Lord of the Wrinklies

           Plot outline            Scenes 1 & 2

 

Production Notes

  1. Notice that this is an unfinished DRAFT version. Sections can be cut out, or more sub-plots and songs added.

  2. Also note that this is a carrot grower’s DREAM. Reality and fantasy become intertwined in dreams. Is Jackson time-travelling to create pictures in a real Middle Earth 500 years ago? Do we sometimes believe we are living in Jackson’s LOTR world here in the Waimarino?

  3. I’m constantly challenging the audience here as to what is real. The reality keeps changing, but the truths about rural work, community, love, otherness, adventure, bureaucracy, greed, assertiveness etc remain constant.

  4. I have spread the story-lines around as many people as possible to keep the learning load for each individual low, and to give everyone a speaking part. They can be split further or one person can do several roles if needed.

  5. I have built some of the story-line into the songs to further reduce the line-learning load. Enunciation will need to be clear where words in well-known songs are changed.

  6. The workload could be further reduced if we started several months out and the teenagers helped design and build the costumes, scenery, and props. They can get useful NCQA credits for this, as well as for plot development, makeup, lighting, sound, acting, dance etc.
    Check this link NZQA Drama syllabus

  7. A lot of this plot was written backwards to get all the characters to fit into the words of Look Down, One Day More and Tonight.

  8. Everyone knows Ohakune, so the backdrops only need to be suggested. This keeps up the momentum of the play with no time lost changing fiddly bits of scenery. It will be challenging for the lighting techies to transform Blyth hut to Turoa to the Junction without a curtain fall.

  9. The live-action mountain and Spacecraft will become living characters for young puppeteers.

  10. The simple Tongariro forest backdrop, and the navy blue curtain are dark backgrounds.
    We need bright clothing, with simple primary colours.

  11. To keep the young actors busy all night, they are variously active as the carrot carnival float carriers, the hobbit/dwarfs, the eruption and space ship puppeteers, the Awry Zen soldiers and Peter Jackson’s film crew, with less work in the second half as they get tired.

  12. The teenage girls mainly play the space-crew members in the 2nd half, and can be on floats or at the Rocks at opening, and in the rolled newspaper battle.

  13. There are a wide variety of songs, easy and fun for the kids, plus classics for the adults that are more of a challenge. Most of the songs here can be learnt in about 5 minutes.

  14. But One Day More with its seven overlapping voices will take lots and lots of work. We can use a stereo track with the voices in the left track and the music in the right. Gradually turn down the left. Sibelius Scorch and Youtube can be used to learn parts.
    - Scorch music score on computer or iPad screen. Notes light up as your singing part is played.
    - Also use video One Man One Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ItTaXnz-19M

  15. Did you spot all the movie references? LOTR, The Godfather, King Kong, Snow White, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Hobbit, Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, Alien, The Three Musketeers, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, My Fair Lady, Gone With the Wind, West Side Story, Star Wars and 2001 - a Space Odessy.

Things to consider in next draft

Rabbit puts on the Snow Queen fashion show, so I'll try to give the Snow Queen a pet rabbit, or giant guard rabbit.

Check with Che Wilson re Ruaumoko character. We can adjust script so it is vague whether he is a deluded simpleton or a real earth god. Or we could adjust the character to become Maui the shape-changing trickster.

Some people could take this as a political attack on Horizons Regional Council. With the deputy mayor possibly playing a leading role, and Alan working for Horizons, we may have to change the villains’ names from Awry and Zen. Best to check with Horizons first.

Peter Jackson could appear first as a sort of Breugal painter of peasants in real Middle Earth 500 years ago, then his canvas and easel transforms to camera and tripod.

Work this quote into story. “I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond..” - Mae West.

We probably can’t use Shakespeare’s rude joke in the Merry Wives of Windsor.
“Remember, William; focative is caret. And that's a good root.”

           Plot outline            Scenes 1 & 2