Seven Day Wonder

Seven Day Wonder

a musical review by Dan Schaaf

ACT ONE
Private seasons: Fall, winter and spring

0.   OVERTURE
1.   A WONDERFUL SHOW! (All)
2.   Induction (Jodie)
3.   IVE LISTENED TO THE FALLING RAIN (Sarah)
4.   ADVENT (Tim)
5.   THE TRAIN SONG (All)
6.   NEVER WANTED TO HANG AROUND (Tim & Jodie)
7.   GOODBYE (Tim & Jodie)
8.   LET ME BEND (Jodie)
9.   Skating (Tim)
10. I WILL COME AGAIN (Sarah)
11. IF I COME BACK TOMORROW (Jodie)
12. I HEAR YOUR VOICE (Sarah)
13. I DONT REGRET (Jodie)
14. The Storm (Sarah)
15. THE SINKING OF THE CHICORA (Tim)
16. WINTERS SONG (Sarah)
17. SMILING SAND DUNES (Tim & Jodie)
18. LET EVERY ROSE (All)
19. Memorial Day (Tim)
20. BUTTERMILK HILL (Sarah)
21. John and Abigail (Jodie)

ACT TWO
The public season: Summer

0.   THREE AMERICAN CITIES (Overture)
1.   IDLENESS ON A SUMMERS DAY (All)
2.   DORIGEN (All)
3.   EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE SAFE (All)
4.   The Circus (All)
5.   THE CIRCUS SONG (All)
6.   THESE WERE OUR SUMMERS (All)
7.   Gardena Playground (All)
8.   Dear Uncle Bill (Sarah)
9.   Lilacs and the Indian Girl (Sarah & Jodie)
10. Fishing. (Tim)
11. SAILING (All)
12. WHERE IS THE TIME (All)

Copyright Dan Schaaf 2013

Cast:

Alyssa Rosselli (Sarah) has studied dance, voice and harp. Alyssa’s most recent Michigan City performance was as Cinderella in Footlight Players production of that show, and she also played Woodstock in Charlie Brown at Footlight Players.

Sandy Gleim (Jodie) has been involved in many of Dan’s original productions. She’s also acted in dozens of plays and musicals throughout Northwest Indiana. She really enjoys getting her groove on as a singer with the local Trouble Blind band, as well as the First United Methodist Church Praise Team in LaPorte. Her day job is high energy too, as Vice President of Unity Foundation of La Porte County.

Robert Richter (Tim) is very happy to return to the Mainstreet Theatre again with this fun and talented cast to present Dan’s new show. Robert has performed in many musicals at venues throughout the area including the LaPorte Little Theatre, Dunes Summer Theatre and Valparaiso Memorial Theatre, to name a few. Robert is the Senior Warden at St. Mary’s of the Angels, Anglican Rite, in LaPorte. He wishes to dedicate this show to all the men and women overseas, still fighting for freedom against other tyrants and their own brand of terrorism. God bless America.

Author:

Dan Schaaf is a northwest Indiana composer of many shows including the silent film musical Aelita, Queen of Mars and MacBeth, the Rock Opera. With recent performances of his shows at Links Hall in Chicago and 4th Street Theater in Chesterton, he is happy to be doing a show again at Mainstreet Theater. He thanks Duane and Martha and the board of Mainstreet Theater and gives special thanks to his wife, Bonnie.

Authors Comments

Seven Day Wonder is an experiment to see if a musical review can create dramatic interest without a narrative thread. The show is organized by seasons, vignettes and the juxtapositioning of moods that allow the listener to create their own narrative if they wish.

The title refers to the phrase a nine day wonder, something that is the marvel for a moment and then forgotten. The phrase is probably older but Will Kemp, Shakespeares best clown, used it to describe his publicity stunt of dancing from London to Norwich in nine days. Crowds gathered along the highways to cheer him on. He died penniless and forgotten three years later.

Attributions

Most of the songs are original to the show. A few are from other shows of mine: "A Marvelous Show", from my opera, 'Roxann’s Kiss', "Never Wanted To Hang Around" from 'Ee Gads!', "Let Me Bend" and "I Will Come Again" from 'Lear'.

The letter at the end of the first act is from Abigail Adams writing to her husband during the War for Independence.

"Buttermilk Hill", derived from an old Irish song, was popular during the Civil War. The lyrics for "Let Every Rose" are from the English folk song and the lyric idea for "Smiling Sand Dunes" came from an English madrigal.

The second act Ghost and Fishing stories are recycled from 'Parades, Ribbons and Streets'. The circus video is from Jeff Schmidt’s one-man musical, 'Sparkle, The Musical' written by me with Jeff and features Mayre Williams as the trapeze artist.

The show is dedicated to my father, Norbert Schaaf, and to the memory of Jerry Peters.