Being a theatrical writer is so rewarding. It’s also requires living a completely unsustainable life.
In the endless rat race of being not only writers, most of us are also our own editors, producers, social media managers, and more. This is all in addition to our “real lives” with full time jobs, families, and friendships to maintain. (Do any of us sleep?) It sometimes feels impossible to find a spare moment to actually dedicate to writing.
Enter Shannon and Scott.
Shannon Morrison and Scott Ihrig are the founders of Drama Club Productions, a commercial musical theatre company that produces and invests not just in shows, but in people.
We had the extreme good fortune of being invited upta Drama Club Camp — a unique musical theatre writing residency whose entire purpose is to provide the space, time, and community to help your project along. We were absolutely dazzled by their 14 bedroom lodge in rural Maine, the 65 acres of outbuildings (including a recording studio!) and beautiful Torsey Lake.
Residencies like this usually don’t come cheap, especially considering we had all of our meals provided, 24 hour access to spaces and supplies like printing and snacks, and our only responsibility was to just create.
This residency was completely free.
(Small aside for transparency’s sake - we did have to cover our own travel costs, including flights to and from Seattle, plus hotel rooms for our travel days. The travel from Seattle to Portland, ME ended up just under $1k each [flights, hotels, and food.] We had the fortune of having extra $$ set aside from the generous stipend that Jessi’s Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellowship provided. This isn’t a knock against camp—the cost was well worth it, and should be cheaper for people already located on the east coast.)
Let’s break down the whole experience:
The house is incredible. The property is gorgeous. The meals were fully catered and delicious (we will be forever chasing the high of Chef Hannah’s lobster bisque.) Have we mentioned the 24/7 snack room???
Five whole days with no responsibility beyond “make something” was an opportunity we did not let escape us. We spent Monday rethinking the structure of our show and mapping out new scenes. Tuesday, we spent half independently working and half brainstorming Sue’s new “I Am/I Want” song (remember our November 2025 post about how many times we’ve rewritten this song? lmfao)
For Wednesday and Thursday, we split up to tackle work individually.
Jessi used these two days to sprint through the entire script, writing a few entirely new scenes from scratch. She presented some of these at the nightly share sessions to pick the minds of the other artists. Getting the opinions on a new direction from people who didn’t have the bias of knowing the previous draft was incredibly valuable.
Daniel spent his time drafting yet another “I Am/I Want” for Sue. He built feedback right into the drafting process, seeking out the insight of other writers (thank you especially to Taylor, Michelle, and Pete!) before drafting anything. By Thursday night, though, this feedback helped him realize that we were approaching the song from the wrong angle.
Scrapping yet another “I Am/I Want”, Daniel and Jessi reunited creative forces on Friday and fully drafted the latest iteration; “Making the Call.”
Check out what Daniel learned from camp in his own words via Instagram.
Really, community was the best and worst part of camp. It was the best because these incredibly talented writers made for incredible conversation and were so smart.
The people were also the worst part because it made us realize that going back to “real life” without our little artist colony was going to be the worst hangover ever.
Here are the people we were fortunate enough to spend a week with, and their projects.
(They’ve just released their first single, with an EP coming next month!!!!)
Living: A Now Musical
Spanglish Sh!t
Papers Please (The Musical)
Daniel Nagler
Cole Porter is My Imaginary VR Boyfriend
Seriously — invest in these people now. This won’t be the last time you see their names!!
In the moments we weren’t drafting, we enjoyed all that the 65 acre Drama Club campus had to offer. We were both struck by the similarities between rural Maine and the Pacific Northwest, so we felt right at home. Jessi is very glad that she doesn’t have to drench herself in DEET anymore, though. How do you people live like that.
Drama Club Productions really put itself on the map this awards season after being co-producers on Cats: The Jellicle Ball and Mexodus, but they’ve got their hands in a lot of other cookie jars right now. Keep an eye out for some of their other upcoming co-productions, especially Wanted (previews open at the James Earl Jones theater on October 15th.) Check out what else DCC is involved with in the 2026/2027 season.
Drama Club Camp is doing everything right. They’re investing in artists in tangible ways that combine productivity, networking, and recreation. Thank you for bringing us all together, and for showing how strongly you believe in transforming the landscape of musical theatre.
We are traveling back to Frisco, Texas for another year of the Musical Writers conference!! This year, we’re stoked to be participating in Pitch Night. We’ll be spending the next few weeks perfecting our pitch for Hijinx & Sue so we can win (imaginary) funding for our (hypothetical) workshop production.
It’s not too late to join us! Check out the festival page to discover what’s going down in Texas.
We also have some exciting new stuff brewing behind the scenes. Hoping to share more soon. Let’s chat again next month!
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