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CHAPTER 1

How the Whole Thing Got Started: The First Production of 1787 the Musical

and the Process that Led up to It

Chapter 1, Part 1 

On June 30, July 1, 2, & 3 of 2011, Lucinda Lawrence, my writing partner and co-creator, and I, Robert Picklesimer, produced an original musical, 1787 We the People, at the 1500-seat Virginia Theatre, an historical landmark in downtown Champaign, Illinois. While we were the executive producers, Jeff Goldberg, as producer, Prudence Runkel, John Stuff, Todd Salen, Leonard Rumery as Director, and Aaron Kaplan as Music Director, all of whom had worked extensively with another area producing company (The Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company), were all very important components of that initial production.

The premiere production of this musical was the fruition of more than 10 years of development on my part, and more than six years in co-creating development with Lucinda Lawrence, who was with the University of Illinois School of Music, Division of Bands.  I had performed in an earlier musical, 1776, with the aforementioned C-U Theatre Company, along with Jeff, Pru, and John Stuff at the same Virginia Theatre over the July 4th weekend in 1993. While that show, 1776, was about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, I had long wondered if the writing of the Constitution could benefit from a similar treatment.

Between 1993 and 2000, I had developed other theatre pieces, including translations/ adaptations of Antigone, Andromache, The Persians, and Hecuba, original play scripts on The Death of Christopher Columbus, and Tut, the Boy King, as well as adaptations of The Little Match Girl and Snow White, Mark Twain’s Adam and Eve, and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, long considered one of the best plays performed at the little theatre, The Creative Dramatics Workshop, in Sidney, Illinois.

But in approaching the historical subject of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the problem and question was the same as with every show: was there enough ‘drama’, enough interesting elements, to make a play/musical about the subject worthwhile? Then in 1999, I quite accidentally stumbled upon Catherine Drinker Bowen’s Miracle at Philadelphia, the Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. The book was being discarded by a local library, and was actually the First Printing from 1966, so it gives some idea of the interest the Constitutional Convention had for students and other library-goers at the time. Clearly by 1999, the book had been receiving such little circulation, and the concept of history to most students had been so limited to only what happened yesterday, that the local library felt they could discard the book. And it fell into my hands.

The thing most initially evident to me from her book was that there were some very real and interesting conflicts and personages involved in that 1787 Convention, which was not called the Constitutional Convention until well after the Constitution had been proposed and offered to the states.  It was initially sold by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton as a means to revise the Articles of Confederation, mainly addressing economic matters. But in involving George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Elbridge Gerry, George Mason, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, John Dickinson, George Read, Edmund Randolph, William Paterson, Rufus King, Charles Pinckney, and James Wilson, it was clear to me that the Convention had more than enough interesting persons to make for an entertaining play/musical.  The drama of the ratification by the various states could have made for a play itself.

I thought It was clear that I had the germ of a dynamic musical here, and by using the earlier 1776 as a relative model, vastly changed because of differing participants and issues, I would be able to begin the basic idea of a musical about the writing of the Constitution in 1787.  But not before I had read hundreds of more books on the subject and proceedings of the Convention, the most valuable being multiple biographies of all the primary players (such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Randolph, James Wilson, Elbridge Gerry, John Dickinson, Oliver Ellsworth, and Robert Morris),  James Madison’s notes on The Constitutional Convention, edited by Edward J. Larson and Michael P. Winship, Founding Fathers by M.E. Bradford,  Decision at Philadelphia,  practically a textbook on the subject,  by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier, James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski, and the above mentioned Catherine Drinker Bowen’s Miracle at Philadelphia.

But as any writer will tell you, having the history is one thing, but it is quite another matter to translate the history into a dramatic or musical product.  I had the germ of some dramatic and musical ideas, and a basic structure in mind, but now was the time to bring a musical partner aboard.  I had the idea to begin with “Books, Books” with Madison requesting books from Jefferson and Adams, and the joke of getting piles of books from Jefferson and just one from Adams, and the answering refrain of the Hamilton ”I Kind of Like Him” ballad; had “Old Patriots, Young Lions” in mind, and the so-called “Grumbletonians”; had “Who Are We?” and {with} Washington’s answer “We will have NO Kings again!” at the Act break; had a comic song in mind for Yates and Lansing to leave after Hamilton had done so; had “Old Man River” in mind for the slave’s lament after 3/5ths a Man was agreed to; and had a ratification story to tell at the end.  But most of the songs were just sketchy ideas about the tone and approach to some of the songs and no idea how to implement them.

So in February of 2005 I approached the University of Illinois  School  of Music, thinking surely they had someone, or some graduate students, who did that sort of thing.   I even suggested I needed someone to help ”orchestrate” a musical I had in mind.  Well, it was far more than an “orchestration”, although I didn’t know that at the time. The Secretary at the School of Music sent me to Lucinda Lawrence, who was the University of Illinois Bands Librarian, and who also taught that sort of thing.  Well, also unbeknownst to me, Lucinda was looking for someone, such as a graduate student, to do this sort of thing for me, but was growing more and more intrigued herself.  And, as she later told me, the clincher was when I told her I did not want this to be a political diatribe, but instead I wanted to tell as much as possible in an entertaining fashion the actual proceedings of that 1787 Convention and the broad compromises necessary between the two conflicting forces (existent even today) of the broad populists versus the narrow elitists that make our Constitution even exist.  She told me later that when she heard me say that she was sold and had to come on board herself (and thank God for that!).

There were two major attributes that Lucinda brought immediately to the table:(1) an ability to write music and to adapt it to the mood, tone, meanings of particular scenes, and also to be aware of the dynamics of songs in a musical; and (2) an

Administrative ability to organize, formalize and prepare the work for its various phases.   In the first capacity she had multiple suggestions to add to the basic idea of the musical: the play needed a bigger choral opening, it needed more feminine voices than just the brief appearances of Eliza Hamilton and Dolley Madison, it needed a break partway through the musical away from the monotony of Independence Hall and the proceedings of the Convention, it needed a bigfinale.

All of these we were able to accomplish with her help.  Shays’ Rebellion in Western Massachusetts had been the precipitating incident that forced the hand of many to attend the Convention (that, and the presence of George Washington, who was also alarmed at little revolts like Shays’ all across the country).  Those involved in Shays’ Rebellion were the very same who had fought for freedom in the Revolutionary war, but now were being taxed so highly by the States to pay the debts of the War that farmers in rural areas were losing their farms.  Luckily, in Massachusetts, Governor John Hancock stepped in to ameliorate the problem, but it still was on the mind of legislators across this fledgling country and its weak central government.  I suggested the ”Daniel Shays” refrain and the opening pitchfork dance as the big opening scene, and Lucinda rolled with it.  I then suggested a Molly Pitcher song “Water from the Well” to add another feminine voice to the play, Lucinda wrote an absolutely beautiful ballad for it, and we knew we were on our way.  Lucinda also made a determination to seek a variety of styles of music in the play to give it the variety that it needed to offset the general lack of feminine voices, but she also listened to me when I would say things like “Who are we? is too much of a downer musically”, or one song needed to be an anthem, another to stay comic, or another needed a particular sort of tune such as “Dawning of the Day”. She even tried to force me to define the style/mood of each song so that she would have an idea of what type of song to write for it.  I rewrote a middle scene so they could pause at the “Indian Queen”, away from the Convention proceedings as she suggested.  Then she devised a big finale, combining all the previous major musical themes, to come AFTER the Ratification.

But her two biggest early contributions (besides her beautiful ballads, such “I Kind of Like Him” and “They Need Me/In Philadelphia” sung by Alexander and Eliza Hamilton) were her discovery and borrowing in parody and homage of three different earlier songs.  I had suggested “Old Man River” for Washington’s slave to sing in lament, but that song was already part of a different musical.  So Lucinda suggested “Deep River” another spiritual, which helped us to embody the ideas,” I seen the River Jordan. . .But they will not let me cross. . .because I’m only three-fifths of a man,” and it was perfect.  Then I kept telling her I needed a comical tune to let the two other New York delegates leave the stage with glee after Hamilton was gone from the Convention, and she finally suggested “Eine Kleine Nacht Musik” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which she also discovered was written in 1787, the VERY SAME YEAR of our Convention. With our lines it was also a perfect fit: “He’s gone, he’s gone! He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone!. . Hamilton is up and gone away, he’s gone away to stay. . . “  Both of these songs are showstoppers every time we have performed them.  Then after I told her that various rewriting of the words of “Yankee Doodle” was used to help get the Constitution ratified in a variety of states, she was also able to use “Yankee Doodle” as another refrain for some scenes, in addition to her very original tunes for other scenes.  The musical, a true collaboration between the two of us, was beginning to take shape.  I had some musical suggestions, and she had some plot/line requirements that got us both working (and arguing—but always with a goal in mind) on problems together.

But then there was Lucinda’s Administrative side.

She had worked with other musicals with local theatre groups and schools and had written original music for the University of Illinois Department of Dance, so the first thing she did was to start formatting the play to recognizable standards, and then to start allocating time—budgeting time—for the various songs and dialogue scenes

But her largest early Administrative contribution was to have us present our project to Eduardo Diaz-Munoz, the Chair of the Division of Opera at the University School of Music.  The Division of Opera was just starting to branch out into musical theatre, and they do a workshop production every year on one of the University of Illinois’ premiere stages, and this is just the sort of thing they were looking for.  So, coupled with an advanced Opera Class, and with the leadership of Dawn Harris and Ricardo Herrera, and also coupled with an hour from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (I said at the time that at least we were in good company), in November of 2009 they produced a semi-staged production of ten of our songs from 1787 at the Coldwell Playhouse of the Krannert Center of Performing Arts at the University of Illinois as the first hour and selections from “Don Giovanni” during the second hour. I wrote some very brief transitional explanations of the songs, and once again we were off and running.  They produced ten of our centerpiece songs: “Daniel Shays”, Molly Pitcher’s “Water from the Well”, the Hamilton, Eliza, Madison duet “Books, Books, Books/I Kind of Like Him”, Charles Pinckney’s anthem “Americans are We”, “Who are We” with all the main players, “He’s Gone”,  “Three-fifths a Man (Deep River)” the Eliza/Hamilton duet “They Need Me/ In Philadelphia”, Franklin’s advice to Madison “It is the Dawning of the Day”, and the finale, ”We Have Us Now a Country”.

I then approached Jeff Goldberg and Pru Runkell who had produced the musical which I had been in in 1993, 1776, and John Stuff, who had also been in 1776 and was the current Director of the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company about producing 1787:The Musical and Jeff Goldberg agreed to produce and John and Pru agreed to help out. Many others came on board, and the rest is history.

We have revised the show again since its Premiere eliminating ten minutes and changing the size of the first and second acts.  And Jeff Goldberg also suggested to me that I write a book about the Convention, and here it is.  It can serve two purposes.  First , Jeff felt that I had unique insights into the proceedings and character of the individual Founding Fathers, and felt I could write a useful resource on that subject itself.  But, also, such a booklet could serve as a companion piece to help illuminate the playscript behind the musical which was the whole basis of the subject.

So most of my commentary is a reflection of the actual history, but also our utilization of that history in producing an entertaining and informative musical.

My suggestion for blog:

CHAPTER 1:

How the Whole Thing Got Started:

The First Production of 1787 the Musical

And the Process that led up to it.

 

 

  On June 30, July 1, 2, & 3 of 2011, Lucinda Lawrence, my writing partner and co-creator, and I, Robert Picklesimer, produced an original musical, 1787:We the People, at the 1500 seatVirginia Theatre , an historical landmark in downtown Champaign, Illinois. The premiere production of this musical was the fruition of over ten years of development on my part, and over six years in co-creating development with Lucinda Lawrence, who was with the University of Illinois  School  of  Music, Division of Bands.  I had performed in an earlier musical, 1776, with the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company,   I had long wondered if the writing of the Constitution could benefit from a similar treatment. Between 1993 and 2000, I had developed other theatre pieces,  but in approaching the historical subject of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the problem and question was the same as with every show: was there enough “drama”, interesting elements, to make a play/musical about the subject worthwhile?  Then in 1999. . . . . (continued at. . . )

In June-July of 2011, Lucinda Lawrence, my writing partner and co-creator, and I, Robert Picklesimer, produced an original musical, 1787:We the People, at the 1500-seat Virginia Theatre, an historical landmark in downtown Champaign, Illinois. The premiere production of this musical was the fruition of more than 10 years of development on my part, and more than six years in co-creating development with Lucinda Lawrence, who was with the University of Illinois  School of Music, Division of Bands. I had performed in an earlier musical, 1776, with the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company, and had long wondered if the writing of the Constitution could benefit from a similar treatment. Between 1993 and 2000 I had developed other theatre pieces,  but in approaching the historical subject of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the problem and question was the same as with every show: was there enough “drama” – enough interest – to make a play/musical about the subject worthwhile?  Then in 1999, I quite accidentally stumbled upon . . . . (more)