Sunday, November 4, 2012

Vanilla - Getting the production written - Kickoff

Firefly 1- First hash it out meeting between Tom & Pat Cartwright. This took place in the friendly environs of the Firefly Cafe in beautiful Oregon, WI Sunday Nov 4, 2012.
 
“Holy Cow” – student union kind of thing, but decidedly more rural than UW Madison Memorial union (incorporates elements of Babcock Hall), a mix of flavors / peoples, etc.

Tom's influences relevant to Moosicalorica:

UW in the 1970s-80s (Tom attended from 1977-85):
Elementary School - Middleton Junction School 1970 (Now West Side Business Club)
"The cat came back", "ash cake" - song and home made desert presented to 5th grade class at Middleton Junction School by an African American UW student bringing his guitar & musicality to rural Middleton to teach diversity lessons to those who experienced only limited contact with other cultures.

Characters:
·John Deere or JD - graduate of UW, successful in Greece & Japan, returns to Babcock Hall.
·      Aggie-female adjunct biology prof , pleasant with son Andy
·      Retired couple – still in love
·      Crew (8 rowers+cox) –
·      Lord FootTwitch (named for Tom's foot twitch, just added to the play) – 1960s – Mary Quant (white boots, trouser pants, beatle boots)

Prelude-orchestra plays + train coming, multimedia – slides coming in periodically throughout show.
3x – last time conductor wave

Curtain closes
Babcock Hall – Vanilla ACT – Rural theme kids wearing cow stuff
·     
 Various people order icecream – 13% butterfat ballet Waltz with variations in a style appropriate to culture
o   Crew orders icecream 4 strawberries + 4 eating choreography chocolates as if rowing
o   Mixed race couple orders fudge swirl
o   Peach – little old lady
o   American Gothic Farmer – Blackberry
o   Children – chocolate chip
o   Teenagers- butter pecan
o   Construction worker – lemon (tuba / flute)
o   Little old man – mint chocolate chip
o   Asian family – green tea icecream
o   Latino – flavor
o   Ballet – banana splits
o   Andy-Aggie – chocolate almond
o   Sundae -
·      Percussion music – for eating Sundae, holding cherry by stem (multimedia closeups), experience of eating / savoring etc of each person – music changes hot fudge ba-na-na.
o   Row row row to cones, heartily down the stream, lickety lickety lickety lick, we really like ice cream (we really like ice cream
o   Row row row to  malts,…
o   Row row row to sundaes …cherries, pineapple, chocolate, nuts
o   Row row row to Pints …we certainly like our ice cream

1st act 2nd scene – closing time
BH closing forever rumor – costs …  freezer repair… students ask if true? YES
Song: A message from the President (UW) –
Round table- money for athletics,
1970s tactics – protests, boycott crew race (No, NO, NO)

·      Dirge – What are we going to do? Life w/o ice cream


Strawberry – starts in Holy cow
·      How are we gonna get them back to them back to the farm after they’ve seen the U? (concept, not necessarily the song)


Music- live small band – Tom’s play

Collect names of places for cultural references.
 Musical Numbers
1.     Ag Rag- Scott Joplin,
2.     How are we going to keep them down on the farm?...
3.     13% Butterfat , beginning + theme & variations – people come in (Eagle Heights students) Fred the dog, Andy – Aggie’s Son
4.     Double Chocolate Almond Melt - ?
5.     Banana Split ballet – kids rainbow skirts, boys?
6.     A Letter to a friend (romantic not stated see copy Prom dancing fantasy) – postcards to fix machine, charatcter name (romantic interest –UW-Japan-Greece-philanthropist – Resolution in last scene
7.     Promise for Prom –end -

General: timeless (crossing ages), Beatles, Fantastiks, Musicman, Dylan,

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