press release: The Iowa Goatsinger's Vernal Weekend Celebration

April 27 through April 29

MOUNT VERNON – Goatsinger Productions is announcing its weekend celebration of Spring with The Iowa Goatsinger's Vernal Weekend to take place beginning Friday evening April 27 and ending Sunday morning April 29.  It features a variety of area performers, musicians, and the work of a handful of local writers.

The weekend will begin Friday evening at 7:30 pm with a staged reading of a new play, Song for Orpheus, a modern re-telling of the ancient Greek myth, as well as a showcase of songs written by Corridor songwriters Sam Knutson, Milk & Eggs, and Josh Woosley.

The Goatsinger Show, Mount Vernon's own monthly modern vaudeville show, taking place on Saturday night at 7:30 pm, is subtitled, "Gethsemane."  It features music performances by Daniel Kelchen of Lisbon, Marty Christensen of Mount Vernon, and guest-artist Bryan Carmody from Chicago, with sketches and monologues written by Amy White of Mount Vernon and other members of the Black Doggers Playwright Group. 

Sunday morning at 11 am is The Iowa Goatsinger Gospel Hour.  Sunday will be a lecture on stories of legendary or mythic characters whose stories end in a brave death, a resurrection, and a possible ascension.  In addition, Carmody, along with Cedar Rapids vocalist Kimberli Maloy, will be singing and leading  singalongs to American spirituals and gospel songs.

"Spring is important," says Moran.  " I think it should be celebrated with a bit of pomp and circumstance."

All events for the weekend will take place, with much thanks to Rick and Trude Elliott, at the Uptown Theatre in Mount Vernon's First Street Community Center, 221 1^st Street East, Mount Vernon.

Weekend Schedule:

Song for Orpheus - Staged Reading - Friday (7:30 pm)
The Goatsinger Show: Gethsemane – Variety Show – Saturday (7:30 pm)
The Iowa Goatsinger's Gospel Hour – Music and Readings – Sunday (11:00 am)

Website is up:


Goatsinger.com

A Goatsinger Show for the Holiday Season

 THE GOATSINGER SHOW, Mount Vernon's own modern vaudeville show, returns Saturday, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the Uptown Theatre in the First Street Community Center, 221 1st Street NE, Mount Vernon. The event features music, sketches, theater, puppetry, and more.
  
Set in the mythical Iowa town of Mount Revere, the December Show is called “The Coming Home.” A stranger has wandered into town and finds himself at a coffeeshop surrounded by storytellers and musicians.  The show features music by Josh Woosley, Tony Immergluck, Sam Butz, Jessie Stewart, and Grace Moran; plus, performances by Nicci Miles, Brandon Rowray, and Mike Moran.  Also included will be a closing sing-a-long and an appearance by Frog. 


 “The Goatsinger Show has been developing both in form andcontent since it first began – becoming more theatrical without losing itsinitial quirkiness,” said producer, Mike Moran. “As always, we’re open to the strange or the curious – whatever playful or fascinating act we can book.”


 Admission to The Goatsinger Show is on a pay-what-you-can basis. 

from "The Coming Home" - this December's Goatsinger Show

3. Come On In My Kitchen – Robert Johnson (arranged by Moran)

LIGHTS UP on "Deisel" – a coffeeshop just off the corner of Highway and Main in Mount Revere, IA.

(ANNA MAE enters from House Left in scarf, hat, and mittens.   

She mimes unlocking and opening the door to Deisel on the ramp Stage Right.   

She starts a pot of coffee onstage.  Maybe turns a radio on.  

 After a moment, the STRANGER can be heard playing something on his guitar from House Left.  It's the opening riff to "Come On In My Kitchen" by Robert Johnson.  

 The Stranger, wearing wintry clothes, playing his guitar, enters House Left, follows the ramp down to Diesel.  ANNA MAE has come out to hang the OPEN sign up on the wall and sees him)

ANNA MAE

You better come on in my kitchen

It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(Stranger enters the space, still playing.  Anna Mae helps him off with his hat and cloak -- if he has one.   

He sits.  

 She brings him a cup of coffee.  He maybe stops playing.  Has a sip.  

 The two banter.  He's a stranger in town.  She works here on the weekends.)

STRANGER

You know where Bethelhem (PRONOUNCED: BETHEL-HEM – and I know that's wrong.  Shut up) is from here?

ANNA MAE

Are you fucking kidding?

(They continue to banter while she works.  He picks up his guitar.  She might dance a little with what he's playing.  

 THE PLAYERS – perhaps singing their lines as they enter – enter.  They fetch or take out their instruments and settle in with the song)

1^st PLAYER

The woman I love – I took from my best friend
The joker got lucky, stole her back again

CHORUS

You better come on in my kitchen, 

It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

2^nd and 3^rd PLAYER
Oh, she's gone, I know she won't come back
I've taken the last nickel out of her gnashing sack

CHORUS

You better come on in my kitchen,

Babe, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

STRANGER

When a body gets in trouble – everybody puts you down

You looking for a good friend and none can be found

ALL BUT STRANGER

You better come on in my kitchen,

Babe, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(Free verses – any player or actor who wants to make something up, should do it at this point in the song – only rule is that the content needs to make sense with the chorus – and the chorus can't be re-written)

ANNA MAE
Winter time's comin', it's goin' to be slow
You can't make the winter, babe, that long dry, so

CHORUS

You better come on in my kitchen,

'Cause it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(All the players are settled into place)

A PLAYER

Or whatever it's doing out there.....

He's Twittering

The following are Facebook statuses and tweets -- if you're interested in getting these bits from the mythical town Mount Revere, Iowa then check out The Iowa Goatsinger on Facebook or The Iowa Goatsinger on Twitter.


THE IOWA GOATSINGER
10/29/11
-- this morning before the dawn --
he put on his white hoodie and his running shoes,
and he went outside to play the rabbit
down the streets of Mount Revere.

10/30/11
-- was that Hendrix whispering in my ear just now?  Tempting me down the hole with the promise to teach me a new song?

10/31/11
-- his hood this morning flapped against his skull as he ran, and he wondered: Is this what it's like to run with long ears?

And Rabbit? He twitched at the sound of the man running at him, still some fifty yards off; then heard it for what it was, held himself still until the man ran by, and relit his pipe.

11/1/11
-- he wonders, as he runs up and down the streets in the darkness this morning: Why is the rabbit not afraid? --and answers back: Because he's smarter than the cat.

11/2/11
He ran up and down Mount Revere this morning --
In the hours before the dawn --
Hopping nimbly between sidewalk and street --
Following the goat path.

11/3/11
Down by the quarry, running --
He heard Greg Brown mutter --
From behind shutters of oak and maple --
"I'm living in a prayer."

11/6/11
Who was that glimpsed through a window while running this morning?
Were those horns over his ears? -- or headphones?
Was he dancing like Fagin in his own kitchen?  Or am I mistaken?

11/7/11
Fathered by a trickster god -- weaned on Iowa corn. 

The Goatsinger Concept: Part II - "The Goatsinger's Creed"

THE GOATSINGER'S CREED

A goatsinger has a sense of the tragedy and so looks for the jokes.

A goatsinger will sing.

A goatsinger will tell stories, recite poems, perform any part required.

A goatsinger will play his/her instrument as best he/she can.

The "Goatsinger" Concept: Part I - How It Developed

The "goatsinger" concept grew out a desire to get the audience -- students at first -- to pay attention to a song I knew I was going to play for them. A small story, I had learned from Stuart Hoyle way back in the day, told prior to the song got the audience ready to pay attention to the song.

I love this idea, and I see it everywhere among my favorite performers: Laurie Andersen does it -- moving between telling a story, and playing some odd, lovely music while great blue shadows swim across the scrim behind her; Jack White does it, using only the sounds from his guitar as his voice, trying to guide it to the next song, Meg waiting patiently behind her drums, as do the tens of thousands who have gathered to hear him. In Big Time by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Waits does it with some strong staging concepts and some killer monologues. And Greg Brown goatsings like a motherfather -- that old bastard in concert can be amazing.

I tried this story-before-the-song with a group of ten-year-olds for a performance workshop that I'd been hired to do in their classrooms back in Chicagoland -- telling this long story about about painting up a water pistol with shoe polish and robbing a drugstore -- and they loved it -- and the song it introduced: "Comic Books and Bubblegum."

So is goatsinging acting with some song-and-dance?

Not really: that's musical theater. A goatsinging piece, a "goatsong" if you will, needs to be created by a goatsinger.

What the hell is a goatsinger?

A goatsinger is someone who follows The Goatsinger Creed.


(next: The Goatsinger's Creed)

A Musical Theater Piece

"Buffalo Gals/Old Dan Tucker Piece" by Mike Moran

GOATSINGER – Guitarist

BETSY – Young Innocent-Looking Woman – Dancer/Singer

JOHNNY – Young Innocent-Looking Man – Dancer/Singer

SLICK – Young Not-So-Innocent Man – Dancer/Singer

CLAIRE – Young Not-So-Innocent Woman – Dancer/Singer

CHORUS – Four Dancers/Singers – Two Pairs

(Lights. SIGN up reading "Salvation Army – Cafeteria Open". Goatsinger enters, playing)

CHORUS

Well, Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man –

Washed his face in a frying pan –

Combed his hair with a wagon wheel

And died with a toothache in his heel…

(BETSY enters wearing a Salvation Army uniform. Goatsinger bird-dogs her as he sings)

GOATSINGER

As I was walking down the street

Down the street, down the street

A pretty little girl I chanced to meet

Oh, she was fair to see…

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Buffalo Gals won't you come out tonight

And dance by the light of the moon.

(BETSY plays it coquettishly for a moment, teasing him, and then suddenly turns the "Open" sign to "Closed" and sings:)

BETSY

Get out the way, Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper

Get out the way, Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper

(SLICK and JOHNNY come out on the opposite side of BETSY and sing)

SLICK and JOHNNY

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

And dance by the light of the moon

(JOHNNY and BETSY cross and he stops and they mime a conversation. JOHNNY appears bashful, nervous, but all smiles. BETSY moves lightly around on her feet, almost nervous. SLICK crosses to the exit and stands with the downstage arm leaning against the edge of the exit. It looks like he might be talking to someone backstage that we just can't see)

JOHNNY

I stopped her and we had a talk

Had a talk, had a talk.

Her feet to up the whole sidewalk

(BETSY moves in suddenly close to him)

And left no room for me.

(she starts to leave, reluctantly, but she has to go, so…. And then JOHNNY asks her out with these lines)

JOHNNY

Buffalo Gal, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Buffalo Gal, won't you come out tonight

And dance by the light of the moon

(SLICK looks over his shoulder to the audience, and explains how he's been talking to this girl they can't see by singing:)

SLICK

I asked her if she'd have a dance

Have a dance, have a dance.

I thought that I might have a chance

To shake a foot with her.

(CLAIRE enters, sort of rolling past SLICK)

SLICK and JOHNNY

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

ALL

We'll dance by the light of the moon

(the cast repeats the chorus to "Buffalo Gals" while another two pair of dancers – someday maybe a couple audience members – will step up and fill out the remainder of the square. Once everyone is in place, then:)

GOATSINGER

I danced with a gal with a hole in her stocking

And her heels kept a knocking and her toes kept a rocking

I danced with a gal with a hole in her stocking

And we danced by the light of the moon

(All turn and regard him for a moment while he stands and plays, and then:)

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

CHORUS and LEADS

You're too late to get your supper!

GOATSINGER

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

ALL

You're too late to get your supper.

(There's a dance that goes with this – that'd be the transition during the chorus. Each male, following the transition will enact the lyrics being sung)

GOATSINGER

Old Dan Tucker, he'd come to town

Riding a billy goat, leading a hound

The hound dog barked, the billy goat jumped

Landed old Tucker on a stump.

ALL

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

You're too late to get your supper.

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper.

GOATSINGER

Now Old Dan Tucker got drunk and fell

In the fire and kicked up hell.

A red-hot coal fell in his shoes

And oh my Lord, the ashes flew!

ALL

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

You're too late to get your supper.

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper.

GOATSINGER

Now Old Dan Tucker stands about six four

And he spits in the pitcher before he pours

Now, little fella – now what you going to do

When he fills your glass, then bows to you?

ALL

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

You're too late to get your supper.

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper.

GOATSINGER

I danced with a gal with a hole in her stocking

And her heels kept a knocking and her toes kept a rocking

I danced with a gal with a hole in her stocking

And we danced by the light of the moon

(repeat it, but it goes simultaneously with this:)

ALL

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker!

You're too late to get your supper.

Get out the way! Old Dan Tucker

You're too late to get your supper.

(repeat this for as long as it's pleasurable, then CHORUS breaks off from the LEADs and adds…)

CHORUS

Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Buffalo Gals won't you come out tonight

And dance by the light of the moon

(the chorus partners separate, saying good-bye, thank you, so on and forth, and exit. SLICK and CLAIRE are making out, while JOHNNY says good-bye to BETSY. They take a moment to pry SLICK and CLAIRE apart. BETSY writes down her number and gives it to JOHNNY. BETSY and CLAIRE exit. The boys chide each other as they exit)

GOATSINGER

Mount Revere Gals, won't you come out tonight

Come out tonight, come out tonight

Mount Revere Gals won't you come out tonight

And dance by the light of the moon

(Exits. End)