AUDIENCE GUIDE Synopsis 2017-2018 | Our 59th Season | Issue 3 Inspirations ISSUE 1950s background1950s IN THIS IN THIS Creator James Valcq Landmarks old - pan

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hilarious, out on Cathedralon Square. It was produced Off Theatre to virtually unanimous critical acclaim. The has show been produced all over country.the Now it’s back the at Skylight with Pam Kriger as director, and who better? She directed the second summer production theat Skylightand the Off buckleSo and up prepare for some egg egg beaters, beer taps and audio tubes. The chock dialogue, offull Milwaukee references, delivered is in a dead style stiltedwith 50s Wardialogue, Cold paranoia, condescending references to “gals”the and the firmconviction in the infallibility of the United States. Zombies from the Beyon brainchild of Milwaukee native James Valcq, gotwho his start as 7 a tenorboy here the at Skylight. The musical firstwas produced specialas a summer the production at “old Skylight” visible wires bumping into the set. Secret weapons appear in the guise ofcurling a and iron a vacuum cleaner. The latest technology theon control panel includes

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is a nostalgic valentine that The American Way fi with cheesyfi spaceships with on very - aggression. The mocks show kitschiest the of ‘50s sci infallible. Weinfallible. that loud hear clear and in songthe combines confident optimismblatant with recalls therecalls patriotism of Eisenhower the era, celebrating the nation’s post collective mood of feeling invincible and Doris Day/Patti Page style of pop romanticism rock to doo and Zombies traditional gender rolesto B movie musicals and science fiction films.The score ranges from to homage an the of science 1950s fiction B movies. This musicalwitty playfully pokes fun at everything from technology and “zombify” earth men. That’s quirky the premise of thefrom Beyond, female planet! Their leader is Zombina, whose secret weapon is her coloratura singing voice shewhich uses to flying saucer arrives carrying bevy a of buxom space aliens havewho come to mencollect re to It’s theIt’s 1950s, Eisenhower is President, and peaceful is all theat (fictional) Milwaukee Space Center. That until is, a Book, Music and Lyrics by JamesValcq and Book, Lyrics by Music February 2 February Thisavailableguide is 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 – 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 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 . 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. It is praised productions including The constructed of distinct, local light- Glass Menagerie, Almost, Maine, The colored brick called Cream City brick 39 Steps and Candide. and adorned with copper panels, organic foliage patterns and terra cotta We are pleased to welcome James designs which decorate the façade. and Zombies From the Beyond back to the Skylight! A weather beacon in the shape of a natural gas flame was added to the top of the building in 1956. The flame stands 21 feet tall, weighs four tons and indicates the weather forecast by Scenic design by Aaron Dyszelski

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE ZOMBIES FROM THE BEYOND synopsis

Time: 1955 Place: The Milwaukee Space Center and environs Act I

After the “opening credits” we are in Back in the Control Room, a top-secret In Mary’s car, Trenton, sworn to the Probe Seven Control Room of the scheme is hatched to launch a secrecy, breaks Mary’s heart when he Milwaukee Space Center where Major manned rocket to battle the hovering breaks their date. Alone and bereft, Malone, his aide Rick Jones, secretary spaceship. Major Malone announces she sings In the Stars. Meanwhile, at Charlene “Charlie” Osmanski, deli there will be a mass induction of young the Galaxy of Coiffures, Rick meets delivery boy Billy Krutzik and the men into an astronaut army and Zombina, a female alien aviatrix bent Major’s daughter Mary are all excited Charlie is ordered to take the on procuring he-specimens to to meet rocket scientist Trenton measurements of the men for suitable repopulate her all-female planet. Corbett (The Sky’s the Limit). spacewear (Blast Off Baby). Employing her supersonic Secret The team at the Space Center launch Billy asks Charlie for a date, (Atomic Weapon, a soprano voice so a rocket programmed to take photos of Feet) and they plan to rendezvous stratospheric that it “zombifies”, the sun. Via the Probe Seven’s space later that night. When the flying saucer Zombina transforms Rick into a bug- photography equipment, the crew lands in the beauty salon, it’s “all eyed slave to her nefarious demands. makes an alarming discovery on the systems go” for new emergency She and her entourage of “Zombettes” television monitor screen (A Flying procedures: Trenton will develop a sing the shrill soprano war-cry of Saucer). weapon of mass destruction, Rick will Zombies From The Beyond. set up a blockade at the beauty shop,

Later at the Orbit Room Cocktail and Charlie will man the television Lounge, Rick and Mary dance to the monitor. music on the juke box. (The Rocket- Roll). While Rick is procuring a We discover that shifty Rick is actually highball, Trenton enters, and he and a Russian spy when he receives Mary hear the flying saucer buzzing orders via a mysterious walkie-talkie to the Galaxy of Coiffures Beauty Salon slip Charlie a mickey and make across the street. Rick rushes off to contact with the invaders for the investigate while Trenton attempts to greater glory of his homeland calm the fears of the usually intrepid (Big Wig). Mary (Second Planet on the Right).

Costumes designed by Shima Orans

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ZOMBIES FROM THE BEYOND Scenic design by Aaron Dyszelski

Act II

Zombina’s tirade of terror has the city conclusion about Rick (I Am a In the chilling climax high atop the on pins and needles (Dateline: Zombie). Zombina herself appears on Wisconsin Gas Company Building, Milwaukee). Mary discovers Charlie the television screen and proceeds to Mary and Charlie battle it out with asleep at the control panel. When zombify Trenton and Malone in an Zombina (Breaking the Sound Charlie wakes up, she is dazed and amazing 3-D broadcast. Can Mary Barrier), pitting their brash, belting confused. Mary discovers that the and Charlie save Milwaukee from this voices against Zombina’s coloratura phone is dead. menace? soprano.

Trenton and Mary patch up their Zombina is in her boudoir and is upset All appears lost until Billy arrives and differences (Second Planet Reprise) with Rick’s inability to meet her high joins forces with the girls by adding his and he describes his new invention, standards. She resolves to employ her Geiger-counter tap-dancing to their which operates on the principles of considerable wiles in perpetrating her raucous roundelay, resulting in the gravitational force combined with perverse ploys (The Last Man on hideous demise of Zombina whose synthetic radio waves to produce an Earth). formerly formidable voice drops a oscillation which interrupts the time- couple octaves. As she dies, Zombina flow continuum of the flying saucer. Soon, Zombina in her space ship is wails, “What a world! I’m belting!” They plan to implement the new running amuck in Milwaukee, knocking ‘amplificator’ against their subversive down the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower Malone and Trenton are de-zombified, enemies (The American Way). then pushing Rick from the saucer to and Milwaukee is saved! Major his death. Malone leads the survivors in a stirring Charlie emerges from her stupor and patriotic song, advising everyone, reveals a series of spine-tingling clues everywhere to Keep Watching the which leads the crew to a cataclysmic Skies.

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE The 1950s

The 1950s were a prosperous time of The Post War Boom seat on a city bus to a white person. recovery after the Great Depression of Between 1945 and 1960, the gross Her arrest sparked a 13-month boycott the 1930s and the war years of the national product more than doubled. of the city’s buses by its black citizens, 1940s. During the 1950s, the U.S. Much of this increase came from which succeeded in forcing the bus economy was booming and new cars, government spending: construction of companies to end discrimination suburban homes and other consumer interstate highways and schools, the against African American passengers. goods were more available than ever distribution of veterans’ benefits and, These acts of “nonviolent resistance” before. It was a time of modern design, most of all, the increase in military helped shape the civil rights movement new inventions and discoveries that led spending. This all contributed to the of the next decade. the way to the future. It was also an decade’s economic growth. era of great conflict. The civil rights The Cold War movement and the crusade against Moving to the Suburbs The tension between the United States communism at home and the Korean The baby boom and the suburban and the Soviet Union after World War II War and the Cold War abroad exposed boom went hand in hand. Almost as was known as the Cold War. Western the divisions in U.S. society. soon as World War II ended, housing leaders saw that the USSR had developments such as “Levittown,” “expansive tendencies”. They believed Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th created by real estate mogul William that the spread of communism President of the U.S., was born in Levitt in New York, New Jersey and threatened democracy everywhere. As Texas in 1890, the third of seven sons Pennsylvania, would become the most a result, communism needed to be in a poor family. He was appointed to famous symbols of suburban life. “contained” by diplomacy, by threats or the U.S. Military Academy at West by force. This idea shaped American Point and graduated in 1915. He foreign policy for decades. became a full general in 1943 and was in charge of the successful Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, which began on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Eisenhower, a Republican, was elected President in landslide victories in 1952 and 1956. Popularly known as

“Ike,” he managed Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union and ended the war in Korea in 1953. Eisenhower’s support of the anti-communist government in South Vietnam was the Many people in the U.S. worried that beginning of future U.S. participation in communists, or “subversives,” could the Vietnam War. destroy American society from within. Domestically, he strengthened Social Between 1945 and 1952, Congress, Security, created the new Interstate led by Wisconsin Senator Joe Highway System, signed the Civil McCarthy, held hearings to investigate Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to “un-American activities” in the federal enforce federal court orders to government, in universities and even in integrate schools in Little Rock, Hollywood. These hearings did not Arkansas. He also ordered the uncover many treasonous or desegregation of the Armed Forces, communist activities, but thousands of begun by President Truman. When the The Civil Rights Movement Americans were affected by the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in The struggle against racism and anti-communist “Red Scare”. 1957, Eisenhower established NASA, segregation entered the mainstream of which started the Space Race. American life during the 1950s. In The Iron Curtain was the name for the 1954, in the landmark Brown v. Board boundary dividing Europe into two Eisenhower's final speech as of Education case, the Supreme Court separate areas from the end of World President, broadcast on television on declared that “separate educational War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold January 17, 1961, is best known for facilities” for black children were War in 1991. The term symbolizes the warning the nation to guard against the “inherently unequal.” This ruling was efforts by the Soviet Union to block influence of the military–industrial the first nail in Jim Crow’s coffin. itself and its satellite states from complex, a term he is credited with contact with the West. The most coining. As he left office he said, In December 1955, a Montgomery, notable border was the Berlin Wall, “America is today the strongest, most Alabama activist named Rosa Parks which served as a symbol of the Iron influential and most productive nation was arrested for refusing to give up her Curtain. in the world.”

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ZOMBIES FROM THE BEYOND 1950s Timeline

1950 1956 • President Harry Truman orders • The TV remote is invented the building of the hydrogen bomb • Velcro first used • The Korean War begins • Suez Cana Crisis in Egypt • Doctors achieve the first organ • Elvis Presley first appearance on transplant The Ed Sullivan Show • "In God We Trust" adopted as 1951 national motto • Color TV is introduced • Truman signs peace treaty with 1957 Japan ending World War II • Launch of Soviet satellite Sputnik; • 22nd Amendment establishes the space race begins term limits for U.S. president • Dr. Seuss publishes children's • First live transcontinental classic, The Cat in the Hat television broadcast • European Economic Community • I Love Lucy premieres established • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. • Civil Rights Act of 1957 is first civil Salinger is published rights legislation enacted by Congress since Reconstruction. 1952 • First commercial nuclear power • Britain's Princess Elizabeth plant in the U.S. begins service becomes queen at age 25 • Debut of the Today show on NBC 1958 • Eisenhower elected president • American Bobby Fischer becomes youngest chess grand master 1953 • Hula hoops take world by storm • DNA discovered • Introduction of LEGO toy bricks • Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin dies • NASA formed, as U.S. begins • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg efforts to explore space executed for espionage • Jack Kilby invents the integrated • Playboy magazine makes debut circuit • Korean Armistice Agreement • Shah of Iran returns to power in 1959 CIA-orchestrated coup • Cuban Revolution leads to Fidel Castro becoming dictator of Cuba 1954 • The famous “kitchen debate” • U.S. Supreme Court rules between Soviet Premier Nikita segregation illegal in the Brown Khrushchev and U.S. Vice v. Board of Education decision President Richard Nixon • Cigarettes reported to cause • Alaska and Hawaii became the cancer 49th and 50th U.S. states • U.S. rejects the French decision to recognize Communist control of North Vietnam, increases aid to South Vietnam.

1955 • Disneyland opens in California • Ray Kroc founds McDonald's • AFL and CIO merge in America's largest labor union • Jonas Salk develops polio vaccine • Rock and roll goes mainstream, with Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & the Comets.

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE Inspirations for Zombies From the Beyond

Imagine a world without computers or Smartphones and TV that signed off at midnight with the National Anthem. Welcome to the 1950s! With television gaining popularity, film studios tried to bring audiences back to the movie theaters. They reached out with new techniques such as wide-screen, 3-D and drive-ins. Big production and spectacle films were perfect for these formats and soon gained popularity with historic epics like The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben-Hur (1959). The decade was rich with both realism and mystery films. Director Alfred Hitchcock was in his prime and actors like James Stewart, John Wayne and Marlon Brando were at the peak of their popularity, but Hollywood was aiming for a new demographic. As the huge population of children born after World War II, known as baby boomers, became teenagers, they had time and money for leisure activities. Savvy movie industry marketers soon began developing entertainment geared to their interests with horror and science fiction films that played on audience fears of a Communist invasion, nuclear disasters and curiosity about outer space. In the years between 1948 and 1962, there was a sci-fi explosion with The “love-starved maidens on the prowl” Hollywood releasing more than 500 in Cat Women of the Moon science fiction features. The 1950s became known as The Golden Age of Sci-Fi as studios churned out movies that were entertaining and very lucrative. For instance, Them!, a cautionary tale about giant irradiated ants, was Warner Brothers’ highest- grossing film in 1954. Author/composer James Valcq was inspired by his experiences as a child watching these movies on TV. Some of the 1950s films that inspired Zombies From the Beyond are: Cat Women of the Moon (1954), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Queen of Outer Space (1953), and I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958).

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ZOMBIES FROM THE BEYOND