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A Dr. Seuss Program (Seuss-Tacular)

2009 · Lincoln Land Community College

A Dr. Seuss Program — which Ken and his students called the "Seuss-Tacular" — was one of the semester projects of Ken Bradbury's Lincoln Land Community College dual-credit theatre class, run in partnership with Triopia Senior High in early 2009. Per the course syllabus, the class set out to "present a program of Dr. Seuss for the Pittsfield and Triopia Schools," a touring tribute built and performed by the students themselves alongside their other class work, including the "Family Skeletons and Other Funny Bones" community-interview production.

The program was a celebration of Dr. Seuss's books and characters, threading together favorites like the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Horton, Yertle the Turtle, Thidwick, Sam I Am, and Green Eggs and Ham into a staged piece for young audiences. Ken's journal records the class beginning "our journey with Dr. Seuss with various ones in the group reading the storybooks," casting Brennan as Gerald McBoing-Boing, and gathering props — including a Honda full of "Seuss-stools" — before launching the Seuss-Tacular in February 2009.

Scenes

The full body of the program was not recovered, but its closing number survives: a rhyming group rap titled "Seussbutt", in which the whole cast trades lines tallying up Seuss's characters and ends by inviting the children to read, make noise, and wish "Dear Doctor Seuss" a happy birthday.

Cast

Performers named in the surviving closing script and journal:

Production Notes

Spring 2009 semester. Created by the Lincoln Land Community College / Triopia Senior High dual-credit theatre class under Ken Bradbury — a seminar in play research, writing, and production with an emphasis on improvisation. The Seuss-Tacular was developed and rehearsed at Triopia and presented for the Pittsfield and Triopia schools as one of the class's touring programs for elementary audiences.