Cole’s First Season

Hello and Welcome Back! Like I mentioned in my last post, our first season at the Cole Theatre was very impactive. In this post I will be more specific and informative about the shows that our first season consisted of… Let’s do a little bit of review.

Our Deals and Ticket Pricing:

1. ‘All 4 Shows’ Deal: This deal consisted of the pricing of all 4 shows in the season.
2. ‘Just The Plays’ Deal: This deal consisted of the pricing for all plays in the season.
3. ‘Musical Lovers’ Deal: This deal consisted of the pricing for just the musical.

SHOW INSIGHTS

Our First season consisted of three plays and a musical.

1. ‘Murder In the Stacks’ Written and Directed by Jaxson Mackling

PLOT: Inspector Oliver Edwards is a newly-founded inspector who has his first every non-supervised case of the year. The Narrator. 

Gregory Thompson is a 32 year old small time English novelist who loves any type of literature(stage plays, novels, short stories, crime, mystery, and many other genres as well). Gregory lives a two story English cottage with his wife Margaret and their two children Annabelle and Micheal. Gregory’s dream in life is to become a major novelist and get published in ‘The Grizzly’ a world-wide Newspaper that was founded in 1875. On the other hand, his wife Margaret wants him to take a more outward approach on life, and become a doctor or preacher or something more worthwhile than a dumb old writer. Thompson’s assistant Golda Walker is a 45 year old women of wise ways, but has some quirks of anxiety and anxiousness. Golda loves him so much as a friend, but Margaret takes things out of proportion and believes that Gregory is cheating on her with Golda. 

A week later Miss Walker was found died in her apartment on Cherry Tree and Main by her sister and brother-in-law Martha and George Davies while taking care of her earlier that day. When Robert Jackson, an officer of the Torquay Police investigated Miss Walker’s home, He came to the conclusion of it being a suicide attempt, but many others believe otherwise. 

SETTING 

Various Places in Torquay, England  

TIME 

Fall of 1890 

2. ‘The Etiquette of Murder’ Written and Directed by Jaxson Mackling

PLOT: Joanna Green is a 30 year old Playwright, Director, and Business Owner of ‘The DC Theatre’ in Denver Colorado.Every since the theatre opened in 2014, she has been a big fan of comedy all her life… romantic comedies, comedic mysteries, you name it, she’ll do it. 

Today her audiences are getting tired of the comedy and want something a little more suspenseful, so Joanna wrote a script using theatre etiquette the right way, but during production her actors and actresses are during every wrong, what does she do now…? 

SETTING

The DC Theatre in Denver Colorado

TIME 

The Spring of 2016 

3. Hello Imaginary Stranger’ Written by Jaxson Mackling and Eddie Ingle; Directed by Jaxson Mackling 

PLOT: Bella and Paisley Rothbury are Sisters, and also Sophomores at ‘LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL’. Their Parents divorced each other when Paisley and Bella were just the age of three. Paisley deals with depression and social anxiety, while Bella deals with many phobias- one in particular being “Automatonophobia”, the fear of not knowing what’s real and what’s fake during times of life. The only problem is Paisley and Bella are attracted to the same person, David. They soon find out that David could just possibly be a figment of their imaginations. Or is he..? 

SETTING

Various places in Edwardsville, Illinois and New York, New York 

TIME

The Present

4. ‘Once on This Island’ Written by Lynn Ahrens Directed by Jaxson Mackling 

PLOT: One stormy night in the Antilles archipelago, thunder booms, making a small girl cry in fear. To comfort her, the village storytellers tell her the story of Ti Moune, a peasant girl who falls in love with a grand homme, Daniel Beauxhomme – a story of life, pain, love, grief, faith, and hope. In this story, four gods (consisting of Asaka: Mother of the Earth, Agwé: god of Water, Erzulie: goddess of Love, and Papa Ge: demon of Death) rule an island known as the Jewel of the Antilles where poor peasants worship them (Prologue/”We Dance”). The peasants, “black as night”, live on one side of the island, and the grands hommes, lighter-skinned descendants of the original French planters and their slaves, live on the other. One night, Agwe unleashes a terrible storm upon the island, which in turn causes a disastrous flood, wiping out many villages. However, the gods save the life of a little orphan named Ti Moune by placing her in a tree above the flood’s waves. She is found and subsequently adopted by the peasants Mama Euralie and Tonton Julian (“One Small Girl”).

Years afterwards, a grown-up Ti Moune prays to the gods to let her know her purpose, and to let her be like the fast-driving strangers on the roads near her village – the grands hommes (“Waiting for Life”). Hearing her plea, the gods laugh at her. However, Erzulie suggests that they give her love, because it is stronger than any of the other elements. Offended, Papa Ge proposes a bet to prove which is stronger: love or death. Agwe arranges for the car of Daniel Beauxhomme, a young grande homme, to crash during a storm so that Ti Moune may meet Daniel and restore him to health (“And The Gods Heard Her Prayer/Rain”). Despite the objections of the other peasants including her own parents, Ti Moune helps the intruder recover (“Pray”). Ti Moune falls in love with the stranger and as she cares for the unconscious boy, she imagines he loves her too. When Papa Ge comes to take Daniel’s life, Ti Moune offers her life in exchange for Daniel’s so that he will not die (“Forever Yours”). Papa Ge is angry but leaves, hinting he will return – sooner or later, as her life now belongs to him.

Tonton Julian travels to the other side of the Island to seek Daniel’s family at the Hotel Beauxhomme. When he returns, he brings with him some of Daniel’s people to take the boy back, as well as the story of Daniel’s family: Four generations ago, during the Napoleonic era, a French aristocrat named Armand colonised the island. Although Armand had a wife, he had affairs with several natives, one of which bore him a son, named Beauxhomme. When Beauxhomme grew up, war broke out between the peasant locals and the French. The peasants won the war with Beauxhomme’s help, after which he banished Armand back to France. Before leaving, however, Armand cursed Beauxhomme and his descendents saying their “black blood will keep them forever on the island, while their hearts yearn forever for France.” To this day the curse causes future Beauxhommes to alienate the peasants for reminding them of their homeland (“The Sad Tale of the Beauxhommes”). Ti Moune is tearfully separated from Daniel and tells her parents that she will go after Daniel to marry him, and though they are reluctant to let her go, they eventually give her their blessing (“Ti Moune”). The goddess Asaka tells Ti Moune not to fear, as the Earth will give her everything she needs on her journey to Daniel (“Mama Will Provide”).

Ti Moune travels across the island (“Waiting For Life (Reprise)”), and the storytellers relate the many versions of her difficult journey to the city (including being forced to wear too-tight shoes), through the hotel gates and finding Daniel’s room (“Some Say”). Daniel, still ill and unable to walk, does not remember her but believes her after she describes the scar on his chest. As they stay together, Erzulie gives them the gift of love (“Human Heart”). Daniel ignores the townspeople’s gossiping (“Pray (Reprise)”) over the unlikely relationship between a rich Beauxhomme and a poor peasant. Daniel delights in Ti Moune’s differences from the rich girls in his life, noting that “some girls you marry, some you love” (“Some Girls”).

At a ball held at the hotel (“The Ball”), Andrea Devereaux, a daughter of Daniel’s family friends, cajoles Ti Moune to dance for them (her ulterior motive being to make her look bad in front of the grande hommes). Ti Moune does dance and gains the admiration of the rich society members, inspiring both the peasant servants and the grande homme guests to join her (“Ti Moune’s Dance”). Afterwards, Ti Moune learns that Daniel is already engaged to be married to Andrea (“When We Are Wed”). Daniel, reminded of his responsibilities, must go through with the arranged marriage, although he insists they can be lovers forever, leaving Ti Moune crushed. Papa Ge reappears and reminds Ti Moune of her promise to exchange her life for Daniel’s – but says she can revoke the bargain if she kills Daniel (“Promises/Forever Yours (Reprise)”). Ti Moune enters Daniel’s room with a knife, but she still loves him too much to kill him, proving love is stronger than death. However, Daniel finds Ti Moune with the knife. Appalled at the attempted murder, the Beauxhommes throw her out of the hotel grounds.

Barred from the hotel, Ti Moune waits for two weeks to try and meet Daniel at the gate. As Daniel and Andrea are married, they follow an old tradition of throwing coins to the peasants outside the hotel gates. Ti Moune calls to Daniel who gently places a silver coin in Ti Moune’s hand, kisses her cheek, and leaves. The storytellers tell of how the gods were moved to tears by Ti Moune’s selflessness and love, and chose to bestow a final kindness on her; Erzulie took her by the hand and led her to the ocean, where Agwé allowed her to drown peacefully. Papa Ge received her gently and brought her back to shore where Asaka transformed her into a tree (“A Part Of Us”).

The tree becomes a celebration of life and love that cracks open the gates of the hotel, allowing those of all social statuses to become one, including a peasant girl and a young grande homme, Daniel’s son, as they play in her branches. As the years go by, the story of Ti Moune is told again and again, passed down through generations as proof of the power of love and stories to bring people together. As the musical ends, the little girl who was frightened by the storm begins to retell the story herself (“Why We Tell The Story”).

That’s all I have for today. I’ll keep updating on ‘The Cole Theatre’ and the future productions that are presented.

Thank you:)

– Jaxson Mackling

Head Founder of the Cole Theatre

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