OLLI at Duke • Spring 2024
Course Description
In 1971 Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for Godspell, a musical adaptation of The Gospel of St. Matthew. That same year Leonard Bernstein invited Schwartz to contribute lyrics for the composer’s Mass. By 1976, with the addition of Pippin and The Magic Show, Schwartz had three hit shows running in New York. Subsequent stage shows—such as The Baker’s Wife and Children of Eden—would be less successful, though their scores were highly regarded. In the 1990s, he wrote songs for three films: Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (both with composer Alan Menken), and The Prince of Egypt. In 2003 he returned to Broadway as composer and lyricist of Wicked, which has been running for over twenty years. In this survey of Schwartz’s career, students will appreciate the distinctive characteristics of his work by listening to and watching excerpts from his shows and films. The course is primarily lecture with video and audio clips, but students will be able to ask questions and make comments during each class.
Instructor : Alan Teasley
Alan Teasley began his career as a high school English and drama teacher. After retiring from the Durham Public Schools in 2006, he taught in Duke’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program. He is an avid theatergoer with a particular fondness for American musicals. This is his fourteenth course on musical theater for OLLI. Previous courses have focused on the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Frank Loesser, Lerner & Loewe, Jerry Herman, Bock & Harnick, Leonard Bernstein,” Rodgers & Hart, George & Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter.