The Conception

I was working one of my many unusual jobs that I take to support my creativity habit...although admittedly, I hadn't done much creating lately. I was in the middle of a long writer's block, a ten-year-old one, in fact. I'd begun composing an opera in 1996 only to end up ten years later with barely any of it finished.

So there I was, working at Temple, doing proctoring for a medical student exam in which they are tested on real people posing as patients(Standardized Patient), and it was my job to oversee the exam. Wally Zialcita, a member of the PDC was my proctoring partner at the time. At one point during one of our breaks, he asked me what I was doing creatively these days. I explained about my new website, www.quinncompositions.com in which I was marketing my abilities as a songwriter for other people's lyrics. If someone had poems or a musical concept in mind, they could come to me. At this point, Wally mentioned the Ozona project and the PDC's workshops where they give new playwrights a chance to show their work to an audience in the hopes of sparking interest among local producers in the area, and giving the writers some helpful constructive feedback by experienced PDC playwrights. The idea sounded interesting to me and I said I'd like to hear more, and he said he'd keep in touch. About a month later, I heard from him again telling me he'd spoken to my friend and co-producer of Melange Theatre Live, Carla Mariani, about the possibility of perhaps the two of us working on a project for the Festival of New Plays in February, 2007. I met with Carla, Penni Gould(creator of Melange Theatre Live, where I do most of my singing these days), and Wally, and the four of us discussed the musical idea. Wally gave me the concept of Katie Hudspeth, the waitress who has a daughter Lula...and what would happen if Katie was abducted by aliens? He knew I was a science fiction/fantasy buff so this would probably be right up my alley. Wally suggested we write a musical about it. I was instantly excited by the idea. Not only did the abduction and other/planet idea intrigue me but the relationship between the mother and daughter and what that would be like to be separated for perhaps five years. I jumped at the chance.

Penni is a wonderful singer and actress, and I thought she'd be just perfect as one of the leads. Carla jumped at the chance to play keyboards for the show. I wanted her to play for this project as her wonderful playing and enthusiasm would give life to this project. She readily agreed and that is how this began. We performed the first incarnation of Planet Discord with a full cast, on February 17th and 18th, 2007 for the PDC's Festival of New Plays.

That was only the beginning.

It was a journey, writing that play. I began with the music and had to fight with PrintMusic software and my computer in order to get things going. But once they did, the songs came out more readily and frequently. When I put the play on in 2007 and realized that rewrites were a must, I began work again and changed the entire script. I also added more songs and took out previous songs. It was grueling, but in the end, very rewarding.

This production has been challenging. Many ups and downs, but a great cast and determination have kept me going. Napoleon Luther, one of our cast members, has also acted as Assistant Director and has done an amazing job. Carla Mariani of course is a steadfast support as a musical director. Penni Gould reprised her role as the evil Queen, and young Gina Lee Celia as little Lula and Joanny Campbell as Older Lula are first class actors and singers. I'm proud of the people I'm working with and grateful to them for their participation.

VIVA PD!