction. We were eating cold pizza out of the box and laughing at the empty cereal bowls, candy wrappers, and laundry strewn about the room; we were listening to roommates outwit each other in their trivial and hysterical complaints about studying or casual relationships or the upcoming semester; we were sorting through cell phone interruptions and trying to drown out the television news playing in the background…. For some time, we'd been looking at stories to adapt or historical events to retell, but finally we just looked at each other and the room we were sitting in, and we said "You know what? I think we found it. I think this is it."

We are thrilled to bring COLLEGE to Gainesville for a number of reasons. First, despite being (literally!) a thousand miles off-Broadway, the Hipp has a great reputation in New York City and elsewhere as an outstanding regional theater. Beyond that, the creative team at The Hippodrome is extraordinary, and upon discussing the show with Lauren Caldwell, Bryan Mercer, Rocky Draud, and others, it was clear that we'd found a match in terms of enthusiasm, perspective, and goals for the production. The bright, sunny summer weather of Gainesville also seemed like just the right setting for a show as fun as COLLEGE, and the vibrant energy of the large university town in Gainesville made The Hippodrome impossible to resist!

COLLEGE is a "coming-of-age" story about a group of friends who hang out in Jay's Room, the greatest party suite on their college campus. Together they battle the various pressures of academic and social life, discuss their hopes and anxieties about the future, and come to terms with what it means to grow up and begin tackling the challenges faced by their generation. They also sing, say funny things, and do big, awesome dance breaks. But… we don't want to give away too much! You'll have to buy a ticket (preferably at full price…!) to find out the rest! :-)

Really, everything we see inspires and influences us in one way or another. We are true musical theater geeks, and while writing COLLEGE, we were studying musicals as diverse as Jesus Christ Superstar, Avenue Q, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spring Awakening, just to name a few.

Still, some of our greatest inspiration comes from outside the musical theater genre, as we've always found it useful to look for ideas in unexpected places. In addition to studying musical theater songs, we find ourselves inspired by contemporary music of all sorts. From Eminem's rhymes to Ben Folds' hooks to Elton John's song forms-just to scratch the surface-there's inspiration to be found in all types of music. Throw in influences from classical music, sacred choral music, gospel and jazz, too! Meanwhile, the humor in COLLEGE is certainly influenced by TV shows like Seinfeld and Family Guy as much as it is by other musical comedies. We love the musical genre, but if musicals were all we ever studied, it'd be more difficult to come up with something fresh and surprising.

The fact that we wrote it! We are so lucky to be writing at a time when so many exciting new musicals are happening. From the ones we've all heard of (Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, In The Heights) to the ones we haven't heard of yet but will soon, New York is buzzing with young, talented musical theater writers right now, and we are thrilled to add our names (and our show!) to the conversation. We hope that we add a unique voice, background, and sense of humor to the very exciting new musical theater scene.

All of it! We often joke about how much fun the "research" was for this show. We would go to parties and write down quotes and things we heard-and a lot of them made it into the show. We would also take note of what our friends were experiencing and what we were experiencing in our daily lives, and we certainly took a lot of inspiration from that, as well. The characters, meanwhile, are a healthy mix of people we knew, lived with, or dated in college; literary figures; and our imagination.

COLLEGE is a story about the emotions and behavior that come with being right on the brink of something big. For our characters, that something is graduation and adulthood. For the audience, that something might be starting a new job, getting married, watching a child start school, or even just being an American during this tumultuous moment in history. We have all seen and experienced first-hand the anxiety and also the excitement associated with life's milestones, and in this way, we believe that everyone can relate to the characters and story of COLLEGE The Musical.

We are so grateful to the Hippodrome and to the Gainesville community for this opportunity to bring our show to you! We hope very much that you enjoy it!