{"value"=>"<p>John Michael Friedman (1975-2017) was an American composer and lyricist, best known for theater works such as <span class=\"title\">Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Fortress of Solitude</span>, and <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>. Adept in multiple styles and genres of music, he was known for his interest in a wide array of subject matter, particularly politics and history.</p> <p>Friedman was born in Boston but grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended the Germantown Friends School. He learned piano and cello as a child, and spent summers at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont.</p> <p>Friedman entered Harvard University majoring in history and literature, but his focus changed after taking a composition class with Elizabeth Swados, who became his mentor and prime influence. Swados helped him find work and make connections in the theater world, and Friedman moved to New York after his graduation. Swados also hired Friedman as music director for two projects, her piece <span class=\"title\">Cantata 2000</span> (1997), and her music for a production of Brecht's <span class=\"title\">The Caucasian Chalk Circle</span> (1998).</p> <p>Friedman met the writer-director Steven Cosson, a frequent collaborator, in the late-1990s, and in 2001 the two were among the founding members of the theatrical troupe The Civilians, which became the home for many Friedman works. The troupe decided on a topic, then researched it while also recording interviews with people associated with the topic. Friedman would then create lyrics derived directly from the interviews and set them to music. Among Friedman's musicals workshopped and performed by The Civilians were <span class=\"title\">Canard, Canard, Goose</span>; <span class=\"title\">Gone Missing (A Show About Things Lost and Found)</span>; <span class=\"title\">Paris Commune</span>; <span class=\"title\">The Great Immensity</span>; <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span>; <span class=\"title\">(I Am) Nobody's Lunch</span>; and <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>.</p> <p>Friedman also had a long association with The Public Theater. He was music director or composer for several Shakespeare in the Park productions (including <span class=\"title\">Cymbeline</span>, <span class=\"title\">Love's Labours Lost</span>, <span class=\"title\">Romeo and Juliet</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Tempest</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Seagull</span>), and the Public produced <span class=\"title\">Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</span> (which also had a brief Broadway run in 2010) and <span class=\"title\">The Fortress of Solitude</span> (based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem). The Public featured Friedman as artist-in-residence, and he also curated the theater's Public Forum series. Other companies that presented Friedman's work included the New York Theatre Workshop, The Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage, Soho Rep, Theater for a New Audience, Signature Theatre, The Acting Company, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, and La Jolla Playhouse.</p> <p>In 2017, Friedman was the artistic director of the New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center program, which presents concert performances of Off-Broadway musicals. Under Friedman's direction, the series presented <span class=\"title\">Assassins</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Really Rosie</span>.</p> <p>Friedman wrote the scores for the 2010 Signature Theatre revival of <span class=\"title\">Angels in America</span>, and the Broadway adaptation of <span class=\"title\">Misery</span> (2015-2016). Among Friedman's other works (as composer, composer/lyricist, or musical director) were <span class=\"title\">Saved</span>, <span class=\"title\">Lysistrata</span>, <span class=\"title\">God Hates the Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Essential Alice in Wonderland</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play</span>, <span class=\"title\">In the Bubble</span>, <span class=\"title\">Landscape of the Body</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade</span>, <span class=\"title\">State of the Union</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Abominables</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge</span>, and <span class=\"title\">In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards</span>. He also scored five films: <span class=\"title\">On Common Ground</span> (2001), <span class=\"title\">Affair Game</span> (2006), <span class=\"title\">Emile Norman: By His Own Design</span> (2007), <span class=\"title\">Beloved</span> (2009), and <span class=\"title\">Coach</span> (2010).</p> <p>Michael Friedman died of complications of HIV/AIDS in 2017.</p> <p>Sources:</p> <p>Casper Grathwohl, \"Composing for Shakespeare While Listening to Timberlake,\" <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>, March 11, 2007.</p> <p>Michael Paulson, \"Michael Friedman, Co-Creator of 'Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,' Dies at 41,\" <span class=\"title\">The New York Times</span>, September 10, 2017.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>The Michael Friedman papers, dating from 1980 to 2018, strongly document the composer's career and development, mainly from the late 1980s to his death in 2017. Friedman's life and work is revealed through project files, notes, scores, lyrics, letters, school papers, business records, programs, clippings, photographs, and sound and video recordings. Posthumous content was contributed by Friedman's sister, Marion Young.</p> <p>The collection is in two series: Personal and Professional Files, and Sound and Video Recordings.</p> <p>Series I: Personal and Professional Files evidences Friedman's schooling and career development through project files, scores, letters, business records, clippings, programs, and photographs. Works with substantial documentation include <span class=\"title\">The Abominables</span>, <span class=\"title\">Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Fortress Of Solitude</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span>, <span class=\"title\">Post Office</span>, <span class=\"title\">Saved</span>, and <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>.</p> <p>Series II: Sound and Video Recordings documents Friedman's compositions and theatrical work from his high school years through late in his life. The series includes work on <span class=\"title\">The Fortress of Solitude</span>, <span class=\"title\">Gone Missing</span>, <span class=\"title\">In the Bubble</span>, <span class=\"title\">Paris Commune</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Stranger: A Musical</span>, and <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Michael Friedman papers are arranged in two series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/24588#c1729268'>Series I: Personal and Professional Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1980-2018</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Series I: Personal and Professional Files illustrates Friedman's life and work through Project Files; Notes and Notebooks; Instrumental Compositions; Letters and Cards; School Papers; Business Records; Clippings and Programs; Photographs; and Writings.</p> <p>The Project Files, which are arranged alphabetically, comprise the bulk of the series. They document Friedman's work and activities, mainly musicals and plays, but also including songbook projects, work for film, his teaching at Princeton University, and a presentation at TEDx. The files may contain scripts, scores (mostly lead sheets but with some more detailed full scores and parts), lyrics, production information, contact sheets (lists of people who worked on productions), invoices, clippings, letters, contracts, photographs, audio recordings, and in some cases, interview transcripts from which lyrics were derived. Notes and business records in this series also contain project-related material. See Series II for audio and video documentation of some of these projects.</p> <p>Musical works by Friedman with substantial material here include <span class=\"title\">The Abominables</span>, <span class=\"title\">Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Brand New Kid</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Essential Alice In Wonderland</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Fortress Of Solitude</span>, <span class=\"title\">Gone Missing (A Show About Things Lost and Found)</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Great Immensity</span>, <span class=\"title\">Here's Hoover! The Historic Herbert Hoover 2014 Comeback Special</span>, <span class=\"title\">(I Am) Nobody's Lunch</span>, <span class=\"title\">In The Bubble</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play</span>, <span class=\"title\">Paris Commune</span>, <span class=\"title\">Post Office</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span>, <span class=\"title\">Saved</span>, <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Unknown Soldier</span>. Also present is work in progress on the unfinished musicals <span class=\"title\">All The President's Men</span> and <span class=\"title\">King of Kong</span>.</p> <p>Friedman's work on music for plays (as either composer or musical director, or both) here include <span class=\"title\">Angels In America</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Blue Demon</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Cherry Orchard</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Clean House</span>, <span class=\"title\">Cyrano de Bergerac</span>, <span class=\"title\">God Hates The Irish: The Ballad Of Armless Johnny</span>, <span class=\"title\">The House of Blue Leaves</span>, <span class=\"title\">In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Loyal Opposition</span>, <span class=\"title\">Lysistrata</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Rose Tattoo</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Seagull</span>, <span class=\"title\">Three Sisters</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Water's Edge</span>, and Shakespeare's <span class=\"title\">Love's Labours Lost</span>, <span class=\"title\">Romeo and Juliet</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Taming of the Shrew</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Tempest</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Winter's Tale</span>.</p> <p>Also in the Project Files is Friedman's 2016 election-themed song cycle <span class=\"title\">State of the Union Songbook</span>, songs from which were broadcast on WNYC radio. Files for that project, like some others Friedman worked on in this series, contain interview recordings and transcripts from which lyrics were derived. The files also hold material for unidentified projects, and a large set of backup files of scores which may or may not duplicate other scores in the series. Friedman's files regarding his 2007 Anschutz Fellowship at Princeton University, for which he taught a course on theater writing, comprise a syllabus and student project proposals and assignments.</p> <p>Notes are comprised of lyrics, meeting notes, plot ideas, rehearsal notes, performance notes, occasional journal entries, and contact lists. Among the projects discussed in the notes are <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span> (2010), <span class=\"title\">The Tempest</span> (2015), <span class=\"title\">The Fortress Of Solitude</span> (2014), <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span> (2007-2008), and the City Center Encores presentation of <span class=\"title\">Assassins</span> (2017). Friedman used a few notebooks from the last few months of his life while he was in hospital. One (found with his memorial program in box 11, folder 2) outlines what he wanted for his memorial service.</p> <p>The Compositions (primarily instrumental) date mostly from Friedman's student days (1980s to 1990s). These include two string quartets, an oboe quintet, a choir work, and a piece for brass. There are also folders of sketches and song ideas which date over a much longer period (1980s to 2017), and a collection of sheet music compiled by Friedman. Scores for Friedman's work in theater are in the Project Files. Letters and Cards consist primarily of brief congratulatory notes or greeting cards from friends and colleagues. There is also a set of printed emails from Friedman to his friend, the writer Rebecca Traister, written while he was working at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer of 1999.</p> <p>School Papers contain writings, drawings, and programs from Friedman's days at the Germantown Friends School, the Kinhaven Music School, and Harvard University. The Harvard file contains many programs for events and performances featuring Friedman as composer, performer, or both.</p> <p>Business Records include a file on The Civilians, including their by-laws; information on Friedman's compositions; contact sheets for various productions; invoices and contracts between Friedman, his co-creators, producers, and presenters; financial records; files on grants and awards Friedman applied for or was awarded; and resumes and biographies. The file on grants and awards hold applications, career statements, project proposals, and course ideas.</p> <p>The Clippings and Programs file is small and does not represent a comprehensive set of publicity or documentation of Friedman's career. It does, however, contain a review and articles Friedman wrote for the <span class=\"title\">London Review of Books</span> (2005), <span class=\"title\">Contemporary Theatre Review</span> (2006), and <span class=\"title\">Harvard Magazine</span> (2013). It also holds Friedman's memorial program.</p> <p>The Photographs include production shots of <span class=\"title\">In The Bubble</span>, <span class=\"title\">Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Marate/Sade</span>; a photo of Friedman with his colleague Steven Cosson; a photo of students from the Kinhaven Music School from around 1989; and many personal photographs of Friedman and his friends and colleagues at social events and weddings. There is also a file of photographs taken during a trip to Panama which served as inspiration for <span class=\"title\">The Great Immensity</span>, and photos taken during a workshop at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. Photographs can also be found in the Project Files.</p> <p>The Writings contains Friedman's notes on various theater topics; his review of Raymond Knapp's book <span class=\"title\">The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity</span>; and Friedman's interview with Richard Peaslee.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/24588#c1558562'>Sound and Video Recordings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1982-2017</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The sound and video recordings strongly represent Friedman's work as a composer and lyricist. They contain works-in-progress, demos, and, in some cases, complete recordings of musicals, a few of which were never completed. The recordings are in are in six divisions, each arranged alphabetically: Projects, Work Recordings, Demos, School Performances, Other Recordings, and Mix Tapes and CDs. Some audio recordings can also be found in the Project Files in Series I.</p> <p>Projects document Friedman's work and works-in-progress. It is in the following divisions: Musicals, plays, films, television, songbook performances, and unidentified projects. The project recordings include song or instrumental demos; readings; rehearsals; performance audio and/or video; and cast recordings or recording sessions.</p> <p>Musicals documented here include <span class=\"title\">The Abominables</span> (one of Friedman's final completed works), <span class=\"title\">The Essential Alice In Wonderland</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Fortress of Solitude</span>, <span class=\"title\">God Hates the Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny</span>, <span class=\"title\">Gone Missing (A Show About Things Lost and Found)</span>, <span class=\"title\">In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards</span>, <span class=\"title\">In the Bubble</span>, <span class=\"title\">King of Kong</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge</span>, <span class=\"title\">Paris Commune</span>, <span class=\"title\">Pretty Filthy</span>, <span class=\"title\">Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Making Whoopie</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Stranger: A Musical</span>, <span class=\"title\">This Beautiful City</span>; and <span class=\"title\">Unknown Soldier</span>.</p> <p>More of Friedman's musical material can be heard in the recording of an American Songbook concert he performed at Lincoln Center in 2010. There are also informal recordings of material from his research project <span class=\"title\">American Pop: 1846-1923: A Songbook</span>.</p> <p>Recordings of incidental music for plays with Friedman as music director and/or composer include <span class=\"title\">Bloody Poetry</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Caucasian Chalk Circle</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures</span>, <span class=\"title\">Fully Committed</span>, <span class=\"title\">Misery</span>, <span class=\"title\">Mother Courage and Her Children</span>, <span class=\"title\">Romeo and Juliet</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Taming of the Shrew</span>, among others. Film and television productions with music by Friedman here include <span class=\"title\">Affair Game</span>, <span class=\"title\">Coach</span>, <span class=\"title\">Emile Norman: By His Own Design</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Floaters</span>.</p> <p>The Demos and Work Recordings contain instrumental ideas (performed on piano, or digital realizations from notation software); recordings of Friedman instrumental compositions; and songs-in-progress, sung by Friedman or unidentified others.</p> <p>The school performances date from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. The recordings at the Kinhaven School include early compositional work, and Friedman performing on cello with chamber groups and orchestras. The Germantown Friends recordings feature Friedman mainly as a vocalist, including his work with De Functorum, a boys' doo-wop style group, for which he may have arranged songs; and his appearance in the school's 1993 production of <span class=\"title\">Godspell</span>. The Harvard recordings include video of a performance of the Edward Albee play <span class=\"title\">The Zoo Story</span>, directed by Friedman, as well as a performance of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum.</p> <p>Other recordings contain songs or instrumental music not linked to a particular project, or possibly by other composers. Also present is the work of Betty Comden and Adolph Green (an audio recording of a performance); Meredith Monk (a video of her opera <span class=\"title\">Specimen Days</span>); and Elizabeth Swados (a Christmas holiday album).</p> <p>Friedman compiled several mix tapes or CDs of released material by rock bands, dance songs, French songs, and other material. Recordings for which all or most of the material is identified are not available for listening, but their content is in the container list below for reference purposes.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}