New Music Artist Spotlight: Steampunk Musical & Interview With Gretchen Suarez-Peña New Music Resource was excited to interview exciting musical theater playwright and director Gretchen Suarez-Peña about her latest musical theater production: Melina A Steampunk Musical Tragedy. Gretchen Suarez-Peña is a long-time playwright and lover of the theatre. She has been acting, directing, and writing plays since her teenage years. Her most recent success was winning overall best full-length play at the 2018 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival for her show Conversations in the Car. Playwright and Director Gretchen Suarez-Peña NMR: How did you start in musical theatre? What inspired you to follow this path?  I've been involved in musical theatre since I was a kid. I loved the theatre, acting, singing, and acting in middle school and high school. I participated in every thespian competition and community theatre production I could at that time and into college and early ...

Melina: A Steampunk Musical Tragedy Melina is a steampunk musical tragedy. A story of love, loss and the fact that as much as we would like to, we can't change the past. Set in a fictional steampunk setting, Melina is Shakespeare meets Greek Tragedy sprinkled with a fun dose of Jules Verne! Help take this production to the next level by funding the demo album that will be sent to festivals and competitions and make this musical a staple of the community theatre, university theatre and high school theatre scene! SUPPORT NOW THROUGH KICKSTARTER Synopsis: In the fictional steampunk town of New Comen, Jacob is the highly esteemed heir to the "throne" who is in love with a lower-class girl named Mara. Mara, is an aspiring vocalist that has gained the favor of the town despite her status. Their love is one of fairy tales until Melina enters the scene. Melina sweetly wins Jacob's attention and he ends up falling for her and leaving Mara. Mara is heartbroken o...

Starting Your First Short Film “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds…Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul…always remember what Jean-Luc  Godard said. ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’ – Jim Jarmusch Filmmakers, much like novelists or composers, bear their souls within their films, especially in the earliest stages of filmmaking, before the lights of Hollywood dazzle them with wealth and fame. Yet, to be successful in film/media/video production, there is a combination of inspiration and sheer grit.  You have to know how to create something incredible within a deadline, with a tight budget, with that actress that can’t seem to remember her lines but can’t be fired because she contracted t...