We Call Him Grandpa

2014 · Knollwood Retirement Village; Arenzville Methodist Church; Beardstown (Hospice Association)

"Growing up with Grandpa is an education in itself." That single idea became a whole show for Ken Bradbury and the cast of his Lincoln Land Community College Traveling Theatre in 2014. As Bradbury told the local press, "We spent a lot of time just sitting around telling our favorite Grandpa stories and before long we had a play." The result, We Call Him Grandpa, is a readers' theatre piece stitched together entirely from the performers' own memories — the funny ones, the tender ones, and the wonderfully exaggerated ones.

The show is a wild, affectionate ride through grandfatherhood as seen through the eyes of grandchildren. There is the grandpa who shot the neighbor's mean rooster and handed it back at the door announcing "the problem is solved," the one who turned off his tractor while it was still rolling and let it coast into the back of his truck, the one who hid a whole box of cereal under the grandkids' covers with a note reading "Thanks for the snake," and the one who replaced the filling in Oreos with toothpaste. Between the laughs run quieter truths — grandpas in Florida and grandpas only in memory, a grandfather who served in Korea, and the simple wisdom that "the best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap."

Bradbury was quick to credit his actors. "This is a pretty remarkable group of performers," he said. "They can sing, play instruments and many of them write music. And perhaps the neatest thing is the new appreciation the cast has gained regarding their grandparents." The piece is framed by an original title song and woven through with chanted verses and quotable one-liners, building toward a final toast: "So here's to our grandpas — true stories of the men who married Grandma."

Musical Numbers

We Call Him Grandpa — the recurring title song and refrain ("We call him Grandpa! We call him Gramps! ... Hey, Grandpa! We love you!"), original music by cast member Elisabeth Werries.
Love Song ("How did you woo my Grandma?") — a doo-wop styled number imagining Grandpa's courtship of Grandma.

Cast

The play was developed and performed by Ken Bradbury's LLCC Traveling Theatre, Class of 2014:

Cast — Maddy Albers
Cast — Jordan Brenize
Cast — Alana Bunfill
Cast — Ally Bunfill
Cast — Emily Burns
Cast — Elly Crawford
Cast — Brittany Davis
Cast — Katrondra Haley
Cast — Andrew Holtschlag
Cast — Sydney Meyer
Cast — Kenzi Miller
Cast — Mackenzie Musch
Cast — Cydney Musch
Cast — Kendi Sayre
Cast — Alex Stanberry
Cast and composer — Elisabeth Werries

Production Notes

We Call Him Grandpa was written and directed by Ken Bradbury and built collaboratively with the LLCC Theatre Class of 2014, who brainstormed and transcribed their own grandfather stories into a readers' theatre format. Original music was composed by cast member Elisabeth Werries.

The show was first presented for the Hospice Association in Beardstown, then traveled to the Knollwood Retirement Village (March, 6:30 p.m.) and the Arenzville Methodist Church (Saturday, April 5th, 7 p.m.). All performances were free and open to the public. Of the script's origins, Bradbury said: "My actors did a lot of brainstorming about the times they've spent with their grandfathers. We put those stories into a readers' theatre format and the result is one sweet little performance piece — a funny and heart-warming show."