Songs
To be confirmed- already written
Song 2
Cut a Girl Loose to be written
Pop music with humour.
Purpose: Jamie and Frank have just met this song shows Jamie’s eccentricity. Frank is planning to sublet the small one bedroom apartment and asks what comes with the place. Jamie responds sarcastically: “A mouse named Mindy comes with the place. She wanted to move out with me, the rat, but sometimes you just gotta cut a girl loose.”
Song about Mindy’s family tree as a mouse, what they’ve done together as friends in the apartment, her old relatives who died in various funny ways.
Song should be fun, a little campy.
Potential inspiration:
Lily Allen-Alfie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RgOm_WJKpE
Song 3
No title yet - to be written
Folk music/Pop/Rap - Really anything
Purpose: The three roomates decide to move in together. The song doesn’t need to further the plot, it just needs to set the mood and assert their comfort with one another. Should comment on the action rather than re-explain the action. Just a good song.
Song 4
No title yet - to be written
Trashy 80s Hair Metal
Purpose: The three roommates are sunning themselves on the roof when conversation turns to the fear. Does fear make you stonger/weaker?
In the style of “Rock the Cradle of Love” Frank reveals his vanity with a metal song basically saying : “I don’t fear anything, people should fear me.”
Potential inspiration:
Billy Idol- Rock the Cradle of Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1xUvcGMWBk
Song 5
I Want it All- Adrian is currently working on this
Pop rock
Purpose: Laurie and Frank have discovered Jamie’s hoard of stuff in the closet and they demand he get rid of it. Jamie talks about how important each piece of kitsch he’s collected is to him. Jamie urges them out of the apartment and claims he’ll work on the mess.
<Note: song 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 will eventually lead into one another in the style of most rock musicals.>
Song 6
Suck the Life Out of You- to be written
Punk/Pop
Purpose: Frank confronts Jamie over whether he intends to leave the apartment at all and reveals the feelings he has. Other than the obvious gayness of the title, it’s also meant to forshadow the room which literally will “suck the life out of you.” Song should verge between kissing or killing. Blood, wrestling, yelling.
Potential inspiration:
CSS- Alala http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cnOvMFnRvs
Peaches and Iggy - Kick it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4-n1ISQyqU&feature=fvst
Song 7
Untitled Laurie piece- to be written
Focus on the vocals
Purpose: Pipes rumble and Laurie emerges from the bathroom where she’s been sleeping in the bathtub since Jamie refuses to allow anyone to stay in the empty room. Laurie is scared, uncertain of the weird sounds, uncertain of how lucky she has been to find this apartment and these friends.
Song ends with the sound of pipes getting louder, the closet door vibrating and the band becoming possessed asking for souls and Jamie and Frank emerging from the bedroom.
Song 8
I Never Meant for it to Be this Way- to be written
Unknown style
Purpose: Jamie explains he was trying to save them and runs to the door struggling to keep it (and the portal to hell) closed. Portraits come alive, wails from the band, a portal is opening and Jamie is supposed to feed them to the closet like he’s done many times before but this time he cares about them and doesn’t want to.
Song 9
Burn burn burn - to be written
Rock
Purpose: Laurie takes control, her voice rises above everyone else and calls for the whole place to “burn, burn, burn” so they can all escape alive. A struggle, the portal opens, there’s fire and the song ends in blackout.
Song 10
To be confirmed - Reprise.
Plot description:
Jamie places an ad in the paper to sublet his Gottingen street apartment. Laurie and Frank show up separately eager to rent the place even before Jamie had planned to leave. Rather than be displaced Jamie invites both of them to live with him until he is ready to move out at the end of the month. They reluctantly accept the offer from the bizarre character who reveals little about himself or the new home they’ve moved into other than a bizarre humming noise and a wall of portraits.
Laurie and Frank are suspicious of Jamie, but his flamboyant personality puts them both at ease. The three roommates grow closer to one another despite Jamie revealing nothing of his past and the lack of signs that there are any other tenants living in the apartment building despite Jamie’s claims. When Frank and Laurie discover a bedroom filled with hoards of stuff, they demand it be cleared for them and Jamie goes on the defensive.
Frank privately confronts Jamie revealing his attachment to the family they’ve created as roommates, ending the confrontation in the bedroom. The humming which has plagued the apartment since the play’s start grows loud and turn to calls for the souls of Frank and Laurie. The portraits come alive as former tenants and Jamie is outed as the gatekeeper to an underworld hungry for life. With the closet door pulling the roomates in Jamie shows he has mended his ways by trying to save his new friends. Taking decisive action to offer a permanent solution Laurie decides to burn the place down and seal the gates once and for all.
Character descriptions:
Jamie Man of indeterminable age who has lived in his apartment for an undetermined amount of time. He is the “Sissydude” in the show’s title. Sarcastic and aloof he’s a campy character who’s obsessed with death, collecting things, and wearing extravagant outfits. Based on the gay blogger John Webster who runs the sexually charged website sissydude.com.
Laurie Small town lesbian who still has some small town ideals Laurie enjoys her friendships with gay men. Fascinated by the idea of luck, and who is or isn’t lucky she allows herself to believe in things like fate even though she it otherwise a rational person. Laurie and Jamie understand one another in their insults and sarcasm, and she cares for Frank like an older sister.
Frank Raised on a mink farm and sent to private school, his isolation has given him a narrow view on human personalities and relationships. He is vain but only recently aware of his attractiveness. He’s drawn to the assertive personalities of Laurie and Jamie, but frustrated by their distrust in the world.
After doing Rocky Horror Sam and I were scheming to come up with our next project. We contacted Ian Mullan who I knew put on a production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” with a few questions.
This lead to a whole new world of prospect when he brought to our attention that he was planning on…
This guy is Adrian Bruhm. He co-hosts $Rockin 4 Dollar$ every Monday at Reflections and is helping pull together this project. Scenes 1-4 are now up if you want to take a look. We will be sending out promotional materials across Canada to shake the branches starting in 2 weeks. Things are heating up. Send me an email at ian@trrrash.com if you want to be involved.
Plays well with others.
To make this happen we have a rough script being honed and finessed. Your mission is to help us guide it into a rock show by using script text or squeezing your own mind-grapes for lyrics. A rock musical is the goal, so that means the music needs to either further the plot or say something about at least one of the characters or what’s happening on stage. Anything you compose will be posted and discussed and if we’re interested we’ll seek you out and let you know any edits or changes we need to make so it fits in the show and the band we have available to us. You can be from anywhere, or anyone to contribute. Just don’t steal someone else’s song okay? Original stuff only.
Edits and development will happen before your very eyes here at trrrash.com as well as performance announcements. Songs will get a full rock-band treatment for the show, but for now all we need is a youtube video or an mp3 where the audio is clear enough we can hear the song you’ve devised. We’ll be in online development from now until May 4th 2012, but submitting early and often will give us more time and more material to choose from to make a better show.
People who contribute music and songs used in the final product will profit share a percentage of money made by performances of the completed show. This isn’t a get-rich quick scheme, it’s a project for people who love a good rock musical. If we’re successful, you’re successful. So let us know what you think, send us songs, this will be one hell of a good time.
About trrrash.
Five productions later the shows now have a focus on site-specific or occasion-specific entertainment. Sometimes provocative, always fun; trrrash isn’t here to save the world, we just want to make it a little more interesting.
A dandy rock musical.
Sissydude is a campy rock musical inspired by the sexually charged blogging and art of John Webster which on December 4th will begin its online collaboration. The play is about the life of Jamie, a gay dandy with extravagant style. After seeking out someone to sublet his apartment Jamie ends up with two new roommates eager to take his place. The arrival of Laurie and Frank cause Jamie to question if he’s ready to leave his old home and all of the ghosts of his past that still haunt it.
We’re calling on the internet to help contribute to the show.
Stay tuned.
Launch of ‘Queer Acts Theatre Festival’ 2012.
Click here for some fabulous images of the launch by Timothy Richard Photography.
Music by Serious Business.
From the 2011 Queer Acts Comedy night.
