Make A Change
2009 · Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC)
Make A Change was an original audience-participation children's musical Ken Bradbury wrote and directed for his Lincoln Land Community College Traveling Theatre class in 2009, with music by Wainwright. A little girl named Lilly wants to change the world. Lying awake at night, she is besieged by worries that grow ever bigger — war, pollution, money troubles — and tries grand fixes that all backfire: brokering a peace between two warring armies, replacing money with bubble gum, even telling everyone to stop breathing to end pollution. The other kids tell her she is too little to change anything and urge her to just "make believe" the problems away. Discouraged, she goes to bed sad — but a brash magic genie named Wishy appears and teaches her that change comes not from big things but from small, simple acts of kindness. Lilly's heart "begins to dance," and through tiny anonymous good deeds — a friendly note, raking a yard, picking up cans, sitting with a lonely classmate — she makes her piece of the world better, ending with the cast and audience singing "We Can Make A Change": "I can change it / YOU can change it / WE can change The World!"
Songs
In script/cue order:
- Opening (Clap) Dance — Gary and Bee lead the audience in a steady clap; the cast joins Lilly in an opening clap dance.
- Worry — "Can't sleep! Head is a-keepin' me up... My brain is a blurry! Can't rest! Mind is a messin' me up with all of these worries!"
- Bigger Worries (cue) — "But then the worries got bigger!"
- Pre-March — music in under as each group goes to the audience to recruit "marchers" and put a hat on each marcher.
- March — "Forward... March!" The group leads the little audience members around in a march.
- Prepare to Fire — "Prepare to fire!" The armies crouch to fire and fire back.
- Bubble Gum Polka — "Hooray for Bubble Gum! ... Why waste your time with nickels and dimes? Just get yourself some Bubble gum!"
- Post Bubble Gum — "It's perfect! Bubble Gum for money!"
- Make Believe (1 & 2) — "Make Believe! Just Make Believe! A little hocus-poke is all you need! ... Your problems will end if you simply pretend / And just make believe!"
- Prince's Song — "Lost and lonely Prince am I... I can't find a love... Oh why? I'm just lost... and lonely!" (with Princely Backups: "Wop! Wop!")
- Wishy (Genie) Music — as Lilly lays in her bed the cast spins around her and Wishy the Genie appears.
- Lilly's Song — Lilly's heart begins to dance as she gives imaginary kindnesses to the others.
- We Can Make A Change — "Want to make a change? Walk before you run / Take one step and the change has begun ..." Cast and audience trade the finale: "I can change it! ... WE can change The World!"
Cast
The roles below are the character/speaker names from Ken's script; actor names were not recorded with these sources.
- Lilly (lead) — the little girl who wants to change the world
- Gary
- Bee
- Stevie / Stevey
- Amadeus — opposing general
- Chuck — general
- Scott
- Alex
- Sunshine
- Lucille
- Petunia
- Jeffy — the lonely Prince
- Mater — Wishy the Magic Genie
- Shel, Wendy, Phoebe, Wall-E, Fido, Jimmy, Erin
Photos
Production Notes
- Book & lyrics, and direction: Ken Bradbury. Music: Wainwright, performed live by the "BW band."
- An original, non-licensed children's show built around audience participation: the Traveling Theatre cast recruits children from the audience as "marchers" and dancers — military caps for the March / Prepare to Fire scene, partners for the Bubble Gum Polka.
- Performed by the LLCC Traveling Theatre class. Ken's August 20, 2009 talk to New Berlin teachers notes the class drew about 20 kids from four different schools that fall.
- The complete production survives in recordings spanning August–November 2009: a live recording (Make A Change-Live, iTunes-dated 8/28/2009) and a complete cast soundtrack (Whole Show, dated November 10, 2009). The live recording is credited to artist "BW band," composer "Wainwright," album "LLCC," genre Soundtrack.
- The recording folder holds individual numbers matching the script's cues: Worry, Bigger Worries Cue, Pre-march, March, Prepare to Fire, Bubble Gum Polka, Post Bubble Gum, Make Believe 1 & 2, Prince's song, Wishy Intro, and We Can Make A Change.
- The script and folder are filed under "2010 LLCC," but the content and recordings are the 2009 production — the annual Traveling Theatre filing year lags by a year.