August 15: A Play…With Music.
Posted by projectawarekc on August 15, 2009
Jeremy and I have have made some solid discoveries. If you’ve been following this journey, then you know today was meeting #2. Jeremy and I wrote our own scene-one of the Peru Play (working title: Made in Peru). We came together today and what we read was quite astonishing.
It’s a given that mine and Jeremy’s separate scene had ideas that will be utilized; the strengths and weaknesses of our individual works has given a great perspective on the possibilities we should capitalize upon and possibilities to save for another day.
Despite our own creative processes, individual imaginations, and observations we seemed to share the same perspective on characterization, tone and strategy. There where many similarities in our scenes from how it began to how it ended and how all the information in-between was revealed. We also shared the same thought that this play should be a musical.
Now, let me say first that when I say musical I don’t mean the vary defined Broadway musical with belting ballads and show stopping dance numbers. Though that specific genre has its place and serves its purpose for other stories, this play has an embedded feel and tonality specific to the people it is about. Only through adding a lyrical component will the theme be heightened and better communicated. The strategy with these songs will be to support the story.
Music is a world form of communication and anyone from anywhere can relate to it; it’s a connector, an identifier, and we all have been transported to a moment in our lives through the reminiscent tunes of a song. With the addition of song into a story a character has another ability to communicate, comment and/or give commentary on the action happening on stage. This could be useful in our story as a tool to reveal something that otherwise would be used as a monologue or back-and-forth dialogue.
Music surrounds the Peruvian people, it is as much part of their culture as baseball and hot-dogswould be for ours. In our opinion, there was no way around this, Made in Peru needs to be done as a musical.
Jeremy will take on the role of lyricist. I will write the book. How the music will be composed has not been discovered, but the way music and song is revealed in the play will be done only through the characters and environmet around them.
The foundation of our works has always been to take social justice and make it a jacket for our audiences to try on, to see if it fits. We want them to see themselves on stage; that the proximity between the seats and stage is not just measured by actual distance but also through experience. What better way than through music?
Next meeting: August 29th.
We encourage comments from our readers.
