← The Works

More than Words

2006

"More than Words" survives only as a handful of journal pages and idea notes — the earliest stirrings of a play that Ken Bradbury never finished. The seed was planted on Saturday, April 23, 2005, with one more night of Wonderful World still to go. "This is a little crazy," he wrote. "I'm thinking of retiring after the '05 school year and today... I get this idea — or part of an idea — for a play. Okay Lord... This is not my idea, but...."

The story he imagined centered on a baggy-pants mime, a character he called Nick Stephens, drawn in the spirit of Cirque du Soleil: pants too short, white socks showing, brownish ragged clothing, a tattered vest, and an upside-down gumdrop of a European clown hat — like the Auguste hat, only brown. The piece would lean on offstage sound effects — gunshots, music — and on the mime playing directly with the audience, even pulling spectators onstage to act out scenes under his direction. "Mime is the spirit of God," Ken noted, recalling how "music alone with movement, lights and dance sold so much of Wonderful World." A recurring image flickers through the notes: a little girl, a flower, something that starts young.

The work was never realized. What remains is a glimpse of Ken's imagination at the moment of an idea — a play meant to speak, as its working title promised, with more than words.

Production Notes

• Written by Ken Bradbury.
• Conceived April 23, 2005, during the closing weekend of Wonderful World, as Ken was contemplating retirement after the 2005 school year.
• The surviving materials are limited to a journal entry and a page of ideas; the play appears to have remained in an early conceptual stage and was never produced.