Wade Bradford’s Blog

This is a very funky play.

It’s one of those shows where I suddenly came up with the title first, and the rest of the play wrote itself. I had written more than my share of princess stories:

Cinderella in New York

Mermaid in Miami

I started to realize that I was retelling fairy tales but setting them in a particular time and place. So why not those Disco Dancin’ 1970s?

The show is a great deal of fun. It;s not a musical, but drama teachers and performers are encouraged to include dance numbers if they wish to get down and boogie — which I highly recommend. Writing the Dwarves was the funnest challenge, because I wanted them each to have their own 70s flavor. My favorite: the “Grumpy” dwarf is named Nixon.

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

A year or so had past after the “Midsummer” musical, and I was itching to create another one. I began composing songs for a very silly cowboy musical. The original plot was about unlikely western con-artists who pose as masked heroes — you know, like the lone ranger.

I think I wrote about eight songs for the show — some of them pretty good. But I had a problem — I didn’t have a talented composer anymore. Rachel was living in Orange County and had a very busy schedule. So, without someone to help me with the orchestration, I began to think of other ways of telling a western story. One of those ways became Cowboys and Idiots — the cowboy movie Joshua and I made back in 2004.

Another story was forming in my mind simultaneously. I took the basic storyline of “Much Ado About Nothing” and set it in the old west at the end of the Civil War. It’s a fun, battle-of-the-sexes comedy that has been well-received amongst school and community theaters.

The world premiere of “Much Ado Out West” (published by Eldridge Plays) took place at the Fresno Christian High School (pictured above).

But teen-agers aren’t the only ones to perform the show. A group of senior citizens performed “Much Ado Out West” for their theater group in Independence, Missouri. Read the complete article.

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

I was obsessed with Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” when I was a teenager. I know, that sound a little fishy. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.) Seriously though, I thought Ariel was adorable. I had quite the animated crush on the two-dimensional mermaid.

But as much as I loved the Disney cartoon, I also knew that it did not follow-through on the original ending. So, I began thinking of ways to revisit Hans Christian Andersen.

The result: Mermaid in Miami. On the one hand, this script is just as fun and silly as my other ones. But there are other things going on in this children’s play as well. For one, I based some of the conflict off of the crisis over Elia Gonzalez — the little boy who’s mother died trying to get them to Florida. The boy fell in love with his American relatives, but was then returned to his father in Cuba. Also in the play, an old-man-man-and-the-sea Ernest Hemmingway character. And finally, Breeze, the mermaid — she experiences a sad, but hopefully uplifting ending that is similar (but not entirely faithful) to the original story.

Sadly, the play hasn’t been performed to often. Here are the brave schools who have taken on this project. I salute each one of you!

JOHN ROLFE MIDDLE SCHOOL
RICHMOND, VA 11/21/2008

OAKLAND JR HIGH SCHOOL
LAKE ELMO, MN 10/25/2007

ST PETER SCHOOL
COVINGTON, LA 5/18/2007

DALLAS COUNTY HS
PLANTERSVILLE, AL 11/16/2006

DELTA JUNCTION SR HIGH
DELTA JUNCTION, AK 4/15/2006

EATONVILLE ELEM SCH
EATONVILLE, WA 4/20/2005

ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART
SAINT CHARLES, MO 3/19/2005

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

So, in 2000, Josh and I directed out last show for the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera. That was “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Musical.” And, although it wasn’t as financially successful as “A Pirate’s Story,” it was the best show we ever made.

And now, I had not only a wife, but a beautiful baby girl. Josh was married — and I was starting to teach my college classes. The era of directing children’s plays (especially in Orange County) had faded. But I wasnt too sad about this because our last show had been such a satisfying way to end our directing days.

But, I was still anxious to write children’s plays. Eldridge had published four plays, and I wanted to keep it going. So, I started kicking around ideas for a new show — not to direct, just to write. Then, Sept. 11th happened. For months afterward all eyes, thoughts, and prayers were on New York City. And that’s what prompted me to write “Cinderella in New York.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t write some type of tribute or homage to the victims of 9/11 — my plays are too silly and irreverent to ever serve as a memorial for something as tragic as that day. However, after Sept. 11th, I kept thinking of how much I loved New York City, and how sad it made me to think of the city so wounded. So, that led to thoughts about the different eras of New York, and the different struggles the city had undergone. And eventually, I started retelling the story of Cinderella set in Manhattan during the Great Depression.

My friend and former drama student Tracy Buffington directed the show — oh and Josh appeared during one performance. But this was the first show that I wrote and had no directorial stake in the project. I just showed up and watched the show and had a great time.

Here’s a photo from an unknown high school — according to the photographer, the kids are getting ready for their sold out performance:

Learn more about Wade’s Plays.

Charles Dickens once compared his books to children. He indicated that deep down, parents have a favorite child. And as to his novels, this is what he said:

“I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”

Well, I disagree with him about playing favorites with your kids. In case my girls are reading this, I love you both equally and absolutely! You’re both my favorite!

But I do have a favorite play — at least so far. And her name is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Musical.” This labor of love began around early 1999. I had been finishing up my Masters at CSUN. I had been married for a few years. I hadn’t directed a children’s play since 1996. My friend Josh and I were kind of sad that we were entering the grown-up world of paying bills and holding down a career.

Then, Josh and I went to a week long computer training seminar. During the day we learned about Macromedia Flash (the program I use to make my web pages — for better or worse). Since we had a lot of free time in the evening, we started to brainstorm about another musical. We started to discuss Shakespeare’s work, and pretty soon, I started cranking out songs for Midsummer. And, we came up with a really funny aspect of the play –

Puck is the one who decides that she’s sick of speaking in iambic pentameter. So she uses her magic to make the characters speak in a modern day manner, with some songs to boot. Then, about 30 minutes into the play, the ghost of William Shakespeare rushes the stage and announces that he has been spinning in his grave ever. Shakespeare and Puck become this hysterical pair. The show transcends typical adaptations and the music, in my not-so-humble opinion, is awesome.

Our musical director was Rachel Greenlee, and she did something very brave. She listened to me singing (if you want to call it that) into a tape recorder, and during the course of three weeks, we created one song after another. I think we added a new song in the final two weeks of rehearsal.

And “Midsummer’ became my first, and so far only published musical. It has been performed all over the country, at various middle schools, high schools and community theater. (And I hope people continue to perform it.)

Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be so proud of the show. After all, it wouldn’t be nearly as good if it wasn’t for Shakespeare. Thanks Will!

Check out the photos at Winding River Players Website.

Learn more about Wade’s Plays

I had published a couple cool plays with Eldridge Press — “Aesop’s Hop” and “Jt and the Pirates.”
I sent an email to the editor — I think it was Chris Angermann at the time. Anyway, I asked him if there was anything in particular they were looking for. Chris said that they had some Greek Mythology stuff, but they didn’t have anything about Norse Mythology

Well, I love all sorts of Mythos — and while I prefer the Greek legends, I was in love with this book by Edgar d’Aulaires. “The d’Aulaires Book of Morse Myths” contained wildly imaginative illustrations and engrossing tales of mythic Scandinavia.

So, right away, I began to create “Vahalla.” It was a comic merging of many of my favorite Norse myths. It had Baldur and Loki and Giants and monsters… and a few of my own characters, such as a talking horse named Gunther. And now here’s where it gets weird — if it wasn;t weird enough already. The story is entirely patterned off of my favorite Christmas movie: “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

I thought it was brilliant. Eldridge liked it too, so they published it. And for some reason it has only been performed once. So, to the drama club who is ahead of their time, I tip my Viking helmet off to Woodland Park Middle School, in Woodland Park Colorado.

Uff Da!

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

Arg!

I loved working on this show. Back in the summer of 1995, if memory serves, my friend and fellow Children’s Theater Director undertook a truly crazy project.

We had already directed a few children’s theater productions. We started with “The Princess and the Magic Pea.” This was a typically dull children’s play — and the show was co-directed by another buddy of ours, Tim. He knew that the script was lacking, to say the least, so he asked me to add a couple jokes here and there. (And I believe we tossed in some songs from “Once Upon a Mattress.”) Anyway, we pulled the show together, and had a fun time in the process.

Or actually, if I remember more correctly, we were miserable during the process, but had such a good time after the show opened, we conveniently forgot about all the hard stuff. Anyway, long story longer, Josh and I directed subsequent children’s shows, but this time, we wrote our own stuff. The first was “Aladdin and Company,” followed by “Sleeping Beauty and the Beast.” The shows were successful enough that we wanted to become co-producers. Instead of being paid a stipend, we wanted to risk our fee for whatever profit we made.

And that’s when Josh and I came up with the idea to create a Pirate Musical. And oh, it was gloriously ambitious. It was called, “A Pirate’s Story.” And we had lots of great kids. Lots of funny characters… and about four too many songs (a couple slow ones really should have been cut — but that;s show-biz). “A Pirate’s Story” wasn’t perfect — it needed some trimming here and there, but we didn’t have the heart to cut the kids’ parts since they had worked so hard. But flaws and all, it was our most financially profitable show.

Eventually, when I my work began to be published by Eldridge Plays, I revised “A Pirate’s Story.” I took away the songs, making it a non-musical. (A single tear rolls down his cheek.) Actually, I did more than take away the songs — I rewrote almost every line of dialogue and trimmed lots of scenes, and took away characters, and added other scenes. This was actually a breakthrough for me, because before this manuscript, I HATED revising and would avoid it as much as possible.

I made a script called, “Jenny and the Pirates.” The folks at Eldridge loved it, but liked the idea of creating a more masculine title. And so, it became “JT and the Pirates.” Of all the shows I’ve written, it’s probably one of the most original. It’s not a spoof of anything. It’s not an adaptation. It’s quite unique, if I say so myself. Oh, and I forgot to mention, even though I took out the songs, I kept a River Dance!

By the way, these photos are from a 2003 production of Miss Kennedy’s Moon Area High School Class. I didn’t see the show, but I’m grateful she posted the images on her school web page, because the show looks pretty awesome.

Learn more about Wade’s Plays

You could play the guitar as awesome as this guy?

He’s got over 22 million hits on YouTube and he deserves everyone of them. Two years ago — after deciding that I was decent at Guitar Hero, I bought an electric guitar. I’m not very good with it yet — I can pick out songs and play about twelve different chords.

My daughter has picked up the acoustic guitar. We decided to have a little jam session the other day, but things didn’t go so well. I wrote about the experience on my HomeSchool Blog.

Last February the Hilton High School Drama Club presented one of my plays, Sahara Nights.
Here’s a publicity photo from the school:

This was a fun play to create. The first version of it was written in the early 90s… I’m thinking 1993 or 1994. My buddy Josh and I had been directing children’s plays for the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera. It was originally called “Aladdin and Company” — it had some great music composed by Katie Luekens and myself. But a few of the songs were spoofs. We had a little number called “Hey Dude!” instead of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

When I began selling my plays to Eldridge, I revised “Aladdin and Company” and removed the songs. (Unfortunately, they weren’t looking for musicals at the time). The result is a fast paced show ideal for middle grade students. there are lots of parts and a lot of laughs.

Sahara Nights features a story about a bored sultan thinking Sahara Scheherazade is auditioning for ‘royal entertainer’ but she’s really trying to get Aladdin out of the dungeon. A quick-thinker, Scheherazade creates captivating stories to gain time ~ “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” becomes “Ali Baba and the Forty-Niners;” “The Adventures of Sinbad” becomes a Star-Trek-inspired spoof with Captain Kork and Mr. Spork; and “The Emperor’s New Clothes” deals with the King Himself, Elvis and his advisors, the Beatles. Soon everyone in the kingdom is enthralled with her tales, but will they be enough to save Aladdin and the other prisoners?? Sahara Nights by Wade Bradford is produced by special arrangement with Eldridge Publishing Co.

Recently I noticed that a drama teacher had posted some YouTube video of Sahara Nights. I’m assuming this is a rehearsal, since there aren’t very many people in the audience.

After Josh and I directed our smash success (by children’s theater standards), a few changes happened in my life.

The biggest change: I got married.

The other big change: I moved from Orange County to Los Angeles.

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t be directing another show for the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera. But, during the year, I kept coming up with some new song idea. And I kept thinking about the various flaws during the last show. I wanted to create something that was really tight, structurally. And really fun.

And for some reason, I kept thinking of Aesop’s Fables — little stories I had heard throughout my childhood, tales with a clear moral at the end. And, as I thought about the fables of Aesop, I also recalled a story about a dog, a cat, a rooster, and a donkey — “The Musicians of Bremen.” So, I combined all of the material and created “Aesop’s Hop.”

I felt truly proud of the show. About three or four times a week I drove out from LA to Yorba Linda. But you know what, I didn’t mind. The rehearsal process was the smoothest experience I’ve ever had as a director. The kids were terrific, as usual — but there was something really harmonious about the songs, something that we didn’t quite have in previous shows. Katie Luekens again did the music, and I think it was her finest work of all our children’s shows.

So we did the show, a couple years passed, and for some reason — I can’t quite remember how or why now — I submitted it to a publishing company: Eldridge Plays.

I had sent them plays before and they had kindly said, Thanks but no thanks. They also said to keep trying. Well, they loved “Aesop’s Hop.” They weren’t looking for a youth musical — but they thought the script was great. So it was published as a non-musical. In fact, this was the very first play to be published. I was absolutely thrilled. (I did have irrational visions of it going to Broadway — ah youthful expectations.)

Strangely, even though it was the first of my plays to be published, it was one of the last of my directorial projects. Still, I look back on the show and the writing experience with utmost fondness. It opened a door into the world of publishing — and I’m forever grateful to Eldridge Plays for taking on the project!