GLEN OR GLENDA

Scott,That there would be questions about how this piece might be staged is only natural, though I think this is probably as it should be.I’ve already admitted and now do so again that this piece evolved. Had I gone with my very first conception there would have been a very different result and there would likely be no question about how it would be staged. One would instantly have recognized the conventions because they would all have been in place.What you would have had is another piece like REEFER MADNESS or THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL, a camp fest.I earnestly tried this approach and I didn’t care for the results. It seemed obvious and vapid…and embarrassing. Silly.What could one do with this approach? Invent contrived subplots? Insert irrelevant comic numbers? Write ballads and love duets for these characters?It isn’t because I am incapable…I can write that kind of stuff all day long.But with each of these steps one wanders away from the essence of what is compelling about the source material, its sincere irreproducible incompetence.That it should be a riot, a romp and a camp is a given, but how much of this can an audience accept? On the other hand, how seriously can you take this material without embarrassing your audience by insisting they empathize?Only when I turned to the film as my template, when my excesses were under its strict control, when my role became that of mediator of this material, through my art bringing into focus what an audience would inherently respond to, did I feel that I was on the correct path. More than that, I knew I was creating art. I was inspired.Of course, it couldn’t have happened this way had I not already explored this other approach, and that I was thoroughly schooled in a more traditional musical theatre.This is where these songs come from, where the musical pacing comes from. Yet, there are other dimensions to my musical talents and I found natural opportunities within the film to pull from here as well. I knew as I was writing it that it was a once in a lifetime project and I truly gave it everything I had, fully exploiting every opportunity within this framework to reach for the most inspired music for each moment that I could find within me.And yet, there’s really nothing revolutionary going on here…this is just another way of letting content dictate form…rather than the other way around.When I was finished, I had a very balanced composition…different I suppose, yet I knew as an artist that I was completely satisfied with it.I was in love with what I had made.So, if we can possibly accept as a given, for the sake of this argument, that the piece is what it is, that it is fine as it is, then I can begin to share with you how I’ve thought it might be staged.(This is not to say, of course, that I am not more than willing to shorten, expand, even write additional songs and material as required. Quite the contrary. All I’m suggesting is that its structure, the continuous music, its essential balances are a given. Of course, all of us are on somewhat new ground here.)I’m assuming that you’ve found the libretto on line…if not, it’s here:http://glenorglendalibretto.tumblr.com/There are several ways that I have imagined its staging.I’ll begin with what might be ideal.First off, I don’t really imagine sets…just pieces rolled or carried on and off stage. Couches, tables, props, etc. Then again, as far as I’m concerned the whole thing could be performed in the rented room of Tom, the composer. It’s all something of a dream.I don’t think it’s necessary to discuss the obvious staging of this Prologue. In my mind, this is straightforward.It is not important to me in anyway whatsoever if the film is incorporated into a staging. This is merely a unique and additional resource in the staging of this piece that a director can decide if using is effective or not. In a staging, it has never been something that I think should be used other than sparingly and in interplay with actual actors.Not film, then actors, but film and actors. There are essential elements in this film that a audience might expect. The crazy irrelevant buffalo stampede, for example. The film might be useful for these things. Perhaps, just using the parts that contain Bela Lugosi might be incorporated. This is not a core component of how the piece should be staged, but it might be useful. The point is, as the score syncs up to the film it can be used or not used in any imaginable way. The question should be, would the audience get off on seeing portions of the film…of getting a taste of it, or a recollection? Would it more fully inform them of the incompetence being reproduced? Would it be an asset in this respect? Or would it be a distraction and a liability? It’s only a question because, uniquely, it’s in the realm of possibility. Personally, I lean towards using some of it. To do so seems to support the premise of the Prologue. But I truly don’t care, it’s irrelevant.(Were this piece being performed in a concert with a chorus taking all these songs, well of course one would do this with a screening of the film. That’s a different matter.)It seems to me, though it may not be fully apparent, that dance, movement is the key to unlocking this piece.The more I look at it, the more I think of it as a dance piece, a ballet, at least as much as it is anything else.I think the piece is like a dream…with shadowy movements coming in and out of focus creating something cinematic in its staging.I feel that there should be something of an ensemble that moves ghostlike in and out of the scenes, not always lathargicly, sometimes aggressively, sometimes comically.There are large parts for an ensemble, but not all the music is meant to be sung by them. There are solo parts for the actors as well.In this I like the idea of a masculine dirty drag.as part of this ensemble though not exclusively, I think this ensemble should also change appropriately for the scenes they are in, for instance, military for the scenes at war. I think there should also be women in this ensemble.Aside from incorporating dance and/or movement throughout, there are significant portions of this piece that are entirely conceived of as dance or mime,most notably, the S and M portion of Glenda’s dream and later, the Military portion of the piece.Yet, there are moments in the piece wherein I strongly feel that the actor or actress should be alone on stage one on one with the audience and singing their solo song with little else to distract. (THOSE FINGERNAILS HAVE GOT TO GO, IF IT WEREN’T FOR LOVE) In my mind, I see the film as the jumping off point, the template for staging the individual scenes. Not a slavish reproduction but as something of an enlargement, a tongue in cheek homage to Ed Wood’s “style”. I think something of this is what an audience would expect…and God knows, it’s a rich resource.In another sense, the piece might be thought of as an opera with dialogue replacing the recitative.I don’t think that the music should be thought of as in the way of these scenes, brought down to inaudible levels, but fully embraced and luxuriated in with complete confidence as part of this experience. I think the actors should be miked and the sound balanced so that this can be accomplished.Personally, and I know most people in theatre would think I’m mad, but the realities of the world being what they are, I don’t have issues with music being canned, but I know I would be outvoted in this respect…so I have written a piano score and I’m 2/3rds the way through a very reduced orchestration of 7 players that may very well get more out of 7 players than has ever been gotten out of 7 players before, though I realize that even this is wishful thinking. I just love to write orchestrally, I like what it is able to express and contribute. I think it’s tragic that this is surely to become a dead art even in the most extravagant circumstances. But, I also understand the equally powerful argument for actual living, breathing music and it’s a compromise I would gratefully accept.If I haven’t worn you out already…here, briefly, is another way I might would stage this piece.This may be equally effective…perhaps even definitive…but it would require two spectacularly talented actors and some brilliantly sustained direction.In this version I would see the film used to a somewhat greater degree…I suppose.Many of the principles outlined above would be incorporated.Yet, it would be only these two actors taking on all these parts (there are never more than two in any scene) trying to put this over in the most imaginative and inventive ways, as if their lives, their mortal souls, depended upon it. This would spring naturally from the Prologue as Tom, the composer, and Satan, give this piece the audition to end all auditions. Could this approach be sustained? I don’t know. But I do feel that at least this central idea should be the premise for any staging of the piece, regardless. This is what the audience should be caring about. The success of this audition…purchased at the heaviest price imaginable. In this approach, musically, reflecting its fantastic dream like nature, I think there would be justification for a blending in and out from live music from a piano and this phantom orchestra.I should also put out the idea that a two act version is a possibility that I would be willing to explore. The break occurring after the famous scene of Barbara handing Glen her Angora sweater. This would require an additional scene between Tom and Satan at the top of the 2nd act and possibly an expanded version of the song GLEN OR GLENDA he might play on the piano…then back into the actual ALAN/ANN portion of the narrative. This would also permit me the opportunity to write a short musical Prelude to the 2nd Act. Let me close by stating the obvious, I am not a director. This is not where my talents lie.Yet, of course, I have had some thoughts about it and all I’m trying to do here is share these ideas as some possible ways to begin to put the piece on its feet.The creative process for this is ongoing…it’s final shape to be determined by what’s required of it to play successfully. I want a great show.Perhaps I should send you a piano score…or a cd and a hard copy of the libretto. (The Prologue of which I would like to go through another draft.)I’m finding it very difficult to close this long winded letter…feel I need to include a final paragraph where I beg, urge, coax and plead…but I’m going to at least spare you this. So, I’ll just thank you for the opportunity to attempt to explain myself.- Michael

 ”How many times has a difficult rhyme led me to a beautiful thought?” - KEATShttp://jmichaelpenny.tumblr.com/