Edit:undo
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Edit:Undo, a new musical comedy for the digital age, is a full length student-written musical about high school. The musical tells the story of star student Rory Conway, who must thwart a scheme by School Board members intent on settling old scores. While struggling to "edit undo" the mistakes of the past, Rory fights to save her school, her friends...and her acceptance to college. Two acts and 16 original songs, Edit:Undo premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on August 7th, 2006.
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[edit] Background
Edit:Undo was written by nine high-school students from various schools in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The "Creative Team" was selected in October 2005 under the direction of playwright and Cappies co-founder William Strauss. The student team consisted of book writers K-K Bracken, Robert Rome, and Chelsea Stickle, lyricists Natalie Bamdad, Ben Bissell, and Kat Funkhouser, and composers Sam Klein, Wes Noyes, and Austin Powell. The students were given the task of writing a musical comedy about high school and technology. A storyboard for the musical was completed in December, an initial script by the end of January, lyrics during much of February and March, and composing (under the direction of director Brant Challacombe) during March and April. Throughout May and June of 2006 the book, lyrics, and score were revised continuously and the title was selected.
The Cappies hosted three script readings: a nonmusical reading in February by students at WT Woodson High School, a nonmusical reading in March by students from throughout the National Capital Region (United States), and a musical reading in May by students from Glenelg Country School and River Hill High School. Following each reading, the script and score were substantially revised.
Edit:Undo premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on August 7th, 2006, under the direction of Winston Churchill High School theatre director Jessica Speck and Glenelg Country School musical director Brant Challacombe. Choreography was led by Fairfax County Public Schools choreographer Jen Koonce. Wakefield High School and Lake Braddock Secondary School theatre directors Chris Gillespie and R.L. Mirabal served as Company Director and Technical Director for the initial performances of Edit:Undo. The show was co-produced by Judy Bowns and William Strauss, Cappies co-founders. Thirty-six cappies award-winning participants in the Cappies International Theatre summer program from around the U.S. and Canada filled the cast during initial performances.
[edit] Synopsis
Edit:Undo is a musical comedy about life and love in the digital age; it tells the story of Rory Conway, a hardworking senior at Wiley High whose constant successes cause her to run afoul of a nefarious School Board and embroil her in a fight for her school between teenagers and adults.
[edit] Act One
Act One begins with Rory winning a crucial football game, the press from which enables the school to win a grant to become the ultra-high-tech “Wi-Hi”. This gift poses a threat against two School Board members, whose businesses (Abacus Pencil and Suburban Sprawl Realtors) will make huge profits if Wiley maintains its reputation as a “loser school.” They persuade other Board members that technology leads to bad student behavior and must be stopped.
One of the School Board members arranges for her son to enroll in Wi-Hi. He simultaneously flirts with Rory and plays technology-related tricks on her, giving the School Board grounds to suspend her and block the technology grant. Maxwell, an aspiring videogame designer with a crush on Rory, rises to her defense. When he hears the (false) rumor that the P.T.A. is behind the School Board crackdown, Maxwell leads the teenagers in a strike, withholding their knowledge of technology from all the adults in Wileytown.
[edit] Act Two
Act Two begins with the older generation wrestling in despair with their modern technology without any help from the teenagers. Suspended from school, rejected by colleges, and at odds with her friends, Rory feels completely lost. However, she soon gets some guidance from the school’s observant lady janitor, who attended Wiley thirty years ago with the School Board members. She reveals that the Board’s bitterness and her own loveless life are the consequences of a disastrous game of Pong played during their senior year. The boys were so enchanted by that first arcade video game that they used it to choose their prom dates, with disastrous consequences. The might-have-beens that still haunt the janitor and the Board members are now imperiling Rory and her classmates.
The only way Rory can save Wiley High, stop the School Board, and bring the kids and adults back together across the technology gap is to “edit: undo” the results of the long-ago Pong game. She hatches a plan: If a long-ago game could tear apart the two generations, a replay of the same game could be used to bring adults and students back together. To settle the strike, Rory urges the two sides to play three old games, three new games, and a secret seventh game: Pong. When the School Board members are confronted with the bad memory of the Pong game, they back down, and the tangled web of the past is unwound.
In the end, the adults find the loves they thought they’d lost, the school gets the grant, and both adults and students learn the difference between people’s virtual and real lives. As Rory says, “People aren’t pixels!” The story closes with graduation. Rory and the other students of Wi-High head off to a future of limitless possibilities, ready and eager to “edit undo” anything in the world that might need fixing.
[edit] Cast of Characters
[edit] Teenagers
PRINCIPALS (3F/3M)
RORY CONWAY (F, soprano, some rapping)
ADELL BALDWIN (F, alto, dancer, comic)
STEWART WARD (F, alto, comic)
MAXWELL FITZPATRICK (M, tenor, rapper)
TOD DARNELL (M, baritone, comic, good dancer)
KYLE THOMPSON (M, baritone-bass, comic)
LEAD ENSEMBLES (3F/3M)
GIRLS: SUZY (soprano), STACEY (alto), & SOPHIE (alto), all dancers
GUYS: STEVIE (rapper), SAMMY (tenor falsetto), & SMITTY (bass), all dancers
OTHERS
OTHER STUDENTS (F/M, chorus)
VICTOR THE VOICE (M, lines, no vocals)
[edit] Adults
PRINCIPALS (4F/3M)
MORGAN DARNELL (F, alto/contralto, evil comic)
JENNY FOWLER (F, gospel soprano)
CALYPSO GRIFFITH (F, country soprano, superb dancer)
DACEY SUTHERLAND (F, country alto)
LANCE LANGSTON (M, tenor, evil comic)
DR. ARTHUR BEVIN (M, chorus, comic dancer)
JONAH THE REFEREE (M, chorus)
LEAD ENSEMBLES
MR. & MRS. SMITH, MR. & MRS. JONES (2M, 2F, chorus)
JANITORS (F/M, stage crew, chorus)
[edit] Others
SHERRY SHANNON (F, lines, no vocals)
RORY’S MOTHER’S VOICE (F, lines, no vocals)
OTHER PARENTS (F/M, chorus)
COACH’S VOICE (M, one line, no vocals)
CAMERAMAN (F or M, no lines, no vocals)
[edit] Media
Edit:Undo has attracted national media attention. Articles have appeared in the LA Times, USA Today, The Connection Newspapers, The Times Community Papers, and The Washington Post.
The Washington Post Article, LA Times Article, USA Today Article, Connection Article, and Times Community Article provide detailed views of the unique nature of Edit:Undo and its successes. Media coverage continues to grow as word of the new musical spreads.
