Audience Guide

AUDIENCE GUIDE 2017 - 2018 | Our 3 Issue Season 59th 2018 | | February 2-18, 2018 Book, Music and Lyrics by James Valcq It’s the 1950s, Eisenhower is President, visible wires bumping into the set. Secret and all is peaceful at the (fictional) weapons appear in the guise of a curling Milwaukee Space Center. That is, until a iron and a vacuum cleaner. The latest flying saucer arrives carrying a bevy of technology on the control panel includes buxom space aliens who have come to egg beaters, beer taps and audio tubes. collect men to re-populate their all- The dialogue, chock full of Milwaukee female planet! Their leader is Zombina, references, is delivered in a dead-pan whose secret weapon is her coloratura style with stilted 50s dialogue, Cold War singing voice which she uses to paranoia, condescending references to “zombify” earth men. the “gals” and the firm conviction in the infallibility of the United States. That’s the quirky premise of Zombies IN THIS from the Beyond, an affectionate spoof Zombies from the Beyond is the of 1950s science fiction B movies. This brainchild of Milwaukee native James ISSUE witty musical playfully pokes fun at Valcq, who got his start as a 7-year-old everything from technology and boy tenor here at the Skylight. The Creator James Valcq traditional gender roles to B movie musical was first produced as a special musicals and science fiction films. The summer production at the “old Skylight” Milwaukee Landmarks score ranges from an homage to the on Cathedral Square. It was produced Synopsis Doris Day/Patti Page style of pop Off-Broadway in 1995 at the Players romanticism to rock and doo-wop. Theatre to virtually unanimous critical 1950s background acclaim. Zombies is a nostalgic valentine that Inspirations recalls the patriotism of the Eisenhower- The show has been produced all over era, celebrating the nation’s post-war the country. Now it’s back at the Skylight collective mood of feeling invincible and with Pam Kriger as director, and who infallible. We hear that loud and clear in better? She directed the second summer the song The American Way, which production at the Skylight and the combines confident optimism with blatant Off-Broadway production in 1995. aggression. So buckle up and prepare for some The show mocks the kitschiest of ‘50s hilarious, out-of-this-world fun! sci-fi with cheesy spaceships on very This guide is available online at skylightmusictheatre.org James Valcq: Book, Music and Lyrics James Valcq, a Milwaukee native, is This production is generously an award-winning composer, lyricist, and librettist, as well as an actor and sponsored by arts administrator. His resume also includes acting, singing, dancing, accordion playing, music directing and conducting. Valcq was born in Milwaukee and, at an early age, he began mastering the keyboard with the help of a very accomplished teacher, Sister Francis Dolan, who in her pre-convent days played piano in Chicago clubs. Growing up in Milwaukee, he had many other musical influences, James Valcq Season Sponsors including a very important one: his sister Susan, a gifted coloratura soprano. Through her he would conducting under the auspices of another mentor, Colin Cabot. become acquainted with the musical world of Milwaukee. He began composing while in college He began his professional career as and eventually abandoned performing to concentrate on composing and a boy soprano singing in Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the Skylight Comic conducting. He holds a BFA from Opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors at the University of Wisconsin– the Milwaukee Opera Company and Madison with an applied voice major George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of and an MFA from NYU’s Musical Theatre Writing Program. Children for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. While at the Skylight he wrote his first He was eager to do theatre and full-length musical, Zombies From the Beyond, to feature the talents of his musical comedy and got that opportunity at the Melody Top sister Susan as Zombina, as well as Theatre. From 1963 until closing in Suzanne Graff as Charlie and Claire 1986, this popular summer musical Morkin as Mary, and of course wrote a theatre employed local actors along part for himself as Billy, a tap-dancing with stars from Broadway and Donald O’Connor-type delivery boy. Research/Writing by Hollywood to play the leading roles. Chita Rivera, Van Johnson, Gordon After completing the two year Justine Leonard for ENLIGHTEN, composition program at NYU, Valcq Skylight Music Theatre’s Education Program MacRae, Margaret Whiting, John Raitt (Bonnie’s dad) were among many who collaborated with Fred Alley first on The Passage, produced at Edited by Ray Jivoff performed there along with rising American Folklore Theatre, now [email protected] young choreographers Michael Bennett (creator of A Chorus Line) and Northern Sky Theatre in Door County, Margaret Bridges Tommy Tune. Wisconsin. [email protected] At the University of Wisconsin- Their second collaboration, The Madison’s High School Music Camp, Spitfire Grill, received its world he met two people of great importance premiere at New Jersey’s George in his life: Jeff Herbst, Northern Sky Street Playhouse before its Off- Theatre’s artistic director and friend Broadway opening at Playwrights and future collaborator Fred Alley. Horizons in 2001. The musical won the Richard Rodgers Production At age 19, Valcq won first place in the Award presented by the American student auditions of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. The Association of Teachers of Singing. Spitfire Grill is one of the most frequently Throughout this time, James was very performed contemporary musicals with 158 N. Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 involved with the Skylight Music nearly 500 productions to date. Theatre, performing in many of their (414) 291-7811 www.skylightmusictheatre.org productions, and sometimes providing vocal arrangements, orchestrations or AUDIENCE GUIDE | ZOMBIES FROM THE BEYOND Valcq composed an adaptation of the Why Milwaukee? classic children’s book The Pancake its color and flicker. Milwaukeeans King, commissioned by Milwaukee’s Choosing to set Zombies From the used to know the rhyme describing its Next Act Theatre. Other New York Beyond in Milwaukee is a reflection of signals: credits include Fallout Follies at James Valcq’s fond memories of the York Theatre, Songs I Never Sang growing up here. Here is some When it’s gold, it’s turning cold. For My Father at the Village Theatre information about a few of the famous When it’s red, warm weather is ahead. and The Last Leaf, a collaboration Milwaukee landmarks featured in the When it’s blue, no change is in view. with Mary Bracken Phillips. show. When it flashes, get out your galoshes. Recent compositions include the Milwaukee’s City Hall is a neo-gothic The Wisconsin Gas Building was sold musicals Victory Farm (book and lyrics edifice with a distinctly Germanic to a developer in 2004 who converted by Emilie Coulson and Katie Dahl) appearance. It was built on a it into leased office space. But the at American Folklore Theatre and foundation of white pine piles driven beloved weather flame remains and, in Anatole (book and lyrics by Lee Becker into the marshy land surrounding the Milwaukee River. Finished in 1895, 2013, the neon tube lighting system and John Maclay) for First Stage in was replaced with an LED lighting Milwaukee. City Hall was Milwaukee's tallest building until the First Wisconsin system. The new LED system allows a In addition to orchestrating his own Center was opened in 1973. From limitless variety of colors and various music, he has created orchestrations 2006 to 2008, the entire building was other lighting schemes outside the of classic musicals for regional renovated, including a complete traditional red-gold-blue system. theatres and opera companies. In re-assembly of the bell tower. City Hall addition to musicals, he has composed was added to the National Register of The light has also been used as a song cycles and choral pieces which Historic Places in 1973, and declared navigation aid by mariners in Lake have been performed in the U.S. a National Historic Landmark in 2005. Michigan over the years, and perhaps and Europe. a guide for our outer space visitors. Another Milwaukee landmark featured Valcq is also a conductor and in the show is the Allen-Bradley Clock, musician, with Broadway credits which, according to the Guinness Book including Chicago, Flower Drum of World Records, is "the largest four- Song, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Cabaret. faced clock in the world.” In 2007 Valcq returned to acting, The Allen-Bradley factory was built in playing Cosme McMoon the 1940s and the clock tower was in Souvenir at Boise Contemporary added in 1959. Rising 280 feet, each Theater, a role he has also played at face has a diameter of 40 feet, 3-1/2 American Stage Theatre and Stage inches. Although the octagonal faces Door Theatre Co. Additional credits are nearly twice the size of the faces of include Feste in Twelfth Night and the Big Ben, chimes were never added, Friar in Much Ado About Nothing at allowing Big Ben to remain the largest Door Shakespeare, Ernie in Guys on four-faced chiming clock in the world. Ice at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The clock has been affectionately and Pierre in How I Became a called "The Polish Moon," referring to Pirate at First Stage. the historically Polish neighborhood in which it is based. In October 2011 Valcq became co-Artistic Director of Third Avenue Milwaukee’s answer to the Empire Playhouse in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin State Building is the Wisconsin Gas (with co-Artistic Director Robert Boles), Light Building, an 18-story art deco where he's directed many critically “skyscraper,” completed in 1930.

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