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Too, Too Much to Do

11/16/2022

Thanksgiving is just one week away! Surely, we will take pause to be grateful for our many blessings. But we, like so many others, may also think about all of the work hosting a big family dinner can be.

This year I am forced to remember that it is also my birthday. (I am getting too old!) But, gratefully, my children are taking good care of me. In fact, although my house is hosting the get-together, everyone has pledged to bring something so no one person has to slave in the kitchen. Now, that is something to cheer about! (We always seem to feed ourselves well!)

My mother was a hostess with the "mostess." She loved to entertain. So, it was not surprising that she invited her parents from Idaho and her brothers and sisters living nearby in Utah to come to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. So what if her baby was due in two weeks. That shouldn't pose a problem, should it?

She worked all day on Wednesday mopping floors and making up beds for guests. She baked pies and prepared everything she could for the big meal the day before. Then she got up early Thanksgiving morning to put the turkey in the oven to roast. Dinner was planned for 1:00 pm.

My grandparents drove through the night and arrived at 6:00 am, just when my mother's water broke. My mother just barely had time to give instructions about the dinner and kiss my 3 year old bother goodbye before my dad rushed her to the hospital. I made my entrance into the world at 9:00 am.

After all of the hustle and bustle of the morning, the hospital staff took baby me to the Nursery to let my mother rest. My mother was not interested in resting. She was worried about her beautiful Thanksgiving Feast. She trusted that her mother would tend to everything well, but my mother was upset that she wasn't going to be there to enjoy it! Then, at noon when the staff brought her a less than adequate plate of hospital food, she begged my Dad to go home and bring her back some of her own fabulous Thanksgiving Feast --- with pumpkin pie!

Yup! And I have never had regular birthday cake on my birthday since that beginning. I always have pumpkin pie with candles on top! (Or nowadays, no candles. I don't want the house to burn down!)

For those of you who think preparing for Thanksgiving is just too much work, here's a song for you. This is "Too, Too Much to Do" from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington."

The cook sings this as she is preparing for a grand meal in the house of Lord and Lady Fitzwarren. She is chewing out her kitchen staff, particularly the new guy who accidentally knocks over the fancy food display.

Through-Composed Musicals

11/10/2022

The Geese Family from "The Tale of Chicken Licken" Summer Camp 2021

"Timing is everything." This little phrase can mean a lot of different things. But in the case of composing for Children's Theater Musicals, it can mean something very important. The timing of the entrances and exits and dialogue over underscoring can be challenging at the very least.

Very young performers are generally very new to the whole idea of doing theater and do not have the experience to deliver their lines and movements consistently for every performance. Even with a lot of practice, many other factors influence what happens during a show. They might get stage fright, or may fumble a line and have to repeat it, or may get distracted by something another actor may do, or a host of other problems. Why even do a show that depends on specific timing to a fully orchestrated musical UNDERSCORING?

Sometimes called THROUGH-COMPOSED, a show that has many songs as well as continual underscoring throughout is very difficult for young actors --- as well as their audiences. Some of the reasons are:

1. Singing or speaking above the music. Very few groups have enough body microphones to handle the job of amplifying small voices adequately.

2. Blocking so that young actors can clearly be identified while delivering lines over the music. It is very difficult for the audience to follow which actors are speaking in a scene when all of the voices are similar and speak in the Treble clef. Few young actors have enough stage presence to pull focus.

3. Timing all movement and line delivery to match the musical underscoring. This requires the actors to be aware of yet another big element in order to match their lines and movement to fit to the limited music.

I have been to see Middle School shows where I had trouble hearing all of the actors adequately, understanding the lines, or even following the plot because I couldn't tell what was going on. Most of these issues could have been avoided had the show NOT been THROUGH-COMPOSED. The highly orchestrated underscoring was very distracting!

The young actors had a hard enough time singing over a fully orchestrated score during the songs. It was 10 times more difficult for them to project over the fully orchestrated underscoring!

The most they should ever be faced with is timing a few lines between verses of a song. Even this can be too much for some young actors. Here is an example from the show "The Tale of Chicken Licken." The mother Goose is explaining to her daughter and sons how important keeping up appearances is to their family in the song "Beauty Is." (The sons have a different opinion!)

Growing Your Skills

11/3/2022

Years ago I was on a tour with the Tabernacle Choir to the Upper Midwest states. One day we had a chance to do a little site-seeing in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My sister and I decided to follow the "Happy Days" (a television sitcom from the 1970-80s) trail that took us to see many of the featured filming sites. We even got our pictures taken with the Fonz.

On the way, we stopped into this little bookshop to browse. On the wall I noticed a framed picture of some early artwork of Dr. Seuss. Clearly these sketches were of ideas for his early characters. They were very rough and not clearly developed. It looked like he was still working out his style and honing his cartooning skills.

At the time, I was writing and illustrating my first picture book. In those days I just used paper and pencils. I didn't know anything about how to do ink and pen illustrations or paint with watercolors, let alone use a computer to clean up paintings and design the layout for a book. I just knew I had to document some of our family stories for posterity. I took heart and gained some courage to go forward from looking at those early drawings by Dr. Seuss.

So, after years of attending workshops, watching YouTube training videos, acquiring some technology tools, and practicing a lot, I can actually see how my illustrating skills have grown. Can't say that my books are ready for the market, but I know that I have a few grandchildren fans. (And that's the most important thing because these are family stories after all!)

Writing songs for Children's Theater is much the same. After years and years of practice, you may be able to come up with some pretty good songs. Here's the first song I wrote for my very first show "Stone Soup."

And here's a song written when I had hit my stride. Enjoy "Over Yonder" an opener added several years later to the same show.

Crafting Songs for Musical Theater

10/27/2022

If you go to a class on Songwriting, you will undoubtedly come away with a formula for writing a good pop song. For example, the most common form is (Intro), Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, (opt. Verse), Chorus, (ending) or ABABCB. While this formula works for many popular songs, it is not always useful for Theater, especially for young Children's Musicals.

You will also undoubtedly hear about writing to the HOOK. In other words, the HOOK is the key element of the message of the song and so all other elements relate to or refer to the HOOK.

In writing for very young actors, sometimes all you can do is build on the HOOK. You do not have time to write verses and choruses, let alone a bridge. You have to write a singable, memorable, catchy tune using the HOOK in less than one minute!

"The Ants and the Grasshopper" was written for a very young group of Drama Club students at an Elementary School. We had one 2nd grade boy and seven 1st and 2nd grade girls. For this Drama Club, I had only planned on doing Theater Skills for the 8 weeks of class. These students would have none of that. They demanded to do a show!

So, I had to come up with a show for them. In less than eight weeks, our only option was to do an in-class mini-musical. What exactly do you do with one boy and seven girls? Well, fortunately the boy was larger than most of the girls and he could sing and dance. So, over the weekend, I wrote three songs and a script that could be learned very quickly.

These songs are all built around the main message (HOOK). I also needed some quote or bullet point to serve as the Character Value. I remembered a quote by John Maxwell "You can play now and pay later or pay now and play later. Either way you'll have to pay." That worked perfectly for the finale message song.

So, if you analyze songs from musicals for young children, you will likely discover that they have no verses, but probably have something that sounds like a chorus and possibly a contrasting big finish. Most are simple 2 section (call it AB form) songs.

Check out the songs from "The Ants and the Grasshopper." They are short and to the point!

Doing Historical Research, Trying to Avoid Pitfalls

10/5/2022

The teacher in last night's Zoom class was explaining about how to get the most out of doing historical research and not succumb to its pitfalls. She pointed out many places to go to do research --- city and university libraries, books, articles, newspapers, museums, the Internet, historical places and interviewing people with expertise. Any or all of these resources can help provide the background information you need to write your Historical Fiction book. (Disclaimer: I am not writing a novel, but I have done a lot of historical research when writing Children's Theater Musicals.)

Our teacher, Katherine Cowley, also told us that we could easily get drawn into some Black Holes. One source can lead to another and on to another and another and then they can lead to an abrupt end. It is so easy to get all absorbed in time wasting endeavors and never get on to writing. Or, it is just as easy to follow leads that go off on tangents that really have no bearing on your original topic.

Just yesterday, I found myself down a rabbit hole. I was looking in my own Family Tree for any connections to Welsh ancestry. I kept checking family lines and found myself going back for generations further than I have ever seen connections go before. It is obvious that a lot of work has been done in the past few months. I was fascinated how one line of generations had been linked from England to northern Europe, to the steppes of Asia, and down into the Holy Land at about the time of Christ. Amazing!

I cannot take any credit for that work. I can only thank the people who have been doing this genealogy! But true confession, the hours I spent tracing those family lines had nothing to do with finding a Welsh connection in the 1800s. So though it was interesting information, I wasted a lot of time.

Our teacher told us that it is best to set limits to how you do your historical research. That will help you know how to use it. All along the way you judge your findings by how it will fit the GENRE, serve the PLOT, develop the CHARACTERS, flavor the STYLE, or express the POINT OF VIEW. She also encouraged us to get the most out of our research by making it do double duty. Let it reveal the characters and their relationships, as well as impact the plot and setting. And we shouldn't worry about using too many details. We can gloss over irrelevant facts.

All of my Children's Theater Musicals required good historical research. "Stone Soup" is set in the Old West, so I studied about pioneers in the 1860s. The setting for "A Successor to the Throne" is in ancient China. "Never Cry Wolf" is set in ancient Greece. "Parizade's Quest" is in ancient Persia. "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" has a definite 1950's vibe. "The Musicians of Bremmen" is set in Germany in the Middle Ages. "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" is modeled on folktales and music of Norway. "The Tale of Chicken Licken" draws on popular musical styles from many decades.

I get excited when doing the research for a new project. One of my favorites was doing the research for "The Adventures of Dick Whittington." I learned about life in London during the Renaissance. I learned about clothing and architectural styles and even about Nursery Rhymes and Sea Chanties that were popular at the time. Experimenting on doing Old English Pantomime circa 1600 AD was probably the most fun of all. I was surprised that even the audience Sing-Along worked for that show! Good Historical Research is the best secret ingredient to making the recipe a success!

Pumpkin Carols

9/29/2022

Fall Festivals, Corn mazes, colored leaves, pumpkins, apple cobbler, and Halloween. For some people, Fall is the favorite time of year. There are those in my family that love Fall because it's Football Season, and others that endure football season because of their love of the Marching Band field shows. In any case, the cooler weather is much appreciated!

We raised our family in places that did not have Music Programs in the schools. So, in order to give our children (and many interested other's kids) the musical opportunities we didn't want them to miss, I volunteered at the schools. Through the PTA, I was part of a team that offered Art, Music and Physical Education to our Elementary School children. We couldn't do very much, but we hope what we offered helped.

One year for a Fall Festival, we set up rooms throughout the venue of different experiences for families and friends. There were "booths" for games and activities, tasting, and contests. One of the favorite activities was a cardboard box maze. The children crawled through an area filled with connected cardboard boxes with glow in the dark surprises around each corner. There were pumpkin carving contests, bobbing for apples, a chili cook off and so much more. Fun for all ages!

My "booth" was teaching Halloween songs or as was advertised "Pumpkin Carols." So, depending on the ages of the singers, we sang cute little finger play songs, or for the older participants, we added in some more advanced spooky tunes.

I even wrote a few original settings for the occasion. Enjoy "This is Halloween" and "We are Out to Scare You"

Costumes and Dress-Ups

9/19/2022

Costumes and Dress-Ups are hot topics around this time each year. There are those children and adults who love planning what they will wear for Halloween. Some whole families like to dress up in coordinated costumes on a theme like characters from a movie or favorite television show. I know that one of my children's families are dressing up as characters from "Frozen" this year. They have been scouring various stores for costumes for several weeks now. It is quite the popular "thing" apparently.

Some families like to make their costumes from "found" items. In other words, they like to participate but don't like the hefty price tag of buying pre-made costumes. The bins in my shed have been raided many times for costume pieces. I have random parts and pieces that can be used in various ways to create different "looks." And, believe me, my kids and even some neighbors have come up with interesting characters from my random costume pieces.

Then, of course, I have gone to thrift stores when they put out the costumes in time for Halloween and have found wonderful complete costumes that I just couldn't resist. I found this darling bear costume that I just had to use for "Parizade's Quest." And one year I found an adorable yellow bird ballet costume. We put it on my young granddaughter during "Chicken Licken." last year. At age 4, she was really too young to be in the show, but she insisted on running onto the stage to dance. So we dressed her in that costume and called her our little canary.

I've found Pirate hats, Chinese kimonos, cowboy boots, wands, beards, wigs, tiaras and a lot of other good stuff while scouring the thrift shops at Halloween. I love looking for "found" objects I can turn into costumes for my shows during this season.

One year, my sister was looking to make a Harry Potter costume for her boy and needed a cape. She asked me for help making one. I said, "Capes are so easy. Just go to the thrift store and find a black woman's skirt. Take apart one seam, and add a black ribbon tie. Voila' - a cape." It was a revelation to her.

Yup. When you have to make a lot of costumes without a commensurate budget, you learn to be creative!

Happy hunting for costumes!

Enjoy this track from "Parizade's Quest" with a cameo performance from Bobak the Bear.

People Who Make Things Happen

9/9/2022

Where would we be without the people who make things happen? You know the ones, those people with the energy and bubbling over enthusiasm that can convince others that they should be involved in this or that activity, those individuals who by their sheer presence can get couch potatoes and introverts to leave their comfortable homes and exert a lot of effort to develop their own talents.

My mother was one of those types. Her charisma, charm, and abundance of talent made her irresistible. She was so good at engaging with people that with seemingly no effort on her part, she got people involved in all kinds of projects and most of the time they agreed before they could come up with excuses not to.

Janie, Dorothy, Lora, and Carolyn Thompson about 1946

Carolyn Thompson Lee came from a long line of entertainers and many talented singers who were sadly only recognized in their small communities. However, her mother, my Grandmother Lora Harmon Thompson while growing up was known as the Carbon County Nightingale. She sang for events all around Price, Utah and then went to the big town of Salt Lake City and became a member and often soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. While on her mission in Independence MO, she entertained many dignitaries that came through town. Her highly trained operatic voice then went on to delight the people and livestock in the tiny community of Malta, Idaho. But through her example she helped her children see that there was more to this world than just sage brush and jack rabbits.

Another "doer" was Dorothy Thompson Collier. She became an elementary school teacher and made sure her students (and anybody else just standing around) had many opportunities expand their talents by being in shows. She was hard to turn down. We called her "General Dot."

But probably the most famous "doer" in our family was my Aunt Janie Thompson. She was a big band singer who toured all over the world at the end of WWII. Then she came to BYU and started the many show groups that also toured all over the world. She was a Force of Nature. You just didn't say "no" to Janie!

The Thompson Sisters about 1960

Janie, Dot, and Carolyn liked to sing together. They formed the Thompson Sisters Trio and performed all over during the 1950s-60s. They sang many songs made famous by other girl trios of the era as well as special arrangements created by Janie.

I had the privilege of listening and learning from the best. Sure do miss these wonderful women!

In the musical "Never Cy Wolf" the Muses sing in a style reminiscent of the girl's trio's of the 1950-1960s. (I confess this song is more Supremes than Andrews Sisters, but it is still very fun to sing! I also got a little help from my very talented son Matthew Bailey on guitar for this one.)

Enjoy "Set It for Posterity."

Permissions

8/31/2022

At a post performance lecture I attended at an Arts Festival last week, I asked a question. We saw a performance of "The Sound of Music" done in a very unfamiliar way. I asked why so many liberties were taken with the script. The presenter said that they bought the license to do the 1959 script and she added that it was very different from the movie, but she assured me that they did not take liberties with the script. And yet they clearly had added in songs from the movie and put a decidedly Woke spin on the material. I had actually performed in that musical once upon a time. I did not remember many of the tidbits they put into this production.

My understanding of permissions is that you may cut out words and snippets of songs or absorb lines into other lines if you have to delete a character (because you haven't got enough actors). But, what we saw clearly showed how determined the director was to "bring this piece into the 21st Century." In other words, they basically disregarded the historical mores in Austria just before WWII.

For example, the girl playing Maria was very "down home" and dished out a lot of hugs in her scenes of first meeting both the children and adults, even in scenes with the Mother Superior. People were more formal in public in those times and maintained proper distances especially before people in authority such as the Mother Superior and the Captain. Other actors also were very free and casual with their touching and close proximities. Unfortunately, the actress who played Maria was a darling black actress whose Southern charms didn't really fit in 1938 Austria during the Anschluss. (Not to mention the bias at the time against mixed race relations and persecutions against people of non-Aryan races.)

The Mother Superior was also a black actress. Her performance was very good until they had her perform the wedding ceremony. That would have only been done by a priest in those days! In fact, the Nazi invasion that prompted Captain von Trapp to leave Austria was pretty much downplayed, too. We didn't even get the sense of how love could have blossomed between Maria and the Captain. The pacing of the show raced along so fast clipping any hopes of providing time for the audience to savor any "beautiful moments." There just weren't any.

This production was very disappointing. The directing could have been better even with the casting choices they made. I saw another show done with members of this same company. That show suited those actors much better. It was a comic romp where they could play as sassy and casual as they wanted and it suited the characters in the script. I just wish they had played "The Sound of Music" with more respect to its time period. After all it is definitely a "period" piece.

Fifteen+ Years Between Visits to Broadway

8/12/2022

During the summer when I was 17, freshly out of High School with a brand new driver’s license, I drove my aunt Janie from Ohio to New York City in a little VW bug. The adults in my life had more faith in my driving skills than I did, or maybe they were just naive. I had barely any experience driving on a highway, let alone on a freeway, and definitely NO experience driving in a crowded city. (No parent I know today would agree to that!) Somehow we made it and parked Uptown at an apartment house where we stayed with Janie’s friends. We were there to go see Broadway shows.

We rode the Subway and buses, but mostly we walked. The Theater District in those days was pretty run down and raunchy. I felt like such a hick from the sticks. My aunt was downright embarrassed that she was allowing me to see such terrible sights. She had lived in New York for a time in the 1940s and 1950s. It was the hey day of Broadway with wonderful musicals that anyone could feel comfortable seeing. Not so for us. We saw “Pippin,” and a show starring Debbie Reynolds, and a couple of others that we almost walked out of. Unfortunately, in the early 1970’s Broadway was almost dead.

Over the years, probably due to Disney shows, “Les Miserable,” and “Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway was revitalized with many more family friendly shows. Early in its opening run, my girls and I ran up to see “Wicked” with the original cast. We lived near Baltimore at that time, so we drove up and back in one day. Here it is at least 15 years later, and I got to take my daughter and her 5 daughters to see “Wicked.” Same show, same theater, same excitement from the audience. Different cast, of course, but very good performances.

I am always so delighted at the consistency the producers strive to achieve to keep a show running for so long. And they utilize a live pit orchestra and conductor. It is so nice to feel the vibrations from the music of live musicians.

I appreciate how difficult the situation has been for the performers who couldn’t work when Broadway was shut down due to COVID. Now that shows are up and running again, I am certain they worry that they can keep audiences coming. They had just barely reduced the mask mandate in the theater when we went the other day. The next day they sent out a survey asking the patrons if they felt safe attending the show and if all of the precautions they had in place made a difference. I actually didn’t notice any precautions, or people acting worried. Then they asked if we would be returning soon to see more shows.

Well, I live in Utah. I hope I don’t have to wait another 15 years before I get to visit NYC again. But until then, I am glad that live theater in Utah is up and running and every bit as professional and amazing as what I just saw on Broadway. And we don’t have to expose ourselves to questionable fumes when waiting to get into the theaters! Yay!