Getting on the Bus, Waiting for the Hearse
Ken Bradbury called this one "the show of a lifetime" — or, as he put it, several lifetimes. Getting on the Bus, Waiting for the Hearse is essentially two plays in one, a comedy that spans the full arc from birth to the grave. Both acts were built word-for-word from real interviews, and each was performed by a different cast.
Act One belongs to the young actors of Bradbury's Lincoln Land Traveling Theatre troupe, telling their own stories: being born, growing up, surviving the awkwardness of school and adolescence, dating, and the advice handed down by their parents. The script grew out of a series of weekly blog prompts Bradbury sent his students — "Finish this phrase: 'My mom/dad said that when I was born…'" — and the answers, by turns hilarious and tender, became the lines they spoke onstage. Act Two hands the stage to a team of seasoned community actors, "very veteran" performers whose average age, Bradbury joked, was somewhere in the upper seventies — "I'm really not sure. They keep lying about their age." Drawn from interviews with senior citizens in retirement homes and private homes around Jacksonville, Act Two takes a wry, affectionate look at the back end of life: funerals rated like grades of tuna, suppers served at 4:30, the indignity of being called "Honey" with your cheeseburger, and the long shadow of outliving your own pallbearers.
Bradbury made no secret of his "ulterior motive." Beyond an enjoyable evening of theatre, he wanted his students to learn from actors who had been onstage for decades. "They can learn more from these old troupers than I could ever teach them," he wrote. The show's two generations meet in the finale, "Where I'm From," as the young cast traces who they are back to grandparents and parents — and the proceeds from the production went to the students' theatre scholarship fund.
Songs
- Growing Up ("Takin' first steps and stumblin' around…") — sung by Elisabeth and company
- Growin' Old Blues ("This thing 'bout growin' older… my hair is in the bathtub and my teeth are in a cup") — Dan's opening blues for Act II
- Two-Way Mirror / Where I'm From ("Lookin' at life through a two-way mirror…") — the finale uniting both casts
Music and melodies were composed by Elisabeth Werries and Dan McLaughlin.
Cast
Act II — Waiting for the Hearse
- Max — Jim Hepworth
- Harry — Dan McLaughlin
- Louise — Sylvia Burke
- Thelma — Marilyn Oaks
- Oscar — Jim Nevins
- Bernice — Marian Levin
Act I — The Lincoln Land Traveling Troupe
- Ally Bunfill
- Elly Crawford
- Mackenzie Musch
- Emily Burns
- Abbie Link
- Elisabeth Werries
- Brittany Davis
- Alex Stanberry
- Jamie Schnepper
- Kyler Miller
- Hannah Werries
- Brenan Pool
- Rachel Skillet
Production Notes
Written and directed by Ken Bradbury, the show was a joint project of the Lincoln Land Traveling Theatre and the Playhouse Players, performed May 15, 16, and 17 at the Playhouse on the Square in Jacksonville, Illinois. Tickets were reserved through the Playhouse's neighbors, Our Town Books and The Soap Company Coffee House.
In a note to his collaborators, Bradbury reflected that this was his 44th year of teaching, and that students learn best not by being lectured but by doing — or by watching it done by someone who knows how. By working alongside the Act II veterans, his students were shown that "a lifetime of doing community theatre can be such an enriching and lifelong experience. And the cool thing is that when they sit out there watching Act II they don't even know they're learning." The company's share of the profits was directed to a theatre scholarship fund for students who could not otherwise afford tuition.