About the PreBook

The LADY of the ROSE  PRE-BOOK includes: script, Lyrics, story and plot, structure, staging, scenes, composer(s), instrumentation, artist's statement, track list, and credits & copyright notice.

Cast of Characters:The cast of characters provide chorus backing, and dancing as needed.
The performance is meant to be broadly multi-ethnic.
Principles––Seven male and one female, each having individual personalities
1. The Questing “Boy”
2. The Wizard
3. A Young Adult Male/Young Man (the grown up Boy)
4. The ‘Dark Male’*
5. A virtual “Fetus-Boy”
6. Joseph
7. Inn Keeper
8. Lady of the Rose/Madonna
Other Characters, Vocalists and Performers:
·A Mouse character––appears briefly in beginning & later to sing briefly in
“There’s a Reason”
·Other animal characters–in the Primordial Dance, and “There’s a Reason–to Be Boogie”
·Modern Dancers–Primordial Dance, Cave Procession, “There’s a Reason”
·Cave Family for the Cave Procession
·British like ‘Changing of the Guard' characters
·A ‘Boys’ Choir (light robed; may include a few young girls posing as boys )
·A Girl’s Chorus and Girl
·A Men’s Choir (dark robed in a shade of deep-jade)
·Three Priests, in the Finale crowd

Synopsis:
*Story and Setting. An orphaned boy on a quest arrives at a wizard’s ocean-side-cave. The night sky shines through the cave’s gigantic arched entrance. In the cave’s shadows are hidden a boys choir (appearing first as ‘rocks’ on risers at left of entrance) and a men’s choir (darker robed, as rocks to right of entrance). In the interior cavern area, the wizard sits center and forefront at his small open fire pit. The boy is invited to join him. In an intimate dialogue, the Boy speaks of his life and tells the old wizard of his quest. The wizard invokes magic and his crystal ball to reveal glimpses of other worlds and other times. A fantastic musical odyssey is enabled by the crystal ball images. These are projected onto the cavern’s entrance and walls for all to see, (audience is in the cave). Boy and Wizard are propelled from pre-Creation into the past and future via music, song and dance, imagery, and cave procession. There is a morphing between surreal-reality and time as this musical journey unfolds––the divine ROSE
LADY of the ROSE––a MUSICAL ODYSSEY is about discovery and acknowledgement of the beauty and sanctity of life. The higher and lower aspects of Humankind are witnessed through a boy’s quest and a crystal ball. Aspects of light and dark are contrasted throughout, revealing a way to Redemption, Truth, and Possibility. Lady of the Rose offers her nurturing ‘Feminine’ way–as she leads Boy and audience toward a fantastical ascension.
The Odyssey was written as a montage with a story. It is filled with song and dance, and is complemented by iconic space-stage imagery. Modern dance is the most prevalent dance genre––primordial creatures emerge from a primordial pool, and the Madonna/ Goddess rises from the waters of Genesis. The story’s drama, mystery and magic is further punctuated by folk, can-can, and shadow/light dancing. Petroglyphs dance on the theatre-cave-walls and shadow-dancers haunt a mysterious cave procession, which leads to Fetal-Boy—a metaphor to the conception of the Universal Divine Child.
‘Non-musical’ Elements of Transition include image, special effects lighting, and sonic expressions of the natural world i.e. sights and sounds of creatures, and elemental forces: “Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.” These resonant Cosmic and Earthly expressions, though not all in the recording as submitted, are meant to complement the theatrical work and its effect on the mood and psyche.

* The words “Dark Male” do not refer to race, and do not necessarily refer to the male gender. Rather, they are used as a metaphor to the baser and sometimes more scary aspects of human experience and expression. ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ are used in Lady of the Rose—a Muscal Odyssey because of their revealing contrasts and universal psycho/physical associations. Light and dark characterizations underscores the mystical premise: “darkness reveals the light and light lifts darkness”.

 

Lady of the Rose a Musical Odyssey Pre-Book by Karen Harvey. The Lady of the Rose Pre-Book is FREE to reviewers for licensing for performance &/or development in part or whole. (For your free copy, use the CONTACT form in the website menu.) The Pre-Book includes the script, Lyrics, story & plot, structure, staging/scenes, composer(s), instrumentation, artist's statement, track list, and credits & copyright notice. Copyright 2007-2014, Karen W. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

"Lady of the Rose--a Musical Odyssey"
the CD album cover