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The Tale of Chicken Licken

8/31/2018

Just spent the morning locating lost files from the show "The Tale of Chicken Licken." I really do try to keep things organized, but my worst problem is that I don't remember the exact names of the files or the names of the folders I put them in. Somehow I get many extra copies of files that I do not intend to save and cannot find the one file that somehow is missing. Clearly, keeping files organized and accounted for is not my super power!

Elementary School stage and set

While hunting through the audio files, I had to listen to many over and over to find the best recordings. This brought back so many fun memories. I had to think long and hard to remember why I even wrote this show. Turns out that this story was one of five that I was asked to write a couple of companion songs for. My Taiwanese friend's business is to provide easy reader stories to help teach English as a foreign language to children in Asia. I wrote the 10 songs and did simple recordings for him to go with the Reader's Theater scripts at the end of each picture book. The songs were for "Chicken Licken," "Dick Whittington and His Cat," "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," "The Musicians of Bremen," and "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." He gave me permission to retain the copyrights to the songs and use them however.

At the time, I was directing the school musicals for a local Elementary School. Then, at the end of the Spring Show for the 4th-6th graders, the principal asked me to direct a Fall Musical for the younger grades. I had already written two songs for "Chicken Licken," so why not use that story to create a show for the 1st-3rd graders?

I quickly wrote a script and several more songs and decided to try it out as a Summer Theater Camp show. One of the parents made a video of this little production. So, the show needed a little more polish, but the kids had a lot of fun putting all together. It was a good run-through before I directed it again for the Elementary School. We had a lot more time to practice and solidify the lines and songs. The Fall Show was very well received. The entire school came to see it and really enjoyed themselves. Too bad we did not get any pictures or video.

As I remembered back on writing this show, I reflected on how brave I was at beginning to really orchestrate my scores. I had such fun amazing myself at what I could do with the sounds on my computer and adding layers with my keyboard. The sound was much better at the Elementary School production because we could use body microphones for the main actors. That helped a lot! The audience said that the balance of the sound was pretty good, and they really liked the songs. That made me so happy!

All in all, a nice walk down memory lane!

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The Empty Pot

8/22/2018

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Sometimes you write a piece and it sits for a while and you wonder what you will do with it. "The Empty Pot" was written in anticipation of using it for a school production. Then, the opportunity fizzled. Then later in the summer, it was produced by another community theater group and directed by a different group of directors. So, I was not the director for it's premiere performance.

It had been advertised as having flexible casting, but when I went to see it, I was really surprised that the main character was a girl -- not a boy. Other than that substitution, the production was very well done. I just had a hard time adjusting my mind to the concept of that very important character being performed by a girl. I suppose it worked, but the lyrics were problematic. I couldn't tell if they were having her play the character as male or not. They did nothing to disguise her to look like a little boy. If they had, I probably would have accepted it better.

The next summer, I had the chance to produce and direct "The Empty Pot" for my first time. We had a very large cast of 45 children ages 5-14. Some of the older kids were very talented, so, of course, they needed some more challenging material. Obviously, I needed to add some expanded scenes, songs and new characters. The new show also got a new title "A Successor to the Throne."

Directing that production was a very satisfying! It was all volunteer for a church summer theater camp. So many talented parents came out of the woodwork willing to share their skills. We had wonderful parent Group Leaders, Choreographers, Hair Dressers, Seamstresses, Photographers, Make-up Artists and the list goes on. The children were great, too. Even the young children did their best to learn the dances and every word to the songs!

So I guess, technically, I still have yet to direct "The Empty Pot." But I have directed "A Successor to the Throne" multiple times.

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The Tale of Chicken Licken

The Empty Pot

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