The Grandpa Show
2014 · Lincoln Land Community College
The Grandpa Show was a spring, second-semester production of Ken Bradbury's Lincoln Land Community College theatre class — a companion piece to the Grandma show the same group had taken to Knollwood the previous year. As Ken put it to his cast, "Last year's Knollwood play was about Grandma's…so…guess what? It's Grandpa's turn next semester." All of the material came from the students' own memories: he asked them to gather "funny things, sentimental things, strange things he's done, brave things, weird things, touching things" about their grandfathers, pumping their parents for help, so that the show would be built entirely from true family stories.
The result was a warm, traveling readers'-theatre piece that alternated an up-tempo song with chanted verses and a montage of grandpa sayings and one-liners. The recurring refrain — "We call him Grandpa! We call him Gramps! / When we think of someone better, well we can't! / No matter where we go in life, no matter what we do… / Hey, Grandpa! We love you!" — anchored the show, returning between blocks of quotes and rhymed couplets celebrating every kind of grandfather: tall or short, bald or bearded, "most still living and some of our memories go back to when they were still with us." The students framed it as "true stories of the ladies who married Grandma," closing with the line "There's no one better… Hey, Grandpa! We love you!"
Structure
The script opens with an up-tempo song that pauses at various points for spoken lines. Chanted opening verses sketch the universal grandpa ("He stands well maybe six foot two or maybe five foot ten…"), and the cast's "We call him Grandpa!" refrain recurs throughout. Between verses, the ensemble delivers a montage of grandpa quotes and quips over a musical vamp, including:
- "When a child is born, so is a grandpa."
- "The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap."
- "The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandpa."
- "A grandpa is someone you can look up to, no matter how tall you grow."
- "Please excuse this mess. My grandchildren are making memories." (a sign in Grandpa's garage)
- "A grandpa is someone who'll watch Scooby-Doo even though a basketball game is on the other channel."
Rhymed couplets between the quote sets celebrate the grandpa who always has candy, who never scolds, who "always takes the blame," and who "makes some funny noises when he's getting out of bed."
Cast
The second-semester class roster:
- Maddy Albers
- Jordan Brenize
- Alana Bunfill
- Ally Bunfill
- Emily Burns
- Elly Crawford
- Brittany Davis
- Katondra Haley
- Sydney Meyer
- MacKenzie Miller
- Cydney Musch
- Mackenzie Musch
- Kendi Sayre
- Alex Stanberry
- Elisabeth Werries (singing)
Brittany ("Brit") played banjo, and the ensemble used tambourines, kazoos, swirly sticks, and the cup song.
Production Notes
This was one of two shows the class staged in the spring semester (the other a piece about Jacksonville's Town Brook). The Grandpa play toured to area audiences: an abridged version at Beardstown Hospice (curtain 6:30), and performances at Knollwood, the Arenzville ladies, and the Salem Lutheran Ladies. As with the earlier Grandma show, the company devised the material from their own families' grandfather stories under Ken Bradbury's direction.