Morningstar
1992 · Triopia High School, Concord, Illinois
MorningStar was an original full-length science-fiction musical that Ken Bradbury wrote and directed as a Triopia High School all-school production in 1992. For the run, the Triopia stage became the deck of the starship MorningStar — Jason Hess took the helm as the ship's lead, Scott Stanberry played the first mate "from Indiana," and Chris Williams played a mechanical man on roller blades who saves the world. A romance ran through the show between Jason and Samantha. It belongs to the same sequence of Ken's original Triopia musicals as Roll On Ohio (1990), Christopher (1991), The Prodigal, and Holy Moses, and is listed among his hard-bound original full-length musicals in both the Frank Gaudy archive catalog and Ken's own resume.
Cast
- Jason Hess — taking the helm (lead of the starship MorningStar)
- Scott Stanberry — the first mate, "from Indiana"
- Chris Williams — a mechanical man on roller blades who saves the world; "brought down the final curtain in MorningStar"
- Samantha Jockisch — Jason's romantic counterpart
Production Notes
A recurring bit of stage business: Samantha and Jason kissed seven times each night and, per Ken's theatre history, "both suffered from chapped lips." Chris Williams "brought down the final curtain in MorningStar." Scott Stanberry's acting credits in a later program list MorningStar alongside Christopher and Holy Moses.
Only four performers are named in the surviving sources, and their roles are described rather than recorded as formal character names — the show's character names are not preserved in any source. No song list has been recovered.