"ZOWIE KAPOW"
by
Danny Strack
Copyright (C) Daniel Strack, 2005
All Rights Reserved
December 30,
2005
Light cue 4 - half light – FADE IN
Live Band plays upbeat Intro
DANNY walks to center front
2 Cardboard buildings with frowns for doors against back corner
Music turns softer and sadder, more bluesy, continues playing in background
***Begin Slideshow with off rhymed words
DANNY:
Things were looking grim in Happyville,
a plague had swept over the town,
unemployment was up,
the mayor was corrupt,
and the people walked around with sad expressions on their faces.
Sad villagers walk across the stage
DANNY:
City hall and the crooked mayor,
could be found in town square,
which was also the place,
the people would meet each night,
Mob:
rabble, rabble, rabble
DANNY:
to complain about their plight,
they cried:
MOB:
We must react angrily to this situation!
Mob walks off stage
Music starts to turn a bit happier
DANNY:
Then one day summer came,
the plague began to wane,
the market started to gain,
and the mayor was canned and beaten with a stick.
Yet people were unchanged,
continued laying blame,
did nothing but complain,
and one man thought that this was really too bad.
Now his lot had been no better than most,
all of his assets were seized,
his family was lost to disease,
and with no home, he was very cold all the time.
But with winter in the past,
his mourning was coming to an end,
music grows happier
Light cue 1 –
DANNY:
he thawed and saw light at last,
and now had a message to deliver to the people.
DANNY walks up onto stage stands between buildings
He dressed up as a clown,
and traveled into town,
and in the square people gathered 'round,
Mob comes back in with some hidden weapons, they rabble some more
to yell and chant, to make a loud lively ruckus,
Crowd gathers around DANNY
but when crowd's eyes turned to the man in white paint,
Everyone grows quiet and looks at the DANNY
and they bade that he make his complaint,
rather than tell them what he thought was wrong,
he shuffled about, and sang this little ditty:
Crowd Shifts so that audience can see danny
Music Cuts Out completely
DANNY, shuffling about on stage, sings in a sad voice:
DANNY:
"I know that things were
bad,
but there's no need to still be unhappy.
Sure it sounds cheesy,
but it's really very simple,
to make your cheeks crease.
It's time for the crying
to end,
for our hearts to grow back together,
look out and see the golden sun shining,
it's time for us to stop being sad all the
time."
DANNY (as narrator):
The people were quiet for a minute,
then someone yelled that he was an idiot.
One Voice:
Idiot!
DANNY:
Then someone else hit him with a rock,
and everyone was mocking and making fun,
and the call went out,
MOB:
"Grab your weapons!"
"Plus someone get a
rope, we're going to hang this dope!"
Mob pulls out weapons.
DANNY:
Our hero could see they were ready to attack,
so no turning back,
he broke through the crowd and ran for the horizon,
Mob chases DANNY off stage
Now the folks on his tail had crossbows and blowguns,
throwing stars, cattle-prods, and double-barreled shotguns,
tasers, lasers, and blow-guns,
and a 21 magnum.
Sound of many weapons firing off-stage, in the order listed
and they were right on his tail as he zipped down the path,
shooting and shocking, unleashing their wrath-
light cue 3 - Lights fade out to
Helpers remove buildings in darkness
And they chased that clown right out of their town.
Then returned to their homes.
But the clown couldn't go back to his,
so he traveled in search of a new one,
and some folks say he finally found it.
Music begins again
DANNY:
Friends,
I was that clown,
looking for an escape,
roaming the country song side,
wondering what winter weather was like
in
I decided to find out,
so I hopped a train due south from
switched tracks in
when on my way east toward the bayou bay,
I was booted off the train and sent on my way.
nowhere else to go and looking for some fun,
I ended up in
light cue 4 - Lights fade up to
Dockworker walks onto stage behind DANNY
DANNY:
where got to talking to this dockworker,
who said:
Dockworker:
Why,
I know of a place you could get away to:
The Cloud Carnival of
where runaway animals hold an eternal circus in the sky-
in fact,
it's on that cloud right there-'
***Clouds Projected on
DANNY:
and that all sounded pretty unbelievable to me,
I said,
if it's a circus from
what's it doing above
DOCKWORKER:
Why, it floated here!
DANNY:
and that was enough for me!
"How can I get up there?"
I asked him,
and he sold me what he told me was a giant dragonfly egg,
Dockworker gives giant egg to DANNY, then exits stage right,
DANNY examines it-
which then hatched in my hands,
and huge wings unfolded to a ten foot span...
The insect took hold of my shoulders
***Sound Cue 1 - prerecorded narration Track 1 starts -
and we took off
up through the clouds
Danny Zips out Stage Right
Helpers unroll 'clouds' on the stage
only to emerge above them
light cue 1 -
to sunlight streaming across a fantastic cloudscape Serengeti
Helpers
where I saw intelligent elephants and gazelles in glasses
grazing on wispy white grass
and then we were zooming above a soft fluffy path,
so I struggled my shoulders and when the dragonfly let go,
Helpers leave stage left
I landed like a teddy bear in a toilet paper commercial-
rolling into a somersault
and through a cartwheel and a carnival archway
DANNY rolls out onto cloud covered stage right from behind
curtains,
sits and looks amazed
*** End Sound Cue 1 -
Band Starts the Oompa
where the world turned cotton candy
helpers turn Pink lighting on clouds
and I saw forked flags waving from tent top towers
band starts playing circus music,
and then came the all ape brass band parading down the lane
playing irresistible,
da-da dadadada da-da, da-da
endlessly looping,
da-da dadadada da-da, da-da
and I forgot I was human as I
took up a spare set of cymbals
DANNY leaps up and grabs cymbals
and clashed crashing after them,
Clashes them to the music
Circus music fades but continues to play through piece:
joined them, enchanted,
pulled, past tent flaps
DANNY pulled around and through screen
and into the enormous center-ring,
where we wove through spiraling concentric circles,
of colorful critters in silly circus costumes:
***projection of zowie kapow cover animals
helpers
the outermost edge made up of monkey mimes!
trapped in a train of invisible boxcars,
chugging silently around a ring of ballerina horses in tutus, on two legs,
leaping and rotating pirouettes, as they,
circled a circle of seven elephant clowns on tricycles,
spraying water from fire hose noses up into the air, where,
acrobatic lions and tigers and bears wearing spandex,
were swinging by their teeth from ceiling trapezes,
and floating in the focus, in the center of it all,
was the ringmaster magician chicken,
clucking commands and proclamations to her animal disciples!
and I was below, within, looking up, amazed!
still dancing and playing in the primate parade,
but when we reached the center circle,
I abandoned the band,
DANNY tosses cymbals aside and hops on tricycle,
to peddle with the painted pachyderms instead!
and as I came around again for a second circle,
I realized,
that I finally found my place in this world,
I found The Cloud Carnival of Cairo!
I joined The Eternal Animal Circus in the sky!!!!!
This was the happiest day of my life!!!!!!!!!!!
Light cue 3 - Drops to Sp
danny gets off tricycle
Helpers Exit Stage Left
Music turns darkly cartoonish... like in Smurfs or Teddy Bears,
then fades out completely
DANNY:
But then I realized something else,
all the animals were eyeing me uncomfortably,
some salivating...
the music and moving stopped abruptly-
and I looked up to see,
Dun dun Dun
the ringmaster magician chicken cluck,
and point down at me!
Dun dun Dun dun dun
The baboon behind me took a swing with his instrument-
In the dark, a helper sneaks up behind DANNY, taps on shoulder and takes a swing (on "swing")
danny ducks on the tap
Helpers then set up bar set behind DANNY during sound effect heavy chase sequence
I ducked,
Then the whole pack pounced all at once and bounced back off each other,
Sound Effect of Crashing and Bouncing
but I could see I was out of luck,
surrounded,
critters closing in quick,
when it hit me- wow!
we were standing on a cloud!
So I dove into the ground and wove my way away that way!
Danny steps Out of Spotlight
Sound Effect of Swooshing and Cloud Swimming
Now, all I'm gonna say,
is when you're swimming in a cloud,
you don't want to dig too deep or you'll fall into the sky.
Danny Returns to Spotlight
I surfaced outside gasping for breath,
looking back,
I saw the animals emerging from the big top in a stampede,
Sound of Stampede (elephants trumpet, growling, thunderous movement)
so I ran to the only shelter I could see,
a bare brick building bearing a sign that simply said "Bar",
which sounded waaaaaay better than being torn apart and eaten,
I rushed inside and slammed the door tight,
Sound of Door Slamming
right in their faces...
For the other half and WAY more, come see my play, Zowie Kapow! on Thursday, January 12, 2006 at Hyde Park Theatre, part of the FronteraFest Short Fringe!!!
Copyright (C) Daniel Strack, 2005
All Rights Reserved