Just Imagine!
2007 · Triopia schools and area elementary classrooms (Lincoln Land Community College Traveling Theatre)
Just Imagine! is a thirty-minute mini-musical written by Ken Bradbury, with music by Roger Wainwright of Springfield, created as a traveling show for grade-school audiences. Its gentle message: that children should occasionally turn off their "myriad of electronic gadgetry" and simply use their imagination. The story follows Alexander, a boy so absorbed in his video games, computer, cell phone, MP3 player, and GPS that his friends feel neglected. He meets a girl named Elizabeth who has stood on top of the moon, let the stars dance over her toes, and slid down a moonbeam to the bottom of the sea — all without ever leaving her own room. By the finale, the other children coax Alex to "wake up your lazy brain," to dream, and to never be afraid of a silly thought.
The show was produced through the Lincoln Land Community College Traveling Theatre, a class in which Triopia high-school seniors earned dual high-school and college credit while learning how a show is written, rehearsed, and performed. The students themselves named the piece Just Imagine, a title suggested by Lauren Beal. The cast rehearsed weekly and, on alternating weeks, gathered Triopia's fifth- and sixth-graders to teach them improvisation and dance. Two cast members, Hannah Stephens and Wendy Love, choreographed the dances. In a charming production detail, each actor's character name was drawn from his or her own real middle name to make rehearsals easier to follow.
The troupe toured area schools in December 2007, performing at venues including Westfair School in Jacksonville, with a special performance for the Triopia pre-school and parents. The recorded music was played by professional musicians in a Springfield studio. Bradbury also prepared a packet of follow-up discussion questions and classroom activities — including improv games, "idea buckets," and writing exercises — so teachers could carry the play's theme forward after the actors had packed up.
Structure and Pieces
Built deliberately for young audiences, roughly half of the show was improvisation driven by the children watching, with interactive games woven directly into the performance:
- An opening group dance that the whole cast learned and performed
- A ballet solo danced by Brittany DeOrnellas
- A duet song performed by Lauren Beal and Hannah Stephens
- A scene in which the cast bunches together to become Alex's "grain"
- A large improv segment built around audience participation — a freeze-pose "statue" game, a sounds-with-eyes-closed game, the "yes lets" game, and an "underwear game" that delighted the grade-schoolers
- Background props built by the cast, including plastic jail-bar-style set pieces and hand-print splatter painting
Songs
- If You Looked Behind a Cloud (the ballad) — "We can do it, all you need is to close your eyes... just imagine, sliding down a moonbeam. It's easy if you dare, let your dreams take you there."
- Just Imagine! (the finale) — "Open up your mind to the possibilities, find the door, unlock the world, you hold the only key... Drop the games, pick up your dreams, that's really all you need."
Cast
- Alexander — Cody Nordsiek (the boy with no imagination)
- Elizabeth — Lauren Beal (the girl who helps Alex find his imagination; sings a duet)
- Cameron — Bruce Kellerman
- Dannielle — Brittany DeOrnellas (ballet solo)
- Renne — Kayla Gaines
- Leighanne — Wendy Love
- Randolph — Erich Nobis
- Ann — Rachel Schone
- Everly — Hannah Stephens (choreographer)
- Michael — Jacob Mattes
Production Notes
- Written by Ken Bradbury; music by Roger Wainwright (Springfield).
- Produced through the Lincoln Land Community College Traveling Theatre, sponsored by Lincoln Land Community College / WREC.
- Performers: Triopia high-school seniors earning dual high-school and college credit.
- Choreography by cast members Hannah Stephens and Wendy Love.
- The cast blocked the play across August and September 2007 and began grade-school visits in mid-September. An outside composer wrote original music for the production, including a "funky Alex song." Rachel Schone was singled out by castmates for her ad-libbed lines in a cafeteria scene.
- Tour: Area grade schools in December 2007, including Westfair School (Jacksonville), with a performance for the Triopia pre-school and parents.
- Run time: about 30 minutes, designed to travel light — needing only an electric outlet.
- Each cast member's character name was their own real-life middle name.
Much of this account is reconstructed from ten student journals (Brittany, Bruce, Cody, Erich, Hannah, Jacob, Kayla, Lauren, Rachel, and Wendy) and a journal-completion grid spanning August through December 2007. No full script survives in the source folder.
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