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.
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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!
All in all, a nice walk down memory lane!
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