Meet the Fellows: Charlie Sohne, Lyricist

Recent Credits: The Boy Who Danced on Air (Music by Tim Rosser, NAMT 2013), The Profit of Creation (Music by Tim Rosser, Yale Institute of Music Theater 2011), The Shadow Sparrow (Book by Anton Dudley, Music by Keith Gordon, O’Neill Music Theater Conference 2011).

Charlie Sohne

• Who do you look to for inspiration?

Ever since I started piggybacking off of my roommate’s Netflix subscription, it’s been all about the documentaries for me.  I think that both Tim and I are attracted to stories that make us go “WHAT!?  THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS!?” – and documentaries tend to be a great source for that.  Then there’s an added benefit: as opposed to reading about a situation, if you’re watching a film, you’re visually placed right in the middle of it — and that’s been helpful in terms of more easily being able to write clear characters who feel “alive.”  Also because the docs I end up watching are less narrative and more “interviews/general topic” based, there tends to be a lot of room for us to create an original story within the general context of something that actually happened.

•     What is the one thing you hope to accomplish this year?

Tim and I have three new projects that we’re really working on right now and we’d love to have really good drafts of at least two of them (and hopefully all three) over the course of the next year.  We’re also in the process of trying to get our last show into production, so it’d be great if that happened as well. 

• What’s the best (or worst) job not related to your career you ever had?

Teaching is a funny thing for me.  I’ve done it in a few different contexts and it’s either completely invigorating, or it makes me feel like the most incompetent person ever.  I think when the kids are old enough I like it (5th grade and up?) – but when they get too young it becomes a bit of a Kindergarten Cop situation with kids rolling around on the floor and me not quite knowing how to deal with that.

•     Where would you rather be if you couldn’t be here doing this?

It’s sort of hard to imagine, but I think if I wasn’t in theater I’d love to be making really sleazy political ads – but for a good cause.  I’d want to be responsible for really negative, sensationalistic advertising that finally got people serious about climate change, healthcare, civil rights etc.  I guess I’m sort of a product over process person – and it’s probably a good thing that I’m not in politics.

•      When did you decide you were going to take over the universe?

Oh god!  Is that something you have to decide?  When’s the deadline? 

• Why would you ever stop writing, if you ever stopped writing?

I guess if I ran out of things I wanted to say.  But I always have things to say.  It’s what makes me intolerable at parties.

Bonus Question: How do you measure, measure a year? 

In the number of nights spent at Marie’s Crisis when I’m drunk enough to start shouting the “Oh you’ve got to, you’ve got to, remember the love!” descant over the final chorus of that song.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2AVVckabIfIgQtuTKgsyUK5fkBUFXaWC

Website: rosserandsohne.com