Compose Yourself

The following is copyrighted information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  • Introduction/Production Guide
  • Overture
  • Song 1: Hello Everybody
  • Song 2: A Mostly Mozart Morning
  • Song 3: A Fairly Friendly Fugue
  • Song 4: Come Waltz With Me
  • Song 5: Can You Hear?
  • Song 6: Composer Rap
  • Song 7: Lullaby (Wiegenlied)
  • Reprise: So Long, Everybody

Cast of Characters:

There are basically three sets of cast members crucial to the success of your performance.

1. The Students: - We have simply labeled these characters with numbers. They can usually be either a boy or a girl. These are the young people that are essentially playing themselves, or at least modern equivalent of themselves. To make it more fun, you might encourage each of these kids to develop a character somewhat different from their natural self...a Valley girl, a surfer dude, a computer jock, a kid from the Bronx, the South, Fargo, or some other exotic location to add colorful accents and attitudes to their characters.

2. The Support Choir: - These are the performers who are on stage the entire show to support the singing of the songs. You may decide to have them each pick a favorite composer to dress up as. Powdered wigs, opera costumes, etc. would make them more a part of the show. Have them choose any composer they have ever heard of, research that composer, and come up with their own costume to represent that character. This might include everything from Beethoven to Billingsley, for a great learning adventure! Another option would be to have these choir members decked out in "Composer Yourself" t-shirts. Not a bad motto for the year!

3. The Composers: The list of composers represented in the musical can be lengthened if you choose to have more characters, or some roles can be combined if you do not have enough actors to cover all of the speaking roles.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Johannes Brahms
  • Philip Glass
  • Georges Frederick Handel
  • Franz Joseph Haydn
  • Gustav Mahler
  • Felix Mendelssohn
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Modeste Mussorgsky
  • Franz Schubert
  • Johann Strauss, Jr.
  • Richard Strauss
  • Igor Stravinsky
  • Pytor Il'yich Tchaikovsky
  • Giuseppe Verdi
  • Antonio Vivaldi
  • Richard Wagner

The Teacher's Edition includes Set and Staging Suggestions/Details, as well