Ideas
An idea… a struggling young songwriter, wanting to be a serious composer but instead forced to support himself by writing stupid commercials for toilet paper and kids’ cereal, plus being the on staff composer for a kids show. The other characters in his life: his girlfriend who’s got a great job as a fashion designer, makes big bucks, and intimidates him because of her success. His whining mother always trying to encourage him by reminding how good he was in his grade school Christmas shows. . . You never played the donkey. You were always Joseph. “Mama, that’s because I was tall.” “They have tall donkeys. . . “ His landlady who’s always on his case about being behind in his rent. The producer of the kiddie show who has thousands of dumb ideas that he really hates. His sister, the one person who truly sympathizes with him. His high school buddy who keeps urging him to give up this music crap and do something serious like baseball. The GIMMICK: Erin plays all the characters but the composer.
2nd act: it switches…Erin’s character remains the same and John’s changes.
From John: Just an idea... My character is going through the struggle of trying to become a composer. I have all these interactions with characters in my life throughout Act 1. Perhaps, the last character I interact with in Act 1 is my sister, the only one who sympathizes with me, believes in me. Act 2, Erin is solely my sister. We realize that she is going through some sort of struggle, too. She has all these interactions with characters throughout Act 2. Perhaps the last character she interacts with is her brother, the only one who sympathizes with her, believes in her. It could be that we don't find out if they overcome their individual struggles. Maybe the point is that they have each other which is enough to get them through and has always been enough to get them through as they grew up. I don't know if that's a strong enough plot to make a show, or an interesting enough plot for that matter, but just something I was thinking about.
More ideas. . How about one character who appears in both acts? In the first act played by Erin and the second by John? Got any ideas?
He also writes jingles for a funeral home. . tailor made for the deceased, a great selling point. . gets his mixed up, sent to the wrong place…. Instead of a funeral song he sent them a TV jingle for rat control.