Kaleidoscope
2002 · Triopia Traveling Theatre — touring area elementary schools
Kaleidoscope was the Triopia Traveling Theatre's touring show for the winter of 2001–2002, a one-act musical comedy written by theatre director Ken Bradbury and performed by 25 Triopia High School drama students. Built for the road, the show packed up and traveled to a string of area elementary schools, bringing live theatre and a pointed, gentle message directly to younger audiences.
The story unfolds on a children's playground divided between two rival gangs — the Blues and the Reds — who square off over the usual questions of who is best, who rules, and why one group can't stand the other. A storytelling contest meant to settle the rivalry ends in a tie, and it falls to Ralphie, who would rather not, to break it. Overcoming his own fear, he answers not with a tale of big, brave heroes but with a story about love and kindness. Along the way the cast leans on puppets, dwarves, giraffes, and a heart chosen from a child in the audience, with the scenery itself turning from drab to brilliant as the colors finally come together.
The show's theme was tolerance, open-mindedness, and settling disagreements without violence. Writing in the months after September 11, 2001, Bradbury framed it plainly in a press release: "The need to teach non-violent solutions to problems is always an issue in schools. The incidents of September 11 have only heightened the need to teach our children that we must find ways to get along with each other. Our show this year is light-hearted but with a very serious theme. The solution to world peace is inside each of us." At each stop, tie-dyed shirts were slipped onto children pulled from the audience during the finale, and conga lines of newly mingled colors danced out through the crowd — a living picture of how much more colorful the world becomes when the colors come together.
Songs
- "I Don't Like You" — a dueling list of grievances traded between the Reds and the Blues ("Don't like the cut of your hair... when I look at you I don't like anything!")
- "Jungle Love" — a rollicking, doo-wop-backed number ("You gotta teach your heart to sing! You gotta love like anything!")
- A "Whine, whine, just wimp and whine" complaint song and a "Don't be a fraidy cat" number tied to Ralphie's arc
- A samba finale
Cast
Blues
- Marjorie — Margaret Jones
- Ralphie — Granger Snodgrass
- Franklin — Matt Meyer
- Ula — Jackie Clinton
- Bette — Lydia Andras
- Mark — Ryan Hoots
- Jerome — Matt Johnston
- Kelly — Mallory Rahe
- Jerri — Cynthia Fischer
- Scott — Aaron Surratt
- Stevie — David Meyer
- Frankie — Lincoln Hill
Reds
- Penny — Alison Wessler
- Eugene — Matt Snodgrass
- Rachel — Callie Phelps
- Patty — Jessica Deaver
- Mortimer — James Slocum
- Isaac — Andrew Hill
- Vera — Laura Mattes
- Adrian — Jenny Schone
- Jeffy — Cameron Coffman
- Jan — Jodi Schone
- Julia — Shanita Mickens
- Chuck — Josh Crews
Cast members also doubled into the show's puppet sequences, skits, and ensemble — including the "Snow Red" fairy-tale parody, the Ladies of the Far East, and a troupe of seven dwarves.
Production Notes
Written and directed by Ken Bradbury for the Triopia Traveling Theatre, Kaleidoscope was funded by a grant from Illinois Power. The tour ran from late January into early February 2002, visiting roughly a dozen and a half schools across the region:
- January 27 — Triopia pre-school and parents
- January 28 — Jacksonville North Grade, Jacksonville Jefferson, and Murrayville Grade School
- January 29 — Rushville Webster School, Beardstown Gard, and Beardstown Brick
- February 4 — Winchester Grade School, Our Saviours Grade School, and Triopia
- February 5 — Roodhouse Grade School, Franklin (Illinois) Grade School, and Jacksonville Lincoln
The surviving files document the full machinery of a touring production: a first cast meeting on November 5, 2001, rehearsal schedules, costume charts, dance evaluations, packing assignments, press releases to the Beardstown and Jacksonville papers, the Illinois Power grant proposal and thank-you letter, and Bradbury's road journal, On The Road Again! — Kaleidoscope Tour, Winter 2001–2002, which fondly notes "I Love You!" as sung by Granger and Alison "at every opportunity."