The Christmas Angel

 

Premiering on December 9th, 2021 at Creative Cauldron, The Christmas Angel was our 9th full length musical written together. Based on a 1910 story by Abbie Farwell Brown, The Christmas Angel tells of one Angelina Terry, who has hardened her heart against both Christmas, and her own Brother. After she discovers a box of toys in her attic that were once given to her by her estranged Brother, she decides to burn them to end the ties between her and her  brother once and for all. She has no idea that what she intends to happen that evening will be the last thing she ever imagined would.

Laura Connors Hull found this story and suggested that we take a look at it to consider for a stage adaptation. We could not believe this has never been adapted into a cartoon, storybook, movie, or anything further. As far as we can tell, we are the first ones to have done so with this little known gem.

Reviews:

DC Theatre Arts - (2021) - "Poignant musical ‘The Christmas Angel’ premieres at Creative Cauldron - From Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith, a beautiful family experience with a powerful message of love, acceptance, and forgiveness."

Maryland Theatre Guide - “The Christmas Angel,” by the stalwart creative team of Matt Connor and Stephen Gregory Smith - It’s a charming, gentle parable about what really matters, not just at the holidays, but always."

DC Theatre Arts - (2022) - "If you’re looking for a show that’ll give you a little more hope and belief in humanity, let this original musical light up your life."

The Christmas Angel features a cast of 3-4 Adults, 4-5 principal children, and an ensemble that can be made up of any mixture of children and adults. The show is extremely malleable to transform into whatever your casting situation is. It is a one act musical. Perusal materials available upon request.

Please contact Conner.Smith.Musicals@gmail.com for inquiries. 

Don Beyer Alzheimer's Summit with C & S

Former Delegate Karen Darner reached out to Conner & Smith this past week after seeing Kaleidoscope at Creative Cauldron in 2016.  Karen is involved with Alzheimer's advocacy and ALZ.org and invited us to a small meeting with VA State Representative Don Beyer on Friday, January 24.

We discussed the show, Kaleidoscope, which presents music therapy as an asset to one who is losing the capability to remember their life's journey.

After hearing the touching stories of the group about bills for Early on-set,  Representative Beyer agreed to move these motions forward.

Also discussed were the possibilities to hold a regional forum/conference on ALZ that would have Kaleidoscope as an anchor of that conference. We hope that this remains a possibility moving forward, and hope that Kaleidoscope's footprint helps to keep advocacy and education about the disease moving forward in the future.

#ENDALZ
#KALEIDOSCOPE
#CONNERANDSMITH

Matt Conner's 50th Birthday Celebration at Signature Theatre!

Matt celebrated his 50th in style at the Signature Theatre with a concert of his works put together by Stephen. Stephen gathered together a bunch of friends and former castmates on Monday, January 13 in the Signature Theatre's lobby. Robert Aubrey Davis hosted the festivities, which saw performances from Stephanie Waters, Erin Granfield, Karissa Swanigan Upchurch, Kevin McAllister, Dan Manning, Donna Migliaccio, Kara Tameika Watkins, Rachel Zampelli-Jackson, Bayla Whitten Feuerstein, Taylor Witt, Jenny Cartney, Chris Mueller, David Landstrom, Natascia Diaz, and Carolyn Wolfson, and more.

The program focused on the dozen of shows that Matt has written - some with Stephen, some with other partners. It was a gorgeous retrospective of his work and an evening of love from performers and audience members alike.

I know that Matt was moved by this gathering of friends artistic and beyond, and I thank all that made it possible. Here's to the next 50!

ON AIR

Updated 11/23/21

It was time for the final Bold New Work at Creative Cauldron. The five year journey was coming to an end, and how in the world could we wrap this endeavor up with a nice bow? We had done an adaptation (Turn of the Screw), Historical Fiction (Monsters), a total original (Kaleidoscope), Contemporary Historical Fiction (WITCH), so what haven’t we done? What haven’t we done that we could possibly do within a year?

I have always been fascinated with the radio, and the power of it. I love it’s meteoric rise to fame, and just as sudden decline as the Television took its place. I love the old radio serials, comedies and dramas alike. I was particularly enamored of the 1938 War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast. I also have a book called We Interrupt This Broadcast that came with an audio CD of recordings to go along with the different chapters. We talked about the possibility of a show that’s constant was the radio, and that’s it - we would change characters, time periods, and locations. That was an intriguing idea. In the end, we didn’t think it could sustain an entire evening, as the only constant the audience could identify with would be a piece of machinery. 

Still, I didn’t want to give the radio up. I had printed a whole booklet full of radio stories that I had found, and we took the book to dinner one night. We found the story of Frank and Flora Conrad, who discovered "Mass Broadcasting" (a term they invented) in their unassuming garage in Wilkinsburg, PA in the early teens of the century.

That was it. We were instantly attracted to their story.  A couple of innovators who carved their own path and their work gave way to modern media.

Their path was not easy, as a couple, or as innovators. But their persistence gained them the first radio station that played music, and commercials.

Their fostering of radio led to the first big radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA - and the first broadcast was the 1920 Presidential Election. 100 years later, we are here to celebrate them.

This couple delivered the first station of media and were the developers of mass media.

As we celebrate them in 2020, let us remember that their dreams in 1920 are unparalleled in our current climate. Thanks to Frank and Flora for everything that we have now.

WITCH

So, I'll be honest. When I set out to write WITCH, I thought we would have a female president in the office,  I voted for her, and I didn't foresee anyone but her taking the office of the Presidency. I figured that there would be some blowback to her, so I wanted to write a piece that featured other mythical women (Baba Yaga, The Black Forest Witch, Elphaba, etc.) to round a bill of fictitious "witches" in a parable to tell a greater story of "Women in Power".

Then Donald Trump won. And with that, EVERYTHING went out the window. I conducted interviews with over 35 women who told me what it was like to be a woman in these current political circumstances. And the play changed.

Soon enough, the #METOO movement started, and the play changed again.

I found that I was writing a current history as herstory was evolving. I found solace in the WITCH theatrical protest movement. I found solace in the women whose stories we tell. I found solace in their likenesses to their modern counterparts who portrayed them.

What we ended up with was a gorgeous mix of intersectional and intergenerational female protest theatre. Is it for everyone? NO. But is it for this era? YES!
As the 8 women of varying ages march out of the space singing "Nevertheless She Persisted", many audience members wanted to join their ranks.

WITCH is a compelling show that highlights the struggle of women as they navigate their way in a man's world. We are in talks with the Salem Witch Museum. I only hope that these women's stories live beyond our first production of this incredibly specific show.

Kaleidoscope

Our third Bold New Work at Creative Cauldron took an intimate turn in Kaleidoscope. Legendary Actress Florence Lacey played our fictional actress, Evelyn Thorne, who was launching a "Come Back" tour while suffering Alzheimer's Disease. She reflected her 40-year career to varying degrees of success as the tour went on. We were so lucky to have the talent of Florence Lacey in the lead role of Evelyn Thorne, and she killed the role with aplomb.

We were happy to welcome back Susan Derry in the role of DIRECTOR.

Catherine Purcell also joined us in the role of STAGE MANAGER...

Sophia Manicone joined us as the youngest family member...

All four women played four seasons of life, and we were very pleased to take inspiration for writing this show from the star, Florence Lacey. This show was her idea, and we carried it for over a decade to fruition in this production. 

We are taking it further in 2020, and looking for other venues that specialize in Music Therapy to house it.

Monsters of the Villa Diodati

Our second installment of the Bold New Works took us to Lake Geneva, 1816. Monsters of the Villa Diodati concerned a certain summer where the literary giants of 1816 spent a summer together, and the fruits of this vacation gave us "Frankenstein" and "The Vampire". Basically, all the rules of the "living dead" that gave way to "Night of the Living Dead" and "The Walking Dead" were established in this summer. And boy, did we cover it.

This research project covered the best poetry of the finest poets ever living. It also covered the female pioneer of Science Fiction. These characters were some of the smartest humans to ever live on this earth.  No pressure writing dialogue for them, right?

This show took a long time to write.  Between research and language training to learn how people spoke in 1816, this one took a little longer to cook.  I read all of their works and all of the books available that analyzed the content. Above is a word cloud that represents our play, and the most often used words within it.

Matt soon found a musical way into the story, Playing classical styles of the time versus rock and roll styles of the modern era. While they were innovators 200 years ago, their influence is still felt in modern times.  The music needed to reflect that fact.

After Sean Thompson became unavailable due to Broadway calling, Sam Ludwig became our Lord Byron. They both were wonderful in their different ways, but I was so happy to see Sam FLOURISH in this role, and earn a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for it as well. He was the perfect host to this decadent summer.

David Landstrom was an enigmatic find as Dr. Polidori. His "Directions for John" remains one of our favorite songs that we have ever written. As the tortured and sexually repressed Doctor, he broke your heart every single night as Byron and Mary trampled all over him.

Catherine Purcell and Alan Naylor as Claire Clairmont and Percy Shelley were both incredibly in tune with their character's arc. Their tricky story details involving secret affairs while her sister, Mary was wed with Percy offer juicy plot points in the second act.

MONSTERS tells many stories and ends up with two of the most famous tales in literature, but the ideas for these came from the lives of the artists present at the Villa Diodati 200 years ago. Before Netflix, we used to get together and talk.

Susan Derry was the epitome of perfection AGAIN in this role. She simply BECAME Mary Shelley.
She is always considered our MUSE, even though she has moved north.  We miss her dearly with every project we continue without her.


As we work through the "Summer of Darkness", we learn that Mary Shelley has been writing the forward of her revised version of Frankenstein after all of them are dead. In the Epilogue, we learn that even after death, her MONSTER keeps moving forward through time, and her monster still harbors all of the pain and anger that she always carried. Her monster is still alive to this day.

We are more than grateful to Mary Shelley's creation, and celebrate her in our work, Monsters of the Villa Diodati.

Conner & Smith Travel North for On Air Listening Party at KDKA, Pittsburgh!

Through a fantastic partnership with La Ti Do's Don Mike Medoza, we were able to put together a CD Release and Listening Party for our brand new "On Air" album at KDKA Radio Studios in Pittsburgh, PA last month! We packed the pugs in the car and headed north on October 29th and arrived in the afternoon with plenty of time for a pit stop in Wilkinsburg to see the spot where Frank and Flora Conrad lived one hundred years ago...

Now a Wendy's, this is the spot where their house and garage once stood. It felt sort of unceremonious to find a fast-food chain standing where the radio pioneer once broadcasted music on air, but that's what 100 years can do.

About a block up you will find the historical marker that marks (not quite) the spot.  I still felt pride and excitement staring at this historical marker. Proof that someone still might glance up and see his name, and learn what he did one hundred years ago.

We then drove to KDKA Studios with pugs in tow.  They stole the hearts of EVERYONE that they met, needless to say. A DJ even mentioned them on the radio as we were leaving the station. But let's go back to the actual party...

We were joined on the trip by cast member and Radio Personality, Robert Aubrey Davis, who partook in the post-party discussion. The audience was warm and receptive and dedicated to bringing On Air to Pittsburgh in 2020 as part of the KDKA 100th Anniversary Celebration.

We were so happy to have Robert with us, as his knowledge of radio history is unparalleled, and he has also been a dear friend and champion of our work for years and years.

As you can see, the pugs were sleeping soundly on our laps and very well behaved through the event. Of that, I was amazed.

Many special thanks to Don Mike Mendoza, KDKA Radio, Robert Aubrey Davis, and everyone who joined us at the studio.  We hopped back in our car the next morning and were off to Virginia again to get ready for the Creative Cauldron On Air CD Release Party on Halloween! Goodbye for now, Pittsburgh! We will be back soon!

The Turn of the Screw

Our first installment of the Bold New Works for Intimate Stages Initiative at Creative Cauldron was our 2015 adaptation of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw". I had vaguely been familiar with the Henry James novel (I read it back in high school) but it never quite had stuck with me. Creative Cauldron Artistic Director Laura Connors Hull had suggested the classic to me as an idea for our first show under the commission. I was not totally sold about the idea, as it really didn't speak to me upon the first suggestion, but I decided to mull it over.

I tried to read the book again and got easily bored. I watched a BBC film version and was similarly bored.  Psychological tension with sprawling estates and period costumes just didn't seem to be a fit for the Cauldron's intimate 90 seat black box. Laura advised that I watch the black and white adaptation of the story re-named "The Innocents" starring Deborah Kerr. That turned out to be the window into my brain that was needed. The absence of lush color allowed me to focus in on the story more.  To really boil it down to what the major events were.  I started to write an outline.

Being a Downton Abbey fan, I started to see the show through that lens, with the wonderful dichotomy of the Victorian era falling away amidst the uprising of modern technology. As the story concerns a teenage boy (Miles) seemingly blossoming into adulthood and discovering sexuality, the metaphor of leaving the past behind for new and fancier objects. Whether those objects be a camera given as a birthday gift, the new music that a valet (Quint) brings into the house via a new contraption called a "Victrola", or the new Governess, Miss Giddens. All are his new playthings.

Mrs. Grose is the cipher of the piece.  She knew what happened in the past, and is slow in disclosing the truth to the new Governess. She clings to the past and is the representation of everything that happened in Bly House before Miss Giddens got there. She is the old part of the house resenting the new that came in and changed everything. She holds all the knowledge and secrets of the past and is slow to disclose these to the new governess. The past hurts her too much.

Then there is Quint and Jessle. The Valet and Governess of Bly House of the past are still very present as Miss Giddens signs on. She sees them as current staff, although they are both long dead. Mrs. Grose doesn't know how to take these reports by Miss Giddens. Throughout the course of the show, we see the history of Quint and Jessle, and how their presence and impression on this house has never left.

The Children. Miles and Flora run the house, and Mrs. Grose and Miss Giddens take their orders from them. They know their Uncle is in charge, so their choices are protected by them. A crumbling, haunted estate that children are in charge of ...this is Bly House.

So what happened that night? We never tell you that. Are there ghosts? That's up to you to decide. We wanted to keep in line with the novels' goals. This tale is really about our own comfortability with the past or our lack of ability to accept it. If you want to license this show, I promise you a very lively discussion will be had by all when it is over. That was always the exciting part of this show - how many audience members had so many different opinions on what actually happened at the end of the story. When theatre spurs such lively discussion, it has done its job. Check out more info, including reviews and licensing information HERE.

#CCScrew