The synopsis for my script and a brief description for my stage play are below. The theater projects for Riddle Verse Comics are largely inspired by studying with Arizona State University’s English Department for a few years.
“Who Has Wrung Our Lovely Belle?”is a revenge tragedy about an impressive young woman who is demonized by an obsessed youth who adores her for being driven by a sense of honor. The Two Act play takes place just moments after a rude and awkward “No” from Lynne (the protagonist) towards Desmondo, her adoring fan. Desmondo is twisted with anger and in an unappealing tantrum an equally devious Anabelle, her best friend, seizes a blatant open door to make a problem for Lynne using Desmondo’s willingness to be her fool with a boldface lie.
Shrink is perhaps Lynne’s only friend and although the two disagree in many ways regarding the nature of humankind; our motives, our behavior and perhaps our composition, they both can agree that Lynne has become isolated in her pursuit of strength and perfection. Shrink begins to dissect Lynne’s perforced circumstance as tragic and beyond her control and although he is persuasive, she will ultimately sow her own undoing. Conquest is oftentimes driven by impoverished character and Lynne’s temper is no different. Driven by a singularly mean-spirited urge to crush Desmondo, Lynne will ultimately be undone by his cruel device: The Bit-Noose.
The play represents superficial obsession in the face of success.
“When Gina Bounced” is a love story about the need for something greater than financial wealth to survive. Focusing on emotional wealth and financial poverty, the story takes us through the lives of two very different people who struggle to stay together because the world has grown corrupt.
It begins in a realm just off reality. The Muse Mansion lies barren. A giant globe of Earth collects dust. Two lonely keepers wander the mansion. Inspiration has ceased to exist in this once vibrant society of muses. Still full of memory, the keepers break the long silence by spinning the globe. It glows electric and stormy outside, which demonstrates that the globe controls the mood of Earth. The storm sets in motion two opposing forces, Creativity and Chaos, into the world.
This larger than life setting creates the backdrop for our heroine Gina. Gina is trapped. She has lived a life of mindless decadence and realizes she is marrying the wrong man as a result. A desperate need to feel something genuine begins to overthrow the misguided satisfaction that dominates her life. After a night of partying, she flees with almost nothing. Fueled by fear of her fiancé, Knuckles Tony, she winds up in an unlikely place. A public bus is the last place she would have looked to find a soul capable of feeding her malnourished heart. But a rugged young man pays her bus fare. Elliot is handsome, poor, and endowed with a magic quality found only within inspired beings.
These two worlds merge. Elliot is fueled by the muses of Creativity. Tony is guarded by the single muse of Chaos. A relationship between Elliot and Gina is not possible within the “real world,” so the muses recreate “the realm just off reality” for them to inhabit. It manifests itself as a circus. This circus is alive— literally. Tent flaps grow from leaves and ropes morph from vines. Within the circus, love between Elliot and Gina blossoms. But when the muse of Chaos invades, the circus shrivels, dying like an unwatered plant. Along with it dies the hope that Elliot and Gina could be together.
Upset that his fiancé has chosen another, Knuckles Tony hunts them like fugitive slaves. His enforcer Rock-Head leads the pursuit, resulting in a missed-by-inches manhunt. The muses of creativity keep Elliot and Gina one step ahead. The tension culminates in a final showdown wherein the opposing sides must face each other. Lover against Tyrant. Creativity versus Chaos. Hope against brutal fear.
Sheet Music, from Letters of Home, Song 1
Sheet Music, from Letters of Home, Song 2
Sheet Music, From Letters of Home, Song 3
Sheet Music, from Letters of Home, Song 4
Sheet Music, from Letters of Home, Song 5
Sheet Music, from Letters of Home, Song 18
Letters of Home, A Song Book (website only, collection)
The Physics Journal of Brandon Lund