PRODUCTION A

Hollywood Ghost Story

Never mess with a landmark

As legendary roadhouse Barney’s Beanery celebrates its centennial, speculators propose to demolish it to make way for a luxury hotel and fusion eatery. But the diner is haunted and lately its ghosts have been stirring up trouble scaring employees. Ambitious journalist Jonah Diamond begins covering this ghostly phenomena and learns of the plans for demolition. He joins forces with Barney’s best waitress Dominique to convince owner Rick Arquette to halt the project. Arquette saved the roadhouse from the wrecking ball in the ‘90s but now wants to take it to the next level. Armed with an incredible fabled history of Hollywood, and customers past and present who emerge to help save the iconic haunt, Jonah, Dominique and the resident ghosts pull out all the stops to rescue Barney’s Beanery. The story is based loosely on events currently taking place at the diner.

JONAH DIAMOND - Ambitious reporter with dreams of anchoring at CNN — in late twenties or so
DOMINIQUE FIERI - Waitress /aspiring actress with dreams of Hollywood stardom - late twenties plus
RICK ARQUETTE - Barney’s astute owner, mixed feelings about his aspirations for the joint— 40s
VINCENT - Wizened impermeable bartender / Authoritative Investor - 40s to 60s
OLD MAN - Wizened sentimental ghost of Barney / Customer 2/ member of Passing Public
COOK - Loud, opinionated roadhouse chef / protestor/member of Passing Public - mid-thirties plus
BERNICE - Ghost 1, flamboyant, lady-like/ loud lead protestor - in 40s or 50s
JACK - Ghost 2, brash, confrontational /loud protestor - 30s to 50s
CLIVE - Ghost 3, by the book, somewhat dithering/loud protestor - in 40s to 60s
CUSTOMER 1 - Boorish, loud, opinionated female/Investor 2/ member of Passing Public

Fly, Fly, Fly

Mother knows nest.

While reluctantly boxing up her life to downsize, recent empty-nester Robin finds an old “magic” story book.  Risking her relationship with her husband, Robin makes a wish and conjures her adult children back home.  Robin must now choose between perpetually reliving her beloved past or stepping off the edge into her unknown future.

Robin – female, 50ish - a newly-empty nesting mom of three (mezzo)
Jay – male, 50sih - Robin’s “trying to be compassionate” husband (baritone)
Raven – female, late 20s - Robin and Jay’s newly married eldest daughter (soprano)
Phoebe – female, mid-20s - Robin and Jay’s middle child, a stressed-out graduating college senior (mezzo)
Griffin – male, late teens/ early 20s - Robin and Jay’s youngest, a playful freshman in college (tenor)

PRODUCTION B

The Lake

The Light Within the Deep

There is a very well known European legend, centuries old, of creatures that live in lakes and rivers. The translation into English can be water goblins or water sprites, but the literal translation is water men. They keep the souls of the people who drown in their lakes and rivers. The souls are kept in ceramic cups with lids. The water men are not capable of leaving the lake and they live on their own for eternity.
The story of this particular water man was recorded by a Czech author Karel Jaromir Erben as he was gathering old Czech tales and legends in Czech villages in the mid 19th century. He then turned the stories into poems, which were published in a book called Kytice (Bouquet). One of the poems is called The Water Goblin (The Water Man).
Synopsis
The water goblin lives alone in a lake. He is a powerful being, confident in his role of the keeper of souls, but he is missing a companion.
There is a cottage at the lakeside where a beautiful young girl lives with her mother. He feels very lonely and he falls in love with the girl. One day, the girl is hanging clothes to dry at the lakeside. Her mother tells her that she had a disturbing dream in which her daughter was wearing a wedding dress and a necklace made of pearls. In her dream, the mother understood that the wedding dress signified sorrow and the pearls tears. She warns her daughter to not go near the lake that day. After the mother leaves, the girl disregards her mother’s warning and rinses a kerchief in the lake. She notices something shiny under the surface. Unknown to her, the shiny things are the pearls the water goblin is holding close to the surface, hoping they will entice her enough to fall into the lake. She leans too far to reach them and falls into the lake.
The water goblin lets her keep her soul, but she has to stay in the lake with him. They gradually fall in love and have a child together. A year later, the girl sees her mother at the edge of the lake and is heartbroken to see how much pain her mother is in. She pleads with the goblin to allow her to visit her mother for a day. He agrees, but doesn’t let her bring their son with her and instructs her to come back to the lake at sundown. She promises on their son’s life to come back. He gives the girl a string of pearls to give to her mother as a token of his respect.
The mother is overjoyed to see her daughter again, but after hearing the news of her daughter’s relationship with the water goblin, she is horrified and violently rejects water goblin’s gift. Her mother’s reaction prevents the girl from confiding in her mother about her baby. When sundown comes, the water goblin calls from the lake asking the girl to come back to make him a meal. The mother takes charge and refuses to let her daughter go, telling the water goblin to make his meal himself. He calls the girl again, this time asking her to come back and make his bed for him. The mother refuses. The last time he calls the girl, he’s holding their son in his arms and asks the girl to come back to him as she promised because their son is hungry and she needs to feed him. The mother is shocked to learn of the baby’s existence. She makes it clear that she doesn’t recognize the baby as her grandson, since, in her mind, the baby is half monster. The girl begs her mother to let her go, but the mother refuses to do so. Instead, the mother tells the water goblin that both he and the baby are monsters and she will never let her daughter go back to the lake.
The water goblin, desperate and disillusioned, doesn’t see any way that he or his son could ever be happy again. He himself lost the love of his life and his son, being half human half goblin, will never belong to either world and is destined for a life more painful than his father’s. He doesn’t want to let that happen. There is a storm over the lake and when it calms down and the mother and her daughter open the door of the cottage, they see the baby in a pool of blood, killed by the water goblin. The mother tries to console her daughter, but the daughter violently rejects her mother.

WaterMan. Age: 30-40 Legit Baritone with Pop Broadway colors (Range G#2 to F#4) He’s powerfully lonely with strong passions and is accustomed to dealing with life and death issues. He longs for companionship he’s never had, but has a strength and power, like that of a lion.

Girl. Age: 18-25. Contemporary Musical Theatre Soprano (Range A#3-F#5 (mixed belt to D5)). She is carefree and dreams of what her life will be, however, when she becomes a loving mother she also longs for the life she had, and is guilty for the pain she caused her mother.

Mother. Age: Late 40s. Musical Theatre Mezzo-Soprano (Range G#3 to C#5) A strong, practical, but intuitive widow who raised her only daughter alone. She would do anything to protect her.

The Wedding Night

Be careful what you wish for!!!

Based on a traditional Czech poem.  A girl was engaged to a young man who was drafted into the army. After not hearing from him in over a year, the girl desperately prays to the Virgin Mary, saying that she will do “anything” to have him back. Just then, there is a knock on the door, she opens the door, and it is her fiance! Or is it?!?

Woman. Age, 17-25, Innocent. Soprano Range Bb3 - E5. She dreams of being with her fiance who has gone off to the war, and has been missing for a year. Her father tells her to get on with her life, but she prays in earnest for her lover to return.

Man. Age 25-40, Strong and dark, somewhat mysterious would be good. Belt-Baritone Range A2-F4. The long lost soldier knocks at the door one night, but he has a haunted look, and later we realize that he is a ghost. He is dark and brooding and starts off romantic, but fairly quickly becomes frightening.

Father. Age 45-80, A kindly old grave digger, who loves his daugher. Bass - Baritone A2-C4

Dead Body: Non-speaking or singing role. Mainly just lies still then stands up to open the door like a zombie, then collapses to the ground.