A MUSIC RELATED ENTRY!!!!!!!!!!

courtesy of my blog: http://cjferrara.blogspot.com/

Wow, I blog about politics and dietary issues a lot. Well, here's a change of pace, I will actually blog about my own profession, that of being a musician.

I'm a composer. I'm delving into choral music a bit, but my most successful pieces have been full length musicals. I have two: The children's show, "Right Before Your Eyes," and a full length holiday show called, "The Legend of St. Nicholas."

Well, I have an idea for my next show. It's tentatively called "Rachel and Leah." No, not my daughters, the Rachel and Leah from the Bible. I have been fascinated by the story ever since I researched "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Jacob, Joseph's father, has a long illustrious history in the book of Genesis. The musical would focus on his relationships with Rachel and Leah, and Bilbah and Zilpah, his four wives.

Jacob travels to the estate of Laban, where he falls in love with Rachel, Laban's youngest daughter. In return for Rachel's hand in marriage, Jacob agrees to work 7 years for Laban. During that time, the farm flourishes and business is great, mainly thanks to Jacob's leadership. Not wanting to lose him, Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah, his eldest, instead of Rachel. She's veiled and they marry each other without seeing each other. until the morning after the wedding night, when he wakes to find he married the wrong sister! Laban makes him work another 7 years in return for Rachel's hand. During THAT wedding, Jacob checks by lifting Rachel's veil, just to be sure it's really her. That's where we get the tradition of the groom lifting the veil before the wedding!

Afterwards, Leah and Rachel struggle with their feelings for Jacob, and for each other. Leah, realizing that Jacob will never love her, strives to be the best mother to his children that she can be. Rachel is unsuccessful at having children, and grows jealous of Jacob's familial feelings towards Leah. She gives Jacob her servant, Bilbah to sleep with so that Bilbah may bear him a son for her. Jacob has a third wife. When Leah stops being fertile, and Rachel finally conceives Joseph, Leah becomes jealous and does the same with her servant Zilpah. Four.

What attracts me to this material is the concept of writing songs entirely from a different character's point of view. All the great Broadway songwriters have a certain wealth of material with a quite out of the ordinary story to it. A specific point of view, yet one that you need to delve into the song to find. Many of these songs, like Maltby/Shire's "Miss Byrd," or Jason Robert Brown's "Stars and Moon," ended up in collective shows, but were written for another project.

Now this wouldn't be a failed project, I hope, but it would challenge me. Right Before Your Eyes has comical songs, and St. Nick had songs written from basically the different sides of my own personality. I was seeking a real acting, and writing challenge. As well as finally doing an "adult" show. (Not an ADULT show, but a show for mature audiences.)

What is each character going through emotionally when they decide to do what they end up doing? How does Leah feel when she is rejected by Jacob after their wedding night? What would motivate Rachel to allow, heck even insist, that her husband sleep with another woman?

I realize that in Biblical times, this was just done. In a more modern setting, there would be some heartbreaking emotions behind each difficult decision. Jacob, in the end, will finally end the squabbling between the four women, by putting the focus on their family. I also like the fact that this is a VERY unconventional family, and yet, there are Family Values that keep this group together. I could set this story in modern times, and make them a mormon family, but that's unfamiliar territory. I think I'll set it in Biblical times, and the characters will have more modern sensibilities.

Now, to my Facebook friends, and Theatrically inclinated peeps, I call upon you all to help. I AM seeking a collaborator. Someone to light a fire under my ass from time to time, and also to motivate me occasionally to get going on what needs to be done. (hee hee) I also, from actors who aren't writers, or directors out there, I'd appreciate input. I may post a question or two, or lyrics in progress, or a scene. PLEASE COMMENT. Even if you hate it, tell me why. In St. Nick, the most liberating thing about writing it was letting it go, and getting other opinions.

And I promise, THIS one won't take 15 years to get on stage.