Preproduction: the period of time during which work is done on a show prior to the first rehearsal.
Of the many ways in which a writer or group of writers may be coerced into giving birth to a new project, the most inspirational of all might just be the commission. I'm only being semi-facetious with that statement: it can be quite freeing to the creative process knowing that - unless you screw up big time, or fail to please the commissioning organization - you are writing towards a specific, actual production. There is a big difference between writing with that knowledge and writing a show that will need to be pitched and proven. With today's skyrocketing production costs, even some of the biggest names in musical theatre are having trouble getting their projects produced. For example, Stephen Schwartz (composer of Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, and lyricist of Leonard Bernstein's Mass and the Disney films, Pocohantas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) has yet to land a first-class American production of his show Children of Eden - despite the fact that it has had a first-class production on London's West End! And Cy Coleman (composer of dozens of successful Broadway shows, including Sweet Charity, I Love My Wife, City of Angels, and The Will Rogers Follies) has a number of musicals that have not been able to escape the reading stage.
A commission may come in a number of ways: a theatre group, company, or patron may approach a team with an idea; the team may approach the group/company/patron with an idea; or the team may approach several groups -- including funding organizations. The group/company/patron may not actually have the money but may petition a funding organization for commissioning grant monies to pay for the actual commission. (Ragtime, currently running in Toronto, is basically the result of a commission by Garth Drabinsky. He solicited several well-known theatre teams to write sample tunes for a possible future production of the show, and presumably chose the entries he thought would be most successful - Lynn Ahren and Steven Flaherty's.)
The execution of the commission will generally be broken up according to a timetable. As each milestone is reached, the commissioning organization will pay the writers a portion of the total planned commission amount, but will have the option to withdraw their future support saving themselves any additional expense. If the organization is happy with the execution thus far, the parties will agree to continue the process. How the team presents their work at each milestone will vary, but generally requires some kind
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