Please Enjoy the Following Sample

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1 Please Enjoy the Following Sample This sample is an excerpt from a Samuel French title. This sample is for perusal only and may not be used for performance purposes. You may not download, print, or distribute this excerpt. We highly recommend purchasing a copy of the title before considering for performance. For more information about licensing or purchasing a play or musical, please visit our websites

2 Respect: A Musical Journey of Women Book by Arranged by Phil Hinton Libretto Phone: (212) (866) Fax: (212) info@samuelfrench.com SAMUELFRENCH.COM

Respect: A Musical Journey of Women Book by Arranged by Phil Hinton Libretto Copyright 2011 by

5 2. Characters Dorothy: Narrator, white, middle-aged, looks intelligent. She must not be overweight and she should look believably of Norwegian descent. Faith: White. Younger (20's to early 30's), bouncy energy, even ditsy. Able to sing jazz and pop. She is innocent and naïve. She needs to find her own strength, which shows up as becoming less naïve. She finally realizes she has been taken advantage of and learns she needs to be her own person. Rosa: African-American, young or up to mid-40's. Can sing jazz, soul, R&B. She is too abrasive-the hardhearted Hannah, and needs to find her vulnerability. Real courage is not displayed by aggression or overdone power. She learns to temper her strength, to push back in more productive ways. Eden: White. Younger (20's to early 40s). Able to sing Broadway and pop. She doesn't have any selfconfidence. Her only source of strength is her sexuality and her body, which she nonetheless detests. She finally learns to accept herself and find inner strength. A projection screen is in the background. Slides change periodically throughout the whole show, to match songs and monologues. They include fashions contemporary to time frame, old comic book and sheet music covers, advertisements and photos of Dorothy's family, as they are presented. Stage is halflit as people enter theater. Walk-in music is playing-upbeat 60's music. Lights black. Stage Manager announcements. Overture begins. Throughout the Overture projected on a large screen located center stage we see women that have influenced history. RESPECT

6 3. Photos Fannie Brice, Lilly Langtry, Dorothy's Grandmother, Coco Channel, Shirley Temple, Mae West, Betty Boop, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Ida B. Wells, Rosy the Riveter, Barbie, Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean Baker, June Cleaver, Sandra Dee, Monica Lewinsky, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Demi Moore, Debbie Allen, Liz Taylor, Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Lilly Tomlinson, Oprah Winfrey, Rosa Parks, C. J. Walker, Joni Mitchell, Betty Freidan, Gloria Steinem, Joan Baez, Shirley Chisholm, Marlo Thomas, Mary Tyler Moore, Gloria Gaynor, Tina Turner, Janis Ian, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, Diana Ross, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Golda Meir, Bella Abzug, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, Caroline Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, Jackie Onassis, Mother Theresa, Baha'i woman [added], Olympic winners, Madeline Albright, Maya Angelou, Audrey Hepburn, Betty Davis, Joan Crawford, Susan Sarandon, Dorothy Dandridge, Queen Latifah, Women with their Children, Carrie Battle, Princess Diana. RESPECT

7 4. Act I (SONG #1 RESPECT PRELUDE, see vocal score for lyrics) DOROTHY. If you could choose one song that meant the most to you, what would it be? What would be the soundtrack of your life? (SONG #2 OPENING MEDLEY PART 1, see vocal score for lyrics) What song really is me? I asked myself that question trying to understand my own heartaches. It had been years since I lost my husband. Why wasn't I stronger? GIRLS. (sung) STRONGER. DOROTHY. I was teaching a course on women in management at the time, so I took refuge in the one thing I knew Research. I had started using music in my lectures and I wondered why didn't Fannie Brice ever sing a song like I am woman, hear me roar? Instead of Oh my man I love him so, he beats me too, what can I do? GIRLS. (sung) WHAT CAN I DO? DOROTHY. And then I couldn't stop. I looked at each one of the 2,401 Top-40 songs that women sang since 1900 and that's when it saw it, right there. Popular music tells the story of women. Like an inkblot test of the culture. And I discovered my life was laid out in those songs. And if I could make sense of this music, maybe I could understand my own journey and the women in my family. I noticed a pattern We all went through phases, that weren't exactly linear. FAITH. From childhood neediness. ROSA. To teenage rebel, EDEN. To young adult cynic. DOROTHY. Who couldn't be bothered with the hurt of love. [Beat] But when would we become adult enough to control our own happiness? I started talking to women. Across the country and around the world. Old women. Young women. FAITH. Single, EDEN. Married, RESPECT

8 5. DOROTHY. Widowed. ROSA. Divorced! DOROTHY. So I did what any respected academic would do I wrote a book about women and popular music. What songs were part of their journey and touched their lives? Which tunes helped them through sorrow and become stronger? This is their story and mine. (SONG 3 OPENING MEDLEY PART 2, see vocal score for lyrics) DOROTHY. Popcorn. Peanuts. Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the World's Fair here in sunny Buffalo New York in the new century 1901 [nineteen-ought-one]. We're pleased to welcome, direct from Jersey, England, the world famous Miss Lilly Langtry! (She has a corset, with long ties, so they can pull on the laces-and it affects her singing. There is a mattress on the other side of the stage that she falls on at the end of the scene.) (EDEN sings as Lilly Langtry: SONG #4 BIRD IN A GUILDED CAGE) EDEN. SHE'S ONLY A BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE, A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT TO SEE. (FAITH and ROSA tie up corset.) YOU MAY THINK SHE'S HAPPY AND FREE FROM CARE SHE'S NOT THOUGH SHE SEEMS TO (EDEN gasps as they tighten corset.) BE. DOROTHY. The corset a symbol of women's restrictions. LILLY LANGTRY (EDEN). (with a British accent) Restrictions? What restrictions? Women are so fortunate. We are the weaker sex, you know. So we need men to make all the decisions, take all the responsibility, Oh I've heard about those women who complain, say we should vote-- But why should we worry our pretty little heads about politics, Men are so much more suited to it-and smarter. Although with women going to college, (They look at her aghast, about to pull.) we can become better at the things we SHOULD be doing like marriage. RESPECT

9 6. ROSA. Motherhood FAITH. And service to Christianity. ALL. (sing) Amen! DOROTHY. (with hat) Eight years later my grandmother came from Norway. DOROTHY (AS GRANDMOTHER). (Norwegian accent, practical, matter-of-fact woman) I was 16 years old when I came from the Old Country DOROTHY & FAITH. (FAITH is playing granddaughter.) With $20 in my pocket. DOROTHY. I couldn't speak English, but I found a job, as a maid, in Elgin [El-Jin] Illinois. Four years later I met him [holds up hat] at a dance. "What a tall glass of water he is." That's what I told my friend Lena. But from that moment on, I never wanted any other man but Oscar. We got married and had five children. Then something happened. He started drinking, real fierce. So I threw him out. Got a divorce. You just didn't do that back then. But I had my children to think about. During the depression I worked as a cook--at Beloit College to support them. After my children were grown, I got a Christmas card from Oscar. He said he wanted to come home. So I got in my old Plymouth and drove to Chicago and found him on Skid Row-He promised to quit drinking. And he did. We got remarried. And I still love him the way I did back in the beginning. (SONG #7 CAN T HELP LOVIN DAT MAN, see vocal score for lyrics) DOROTHY. My grandmother was an unusual woman for her time and she could always take care of herself. So she never did understand some of her friends. Like Ada, who threw out (EDEN pantomimes kicking.) her sorry husband, (SOUND CUE of door slamming) only to say (SONG #9 BILL BAILEY, see measures 1-23 in vocal score for lyrics) ROSA. And he was bald! RESPECT

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Please Enjoy the Following Sample

Please Enjoy the Following Sample This sample is an excerpt from a Samuel French title. This sample is for perusal only and may not be used for performance purposes. You may not download, print, or distribute