Screen to Stage
Teachers, take your experience further. Download this lesson plan exploring character and point of view.
Every musical comes together differently, but for FROZEN, Disney Theatrical Productions’ President & Producer Thomas Schumacher first thought of bringing the story to the stage when he saw a rough cut of the film. Once the decision was made to move forward, a creative team was assembled, including the film’s writer, Jennifer Lee, and the film’s songwriters Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez, in addition to a director (Michael Grandage), choreographer (Rob Ashford), designer (Christopher Oram).
Jennifer Lee, Thomas Schumacher, Kristen Anderson Lopez, Michael Grandage, Robert Lopez
The first step in bringing any musical to the stage is a table read. During the table read, the creative team assembles a group of actors to read the show out loud. From there, revisions to the script and score are made in preparation for a ‘lab’, or ‘research and development’ workshop.
During a lab, the team has the opportunity to get the show up on its feet. The actors and creative team work together for several days and ultimately share a presentation of their work with the team of people working on the show, including designers, producers, marketing representatives and more.
Kristen Anderson Lopez, Robert Lopez, Christopher Oram, Broadway Lighting Designer Natasha Katz
Jennifer Lee, Kristen Anderson Lopez, Robert Lopez
The FROZEN team also decided to do extensive production research and development, including demonstrations of many of the technical elements being considered for the show. The team experimented with Elsa’s magic, creating a snow storm on stage, and how to freeze Arendelle.
The creative team spent two years in this development phase before assembling a professional cast of actors to workshop FROZEN and imagine what it might look like on stage.