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Joan of Arc - The Musical(The words of playwright/producer Linda Lawrence-Winters a.k.a Linda Lawrence Henderson circa. 1986) Never
in my wildest imagination would I have set out to write a musical play
- if anyone would have tried to tell me that it would be possible to
write play and lyrics and music, and to produce and direct it at both
the Hilton Hotel In 1981 (exactly 550 years to the day after Joan of
Arc's death) and then at the Wm. Edrington Scott Theater in Fort Worth,
... I wouldn't have believed them. But it happened...The beginnings of this play came from the combination of several simultaneous events: 1) a traumatic occurrence, 2) a 'chance' reading of an important book, 3) attending a six session seminar on writing screenplays, just out of curiosity. The traumatic occurrence was an unfortunate split in the church I was attending In 1978. Through a sad series of events, people turned upon people and many were hurt by it. In great sadness and some anger and depression, I drove to visit a friend of mine in Austin, Texas, asking God the major part of the way down, why war? why hatred? why all this constant discord among people? .. How can we LIVE together??? Then a tune began playing itself in my mind and by the time I reached my friend's house, the song, 'How Can We Live Together' had bloomed in my mind. I walked into my friend's house carrying my guitar and almost instantly said, 'Kathy! What do you think of this song?' She said, 'That's lovely ... but what's it for?' I replied that I didn't know, but it seemed to have something to do with my desire for peace among people. So began a nine month period in which songs seemed to come from the very air. They woke me at night, they chased me in my car, they Interrupted me in the classroom where I taught. It got to where I never traveled anywhere without my tape recorder -- I never knew when I might have another 'song-attack' (so named by my friend Cinda Martin). But more about this process later. The second event, aforementioned, was the chance reading of a book about Joan of Arc. I had been working on a Masters In Recreation at North Texas University and took a short-cut through the history section of the library when the title of a book caught my eye. It was on the corner end of a long shelf, about eye-level, a blue book with gold letters on the binding that said, 'Joan of Arc.' Somehow, It caught my attention, and I thought, 'Now let's see...she's the one that rode through th....no, she was the one that was burned at the .... I couldn't remember for sure, so I took the book off of the shelf, checked it out, took it home and read it cover to cover. I was spell-bound! Back I came and checked out every other book they had that had anything to do with her life. The Musical Comes To Be The third event in the process of
creating Joan
of Arc - The Musical was a decision to attend a six-week
seminar
on the writing of screenplays at TCU. Really, I had no Intention of
writing a screenplay but had read rave reviews concerning Al Viola, the
former Broadway actor and producer, who would conduct the seminar, and
so I enlisted. About the third week of the class, Al was saying that
when we wrote our screenplay, we should select a topic that either we
loved or knew a lot about because we could be living with the product
for a long time to come. In asking myself what would I write about if I
did so, I decided it would be Joan of Arc, as Joan had become quite a
hobby with me. As I sat there in that large, vertical-rise auditorium,
musing over the possibility of Joan of Arc as a play, different from
the others that had been written about her, It suddenly occurred to me
that all of the music I had been hearing in my head and writing down,
could be songs that pertained to her life -- songs, that contained
messages of hope, of love and of faith In God. I decided to talk to Al
Viola about this idea. Standing behind the throng that always encircled Al after class, I decided to wait my turn if it took all night. Finally, after deferring to many, I was the last one left, and I'd planned It that way. He said, turning to me, "Yes?" "What do you think of a musical Joan of Arc?" I fired straight away. "How many songs do you have?" he shot back. Surprised that he would assume I already had songs written, I more slowly replied, "Six." "Good!" he said, "Can you meet me and an arranger I know (Irene Kilbourne) in my Office tomorrow afternoon around 2:30?" Even more surprised, I replied that I would surely be there, and sort of walked out in a trance, finding it hard to believe that his enthusiasm had been so immediate and positive, especially since I had said so little in class. But then, perhaps the light in my eyes at much of what he'd said and the responses I made in those few classes ... or perhaps, just as likely and more, God was at work. Our trio meeting was very encouraging. They strongly liked my music and my ideas for a script. So I set to work looking for an arranger. (Irene was already buried in a schedule, but offered assistance for consultation.) To my delight, June and Bob Hightower, life-long friends, knew of a very special guitarist/arranger named Frank Summers. Another friend, Brenda Holloway, introduced me to her sister, who she said had 'one of the prettiest voices' she knew of. This threesome of Frank, Frankie and myself became a composing team. Sixteen of the pieces were melodies that came to me, two were Frank's and two were adapted folk tunes. Yet on all of the songs, Frank and Frankie had something to contribute. And so from February of 1979 to November of the same Year, we three met every Wednesday night, either in Dallas, where Frank lived, or Arlington, Frankie's home, or Fort Worth, mine. This period of time was one of the most unusual and most exhilarating periods of my life. My head and life seemed flooded with music. It would wake me in the middle of the night - it would descend on me driving the car. It sprang upon me while teaching class. At the time, I was teaching a remedial reading class for Castleberry ISD and my teaching aid, Cinda Martin would call these spells my 'song attacks.' I never knew when a song was going to come, but I strongly believed that 'God gave the songs.' Interestingly enough, a song would come and Frank &Frankie & I would work for a couple of weeks getting just the right chord progression and touches to polish the music, then Frank would play and either he or she or together would sing it onto tape. That would finish a session and we would wonder what the song would be for the next couple of weeks ...and sure enough before the next Wednesday night, another song would have arrived. I really didn't know how long the process would go on or how many songs there would be. Some songs seemed to be especially meant for certain characters in 'Joan.' Some songs would be for the last part and some for the first and some for the middle. Finally, 'Walk On' came to me and I knew it was the last song -- it summed up everything the whole show was about, and I knew we were finished. The script was written the following month In December over the two weeks of Christmas holidays. All along, I'd been reading more about Joan of Arc (Jehanne d'Arc in French), and many scenes had played themselves in my head. Once I sat down at the typewriter, it all just sort of flowed out and off the entire score and script went to be copyrighted. In the spring of 1980, a music teacher at school mentioned that her brother, Joe Alan Neswiadomy, could arrange music for the piano. This Joe did over a period of four or five months, and we went into rehearsal to produce 'Joan of Arc - The Musical' at the Hilton Hotel in Fort Worth, May 30, 1981. The date seemed random -- a Sunday toward the end of May -- yet suddenly the realization came upon us that the date of 'Joan's debut' would be EXACTLY five-hundred and fifty years TO THE DATE of Joan of Arc's death, May 30, 1431. Perhaps it was another positive omen? Just the night before at dress rehearsal at Scott Theatre's rehearsal hall, the cast seemed especially moved at many of the scenes -- natural tears flowed ... and when we left the theatre at 10:30 at night, the entire sky was illumined with rolling lightening all above our heads, running horizontal to the ground, making a kind of 'ZZZZZZ' sound. It went on continuously while we stood entranced like little children watching this natural display of celestial fireworks -- the beginning was complete. The First Performance The first
performance before 100 specially invited people drew a moving response.
Tears flowed throughout the crowd as the audience stood and sang with
the final number 'Walk On.' The applause was thunderous. Later, at my
apartment, we laughed and talked and hugged and sang until late. After
the last person left, I went alone to my bedroom to find the ticket box
sitting on my bed. The Friday before, I had had to write a check for
the remaining $134 owed to the Hilton. Knowing I had spent my very last
nickel, I silently prayed as I wrote out the check that enough money
from door ticket sales would come in to cover the check. Now was the
moment of truth. I opened the box and saw there were some checks, some
twenties, some tens and fives and ones. I counted each little group and
when I got finished with the fives I had one-hundred and twenty-five.
Then with the ones I counted ... thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three
... thirty-four. The Lord had brought not one dollar more, not one
dollar less ... EXACTLY one-hundred and thirty-four dollars, what had
been prayed for ... The Second Performance Two years and three
arrangers later, "Joan
of Arc -- The Musical" was put on at Scott Theatre. Many of the same
cast duplicated their parts. Of particular concern was that Joan
(Frankie Holloway Beeman) and the King (Mike Penny) and the Angel
(Larry Sloan) be able to play those same parts -- each of them was
exactly perfect. All heartily agreed, but then about two months before
production, Mike the King called to explain that his work as church
music director was taking him to another city a couple of hours from
Fort Worth and that with the new baby, move and job, playing the King
seemed impossible. I was crest-fallen, but Mike promised to find a
replacement equal or better than his talents. To his promise, he was
true. Mark Spencer, Mike's replacement, showed up to interview at one of our rehearsals over at a friend's house. Now the interesting thing was that when I had interviewed the first king, Mike Penny, I had gone to his house, thinking before I met him that perhaps he could play the part of the Angel. When Mike opened the door, I thought: .The KING!!!. He looked, sounded and' acted I like a King. This time, when the doorbell rang and I went to meet Mark, the feeling and result were identical -- I opened the door, and with perhaps even more of an impressed feeling, felt: THE KING! He was even taller, darker, deeper of voice and more regal than I could have imagined. During our first few moments of conversation, I couldn't take my incredulous eyes off of him. Finally, I found myself asking, "Are you aware that YOU actually LOOK like a King?" Humbly he said, "Yeah, people tell me this all the time." Our Angel, Larry Sloan, worked for a major Aircraft Corporation and had done several spots professionally on TV. Producers had told him, .You know, you have such an angelic look to you ... if you ever get an offer to play an angel, you really should take it ... . And what can one say of Frankie Beeman Holloway, who played Joan from the beginning? She had the look, the voice, the courage, the freshness and the ethereal look about her that at times gave me a kind of warm chill that ran over me to watch her and listen ...What can I say? Whenever anything concerning "Joan" has been needed, God has provided. The Music Gets the Royal Treatment In
1986, the most pressing need was to re-orchestrate "Joan" and through
the person of Charlie Hoera, who had played the Captain in both
instances, came George Atkinson, an orchestrator. George was a
mid-thirties orchestrator with a computerized synthesizer called a
Kurzweil that can duplicate every instrument in the orchestra, in most
cases so perfectly, the human ear cannot tell the difference. George
and I worked from February of 1986 to November of that year (music
seems to come during those months for me), rearranging the music to be
closer to what I had actually heard in my head from the beginning.
There are still minor improvement that could be made, but it has moved
a quantum leap from its beginnings to within 98%' of what I believe it
has been meant to be all along. From the synthesizer, the music went
into Charlie's (Captain) studio. Interestingly enough, Charlie Is a CPA
but has always had a dream of having a recording studio and being the
sound engineer that edited, mixed and produced Christian music. His
dream has coincided wonderfully with mine. As George and I finished
musical numbers and recorded each track onto wide multi-track tape in
the studio, various singers came into the studio to record the vocal
track, and once again, many of the original singers sang their parts --
Frankie, Joan -- Larry, Angel -- Charlie, as squire. Haviette's part,
as
Joan's best friend, was sung by Susan Lauderback, truly in life,
Frankie's, (Joan) best friend. For the third time we had a new king,
who was marvelous and loved singing duets with Joan ... and I actually
got to sing in the chorus of 'Jubilate' and 'Walk On,' but then as
producer of the soundtrack, who could deny me? So nearing the end of my fortieth year of life, 'Joan' moved forward. Of course, I have dreams of Broadway, or TV or movies ... I believe her story is worthy of that ... but more importantly, I pray her story will be told in such a way as to move people to the reality of what a simple, unassuming life, truly dedicated to God, can do. May others say with her, 'Here I stand.' Now to follow, beginning with 'Joan's Theme' is my musical message: JOAN'S THEME Here I stand, attending on my Lord's command A soldier in the fight for right, a messenger of Truth ... And I'll onward go, depending on His hand to show The paths He wants my feet to know The paths of dark and light In His care I'll stay, inviting help along the way, Encouraging those whom I may A soldier of the King! (Spoken) Greatness, true greatness, belongs to those special few Who abandon their lives to the will of God, Choosing His way above their own ... I trust Him to lead me onward -- filling me with all I will need to endure. So may it be said when I am done: My life was an honor to Him ... And I'll onward go, depending on His hand to show The paths He wants my feet to know -- the paths of dark and light In His care I'll stay, inviting help along the way Encouraging those whom I may -- a soldier of the King! (About the tenth song written, it awakened me at night, I lost the melody, then it came back during a writing session with Frank.) (Copyrights: 1979, 1982, 1986, 2008 - Linda Lawrence-Winters, nom d'plum.) May God bless you all ... TodayToday, Linda, George, and Frank have joined together again to once again revitalize the music and take up Joan's standard. George, at Linda's direction and with counsel from Frank, is taking the music of Joan of Arc to new heights. |