Western Pa. natives write songs for Disney Channel series
Thornburg native Christopher Dimond made the jump from stage to TV screen this fall alongside his songwriting partner Michael Kooman, an Altoona native, with Disney Channel’s new animated series “Vampirina” (11 a.m. weekdays, Disney Channel; 7:30 p.m. weekdays on Disney Junior).
The collaborators — Mr. Dimond writes lyrics; Mr. Kooman writes the music — met at Carnegie Mellon University where Mr. Dimond earned a master of fine arts in playwriting in 2007 (he got his bachelor’s from Duquesne University in 2001) and where Mr. Kooman graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in music composition in 2006.
“We took a lyric-writing course together,” Mr. Dimond said. “We became familiar with each other’s work and towards the end of the semester we started collaborating on songs for a fundraising project for the senior musical theater performers.”
After CMU they went on to New York and collaborated on multiple stage musicals, including most recently “The Enlightenment of Percival Von Schmootz” and “Romantics Anonymous,” which premiered in October at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.
“Eventually we made our way onto Disney’s radar,” said Mr. Dimond, a 1997 graduate of Bishop Canevin Catholic High School in Oakwood. “The same basic structure of songwriting is all the same but it’s been really fun to explore the differences in media and to realize what you can do on TV [in animation] that you could never do on stage.”
“Vampirina” follows a vampire girl (voice of Isabella Crovetti) and
her parents (Lauren Graham, James Van Der Beek) when they move from Transylvania to Pennsylvania and how the girl assimilates with her non-vampires friends. (The setting seems to be much more Philadelphia than Pittsburgh, but the show doesn’t make its location explicit.)
“I may be blue with pointy teeth,” Vampirina sings in the show’s theme songs penned by Mr. Dimond and Mr. Kooman. “But I’m not so different underneath.”
“It’s much faster when working for TV,” said Mr. Dimond of the series, which features two songs per halfhour episode. “We’re writing a lot of different songs really quickly and producing the songs ourselves, which you typically don’t do in theater.”
Highlights of the show’s first season included working with Broadway stars, including Brian Stokes Mitchell, Pittsburgh native Christian Borle and the legendary Patti Lupone, whose episode debuted last week and airs again at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on Disney Channel.
“That was kind of a surreal career highlight for Michael and me,” Mr. Dimond said. “She’s as iconic as you can get in the musical theater world. To get to be in a studio with her was beyond our dreams.”
Ms. Lupone plays Vampirina’s grandmother and sings a song that was written after she was cast.
“It’s really helpful to know who we’re writing for,” Mr. Dimond said. “We can tailor the songs to her particular strengths. One of the neat things about the particular world – this spooky, fun world with real heart underneath it – is it allows the music to go into some different areas and different styles. and with Patti in particular we were striving to embrace the theatricality of the style.”
In future episodes, Mr. Borle plays a ghost pirate and Mr. Mitchell plays Vampirinia’s grandfather.
Mr. Dimond said the songwriters would ideally like to keep a presence in both musical theater and filmed entertainmentgoing forward.
“This new foray into the world of animation we’re hoping will open some doors and create some opportunities,” he said. “We both grew up with Disney musicals of the ‘80s or ‘90s. It’s been a dream come true to work in that world a little bit.”
Fred Rogers Co. grant
Last week the Heinz Endowments gave the Fred Rogers Co. a three-year, $3 million grant. Here’s how that money will be used:
• For production of additional episodes of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” which was renewed for a fourth season, and development,acquisition and production of new programming, includingdigital content.
• Five new hires and professional development to assist in expanded programming, educational fundraising and communityoutreach.
• Educational technology, including digital content and interactive programming components for children, parents and educators, and archiving the company’s library, including 900 episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
• New production equipment, including video hardware and software for editing, playback and delivery.
Just before Thanksgiving, Cox Media Group announced a new general manager for WPXI. Kevin Hayes will replace Ray Carter, who has been promoted to regional vice president at CMG, still based in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Hayes arrives at Channel 11 from a Sinclairowned duopoly in El Paso, Texas. He was previously general manager at WJAC in Johnstown when it used to be a Cox-owned station.
Channel surfing
Fans of the 2001-04 CBS, Pittsburgh-set drama “The Guardian” take note: A complete set of all three seasons of the Simon Baker-starring show will be released on DVD Feb. 6. … The Netflix revival of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” will return for a second season; Netflix’s “Stranger Things” will be back for a third but “Haters Back Off” is done after two seasons; “House of Cards” will resume production on its final season in early 2018 with Robin Wright as the star; Kevin Spacey will not return. … USA renewed “Shooter” for a third season.