Betsy's Blog on Children's Theater | BaileyKidsMusicals.com - BaileyKidsMusicals.com

Two Versions of the Same Story

2/21/2023

Sometimes I am surprised by the talent that comes out for one of my shows. When I direct, I often don't really know the students or their abilities until we are well into the rehearsal phase of the show. There have been occasions when I felt that I had to add a new song or new character to an already written script. And that has always been due to the amazing talents that appear.

The first version of "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse" came about because of a Drama Club class I was teaching. These kids needed a short show that they could learn in just a few sessions. I quickly wrote a script and two songs for them in this 10-minute mini-musical. That was all we could manage at the time.

The second version of this story was a more expanded show aimed to be part of a Summer Camp. The younger kids did "The Ants and the Grasshopper" and the older kids did "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." Because some very talented actors and singers signed up, I felt free to write more songs, add more characters, and even include more comedic situations.

In this version, the Country Mouse and her siblings get a new song. In Musical Theater, the first introduction to the main female character includes her ARIA. That song clues the audience into her longings and deepest desires. "What Is It Like" fulfills that requirement.

One of the most enjoyable songs from the expanded version is "As the French Say" which was written for the City Mouse and a new character, her French Maid. I know a French lady who helped me use the French sayings properly. We got to learn what "la joire de vivre" and "bien manger" mean. So fun!

It was even fulfilling to be able to add incidentals and travel music for transitions. It became such a delightful show!

For that Summer Camp, I also wrote an Opener/Bows number that could be the umbrella to tie the two mini-shows together. "You Can Learn a Lot" was fun to bring the two casts together singing and dancing their hearts out.

Here is a video created from bits and pieces of phone clips from audience members of our Cousins Camp done during COVID in 2020. We as a family decided to go ahead with our Family Reunion regardless of restrictions. Most of my grandchildren at the time were between the ages of 4-12. They humored Grandma by doing this show together.

Evidence of Wasted Effort

2/1/2023

A friend came by yesterday offering me some fabric she hoped I could use. The fabric turned out to be many, many partially assembled costume parts all in the same lime green cotton. She had really not examined the box beyond lifting the lid and noticing a lot of what she thought was green fabric. As we looked more closely at what was actually inside the box, we were astounded to see evidence of such a lot of WASTED EFFORT.

These partially constructed tops complete with sewn-in zippers but no sleeves or collars or connection to lower sections were in so many different sizes. Looking through these pieces was just bizarre. They were carefully pressed and some seams were even finished. I decided that trying to figure out uses for these random costume parts would be more trouble than it was worth. Besides, I had no immediate plans for a show needing costumes for 50 little green frogs!

Looking through that box got me thinking of other WASTED EFFORTS. Mostly what I have thought were my own wasted efforts. I have been taught that there really are no wasted efforts if you learn something in the process. Well, sure, lessons can always be learned, but at what expense?

Writing Children's Theater can sometimes feel like a lot of wasted effort. In the end, you can only do what you can do. As the writer, you can IMAGINE all sorts of wonderful things. As the director, REALITY sets in, and you have to deal with budget restraints, venue limitations, technical difficulties, crazy family schedules, and child actors who have little experience and basically no skills.

Little Lambs dancing and wagging their tails in "Never Cry Wolf"

"So, why do I do this?" I wonder.

Then I remembered an exchange that happened a few years ago during one of my Summer Theater Camps. My daughter's family was staying with us at the time and she and I overheard her 7-year-old son explain to the the neighbor boy about our play.

He was surprised that the little boy didn't know about Aesop or his fables, or what the word "contrary" meant. The kids were playing in the backyard and Ethan didn't know his mother and I were overhearing their conversation. Ethan told his friend about the contrary Boy Who Cried Wolf and how he lied so much that the people wouldn't believe him anymore. "You really shouldn't lie to people." He also explained that he got to be the Wolf and carry off his sister as the last little Sheep. He even had his sister Iris demonstrate her little Lamb dance. She sang as she danced, and Ethan came up and carried her off just as they were to perform it in the show.

Katelyn and I looked at each other. "That's why you keep doing this," she said.

I guess what I do really isn't wasted effort after all.

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!

You Had to Audition to Get Into This Family

4/12/2022

Whenever my siblings and I complained about rehearsing or getting ready to do a show with my mother, she just said, "Singing is what we do." And then she added, "Don't you know you had to audition to get into this family?"

I think that was what her mother said to her when she was little, too. (My grandparents were excellent singers and were carrying on that singing tradition from generations before them!) My mother was the fifth child in a family of seven singing siblings. They grew up singing together for fun and to entertain others. Many became professional musicians, educators and entertainers.

My mother started training her children to sing practically from birth. She put me in my first show when I was just two weeks old. Anyway, all six of us learned to sing together in harmony from our very early ages. Her line was that when we were in heaven, we made sure to stand in the "singing talent" line. And then we had to go through an audition process before we got assigned to come to earth into our family. "Singing is what you were born to do." So, we did.

When my children came along, I knew what I had to do. My kids grew up knowing that they also had to audition to get into our family. We sang a lot as a family while they still lived at home. They all learned to hold their own parts and play different instruments. We enjoyed singing together.

Now, it is harder to gather from so many different places in order to sing together, but whenever we can, we still love singing together.

Megan and Melanie singing

My daughter Kathryn shared an experience she had with her kids from the other day. They had had a long day of Church meetings and choir practice and visiting other wards. Then, after a quick dinner, Mom and the older kids needed to go practice again for Stake Conference Choir. Kathryn needed their help because she was the choir director.

Eleven-year-old Megan started to complain and drag her feet, but her voice was needed in the Soprano section with her two older sisters and just a few older women. Kathryn said, "Singing is what we do in this family. Don't you remember you had to audition to even get to be in this family?"

Confused, Megan said, "Wait. What?"

Kathryn shook her head and muttered as they got into the van, "Where have you been all these years?"

Megan and Melanie have lovely voices, and here's the proof. "As the French Say" song from the play "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse."

Time Forges Onward

4/2/2021

It really is a small world. The other day, I learned that my neighbor's daughter is engaged to a young man with an unusual name. That name rang a bell for me. As if being roused from a deep sleep, the memories of a different time, a different place, and a different cast of characters came flooding back. I remembered that young man from when he was about age 10. He was in one of my Children's Theater productions back when we lived in Maryland.

Fourteen years ago now, a group of like-minded parents and I got together and helped our children put on a show. So many families wanted to be involved! All totaled, there were 75 children between the ages of 2 1/2 to 15. Fortunately, nearly all the parents, and even some interested bystanders, chipped in to lend a hand.

Never Cry Wolf is probably my most popular show. And it is easy to see why. It has a very FLEXIBLE CAST that can be expanded or diminished as needed. It has parts that can accommodate very young children without lowering the expectations of the young teenagers.

All of the cast members are busy throughout the entire 60 minute production. They are shown doing the daily WORK of people in ancient Greece. The activities of the Farmers, Shepherds, Soldiers, Merchants, Artisans, Servants, Weavers, Politicians, Sheep, the Family and even the Muses all show this slice of daily life from so long ago. The songs and dances are very fun, too.

The children in these pictures are no longer little kids. Many have grown up, gone to college, started their careers, served missions, travelled the world, gotten married, and some even have their own children now. But I like to remember who they were then. Too bad we can't stop the March of Time!

Writing for a Male or a Female Protagonist?

3/24/2021

Writing Children's Theater (for ages 5-12) from classic fairy tales, folk tales or fables AND keeping recognizable characters and plot lines, can be challenging. Many of these traditional tales involve having male protagonists. In other words, the story revolves around a male main character who goes out on a QUEST or a hero's journey, or has bad things happen to him that he must overcome --- Sinbad, Hercules, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Some stories are generic enough that a female can be substituted in the protagonist role, but then the title has to change because it carries a male name. Unfortunately, with that change, the production loses the valuable advantage of NAME RECOGNITION.

When a female is the protagonist in Children's Theater and has famous name recognition --- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel -- as a director, you have a hard time getting boys to join the cast. Young boys usually stay far away from any play that even hints of a love story.

So, what does a writer/director of Children's Theater do?

Well, first I look for stories that have a recognizable title with NO gender name in it --- The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, The Empty Pot, (A Successor to the Throne), The Musicians of Bremen, Stone Soup, The Tale of Chicken Licken, and The Ants and the Grasshopper.

These stories are the easiest to reimagine with a FLEXIBLE CAST. That means that the protagonist and other characters do not necessarily need to be a particular gender.

(These are good for the casts that have many more girls than boys, which seems to be the norm in Children's Theater.)

Since I ALWAYS want to attract boys as well as girls to my shows, I may use a story with a male name in the title, but make sure it has NO LOVE STORY and plenty of good roles for BOTH GENDERS. I have found that creating good female roles for a show that has a male protagonist is easier to sell to boy participants than the other way around --- Momotaro, The Adventures of Dick Whittington, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, (Never Cry Wolf), The Three Billy Goats Gruff

An exception, has been Parizade's Quest - a tale from the Arabian Nights. This show has a definite female protagonist in the title, but also has four other strong lead roles for girls, as well as many important secondary female roles. (In fact, Parizade is not the actual main female lead.) It also has five strong male lead roles, and many strong secondary roles for boys. It has NO ROMANTIC LOVE STORY but does have a REUNITING of a FAMILY LOVE STORY. (The boys were okay with that.)

I actually wrote this show for a group of kids I knew pretty well at a local elementary school. Of the 45 kids in the cast, we had about equal numbers of boys and girls --- VERY UNUSUAL FOR CHILDREN'S THEATER!

Fancy Valentine's Day Dinner and Dance

2/20/2020

For several years now, my daughter's family has been hosting a fancy Valentine's Dinner. It has been a time to set the table with elegant place settings, eat dinner in several courses, and practice "best table manners." Occasionally, they have invited guests to dine with them, but not always. There are already eight children in this family. This year's menu included French delicacies deftly made by mom Kathryn and oldest daughter Makayla. A delectable time was enjoyed by all.
And the desserts are usually the very best part of the evening!

But, perhaps the most fun activity this year was the dance party in the basement. After dinner, they all went down to the playroom where the toys had been pushed up against the walls or cleared away. They were instructed to form two lines. Kathryn had been planning this secretly for weeks. She wanted her family to learn a dance, but didn't know what to do because she knew she had far more girls than boys. Her sister Carolyn suggested teaching the Virginia Reel because everybody just dances with everybody.

So, as they were learning "forward and back," bow to your partner," "do si do," and "swing your partner," 5-year-old youngest son Thomas said, "I know this dance. We learned it in Music Class." From then on, Thomas led the way and they all had fun dancing the Virginia Reel. A perfect ending to their fancy Valentine's Day Dinner.

The Virginia Reel folk dance is easy to teach and learn. The Country Mice dance it in "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" musical. What a fun activity for beginning dancers.

Summer Loafin'

9/1/2019

Grasshopper stummin' his ukulele

Labor Day Weekend. Traditionally, the last weekend of summer. School here is already in session, but I recall that in my youth, school started after Labor Day. Many people have their last vacation get-aways on Labor Day Weekend, and some people use this time to recover from their previous vacation get-aways. I myself am taking this time to look back on all of the activities of this summer. Backyard Theater Camp, vacation at a Beach House in North Carolina, travel with kids and grandkids, going out to see shows with friends, trying to get the garden in and growing, choir rehearsals, my daughter's family moving out into their own new house, writing a new children's picture book... The list goes on and on. No summer loafing' for me!

Cute little Ants

In the mini-musical "The Ants and the Grasshopper," the Grasshopper sings a song called "Summer Loafing'" where he actually entices one of the little ants to try the easy, relaxing way of life. However, the Queen Ant knows that PREPARATION is the key to survival for the ants and she convinces the little ant that she needs to finish their work of gathering food before winter sets in. Of course, the grasshopper mocks the ants and continues his loafing ways UNTIL winter comes in earnest. He then begs to be let into the Ant Hill where he can get out of the cold and find food and shelter. The little ants beg the Queen to let him in to play music for them so they can dance throughout the winter. He joins the ants inside the ant hill, but then after a LONG time of playing his "fingers to the bone" while the ants make merry, Spring finally comes and he can GET AWAY. He learns that "You can play now and pay later, or pay now and play later. But either way you'll have to pay." (quote from John Maxwell)

In some respects, I have had my share of summer loafin'. I spent some pretty relaxing days at the beach house. But, I can't tolerate doing nothing for very long. I guess "Summer Loafing'" is not for me. Looking forward to Autumn!

Which Comes First --- the Words or the Music?

8/17/2019

Often I am asked which comes first when writing a new song -- the lyrics or the melody? I usually say that the INSPIRATION comes first. Inspiration can come from an idea, a feeling, a title, a scripture, a picture, a famous quote, a poem, an intriguing rhythm, a melodic "worm," a nugget from other music, ---almost anything can become an inspiration for a song.

When I was young, I liked to take long walks around my neighborhood. There were many interesting streets of houses and green spaces as well as a trail along a canal bank. I loved watching the trees as they changed through the seasons. I loved to hear the water rushing by. I enjoyed the views looking up to the mountains as well as looking down towards the valley. As I walked, I sang to myself. I sang lots of songs that I knew, but I also made up all sorts of songs. I guess I didn't need much to entertain myself.

(Curiously, even now, I find that going on a walk helps me think. Sometimes, I go out walking and if I am trying to come up with an idea for a song, much of the song can literally write itself by the time I get home.)

During college, I got discouraged by all of the talent I saw around me. The many teachers and students seemed so much more talented than I was. The more I learned about musical elements and poetic devices, the more I guessed that my gift was just being able to sing. Then, after graduation, I ventured out into the real world. There I learned that with the right inspiration, I could produce interesting and worthwhile music, too.

For me, which comes first? Well, I have to say that the music and the words pretty much come at the same time. If I get an idea of something that needs to be said in the lyric, then the words dictate the melodic line and rhythms. If an interesting melody starts forming in my mind, then I play catch up to try to find the words that should fit the music. Some songwriters say that they start with the title. But giving my song a title is usually the crowning detail of my songwriting efforts. I have a hard time naming my songs. The default title often comes from the song's "hook."

If I am writing a song for Musical Theater, I have to immerse myself in the story, the setting, the costumes and set ideas, but mostly I need to get into the "heads" of the characters. The words and the style of the song need to organically develop from the characters and situations they are in. One song that I remember very clearly that wrote itself on one of my walks is "I Love the City Life" from The Country Mouse and the City Mouse. As I recall, it was a rather cold blustery day. I was walking briskly through the neighborhood. Because it was a cold day, I started thinking of snow. That started me thinking of an Irving Berlin song from the movie "White Christmas." A very rhythmic melodic snippet from that song would not leave me alone. I decided that if it was harmonically dressed up differently, given a Latin beat, and different words, people would never know where I borrowed the inspiration. So, by the time I got home, I just needed to write down what had come to me on my walk. Enjoy!

The Song Is Ended, But the Melody Lingers on

6/26/2019

How does that Irving Berlin/Ira Gershwin ballad go? "The song is ended, but the melody lingers on..."

Sometimes the success of a show is measured by how long the melodies linger on. Many of my Camp Participant's parents approach me even now saying that they still hear their kids singing the tunes from the show around the house. (It has been several weeks now since our performance.) That is such a compliment. Of course, I hope that my songs and their messages linger in the minds of the children. That is the entire point of doing the show. I hope that they will remember to Be Sincere and that Everybody Works AND that these things are GOOD!

But I am floored that the most memorable song from Never Cry Wolf this summer has been the Little Lamb's dance. My daughter's little 22 month old daughter Avery goes around singing "Baa, Baa, Baa" and doing the little dance moves almost nonstop daily. Notice the very nice first position turnout in the feet, the preparatory plie', and the lovely arm position on the turn. This girl is destined to be a ballerina! She will surely become a triple threat -- she can sing (of course, right now she specializes in one word songs as long as that word is "Baa"); she certainly can dance; and here in the household we have witnessed her tendencies towards being a drama queen! To me, that definitely spells T-R-I-P-L-E T-H-R-E-A-T!

When I wrote the first iteration of this show about 20 years ago now, I just needed a little song simple enough for three five-year-old girls to perform. They had had no previous performing experience and were scared of their own shadows. Until the moment of the performance, I could not be certain these three little girls would do anything that they had been taught. But, they surprised us all and had the the audience giggling so much they nearly fell off their chairs. There simply is no arguing with CUTE FACTOR.

So, while I would prefer that "Set for Posterity" or "A View from the Highest Mountain" or "Tapestry of Life" would be the hit songs from the show, I am still pleased that "Baa Baa Baa" enjoys such longevity. The Camp might have ended, but the Song lingers on...

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