Auditions for Kazoo are just one week away! I thought I’d take some time to write down some thoughts about the script itself and why I made the choices I made in terms of the story.

What’s at the heart of the story? 

Kazoo is the story of Wren, a young teenage girl, who loses her only parent, her mother. In an instant, her life is upside down. She turns away from her friends, changes her look, and gets into trouble at school. The only part of her past that she holds onto is the kazoo her mother gave her. She plays it alone in her bedroom in her Aunt’s house, and while it helps a little bit, it’s not enough to erase the pain.

That’s when magic enters the story. Wren’s kazoo disappears. A strange being gives her a magic kazoo that he says will help her find the one that is missing. Her friends show up to confront her about how she’s ignored them for months. And the three of them are thrown into a magic world.

What’s with the Dolphins, the Rabbits, the Snakes, etc?

Immediately Wren and her friends meet a group of dolphins, which turns out to be Wren’s favorite animal. This is the first clue that this magic world is being created by Wren and her friends. The dolphin scene is really about childhood, innocence, a last bit of joy before the three girls venture forth into the challenges that await them as they search for the kazoo.

Next, Wren and her friends meet the Rabbits. The Rabbits seem like a lot of fun, but soon the girls realize they’re in a state of denial about, well, everything. Wren finds this comforting because it allows her to forget about all that’s gone crazy in her life. She wants to live in denial, but in the end her friends pull her out.

After the Rabbits, they meet the Witch. Wren, realizing the Witch has magic powers, tries to bargain with her. She offers to stay if the Witch will bring her mother back. The Witch does, but with the help of her friends, Wren realizes the Witch has only brought back an image of her mother and she knows no bargain can be made.

Wren, frustrated and upset over the first two encounters, then meets the Python. The Python tells a story of a monkey who gives up on life and makes it sound like a happy choice to make. This is most dangerous moment of the journey so far as the Python represents depression, and Wren finds herself succumbing to the numbness that the Python offers. Only by connecting with her friends does Wren find the strength to escape the Python.

So that ending… with the flowers. Wren goes a little crazy there…

Finally Wren reaches a grove of flowers atop a hill. Here her missing kazoo is cradled lovingly in the arms of a flower not unlike the ones her mom and she visited when she was little. A vision of her younger self and her mom sends her over the edge, and her anger literally bursts forth from her, and in a fit of rage, she destroys the flowers and the kazoo she had been searching for.

That’s when her mom appears to her, to save her, and to repair the kazoo she was searching for. She brings the flowers back to life with the help of her friends. And she returns to her world with her kazoo having survived the journey.

Wren’s journey is one of grief, accepting it and moving on. That’s a pretty tough topic for kids, but I’ve included much humor along the way. And I believe strongly that kids need stories like this – ones that help them process the emotions coursing through them. Theatre allows for a safe space for actors and audience to experience emotions. We need to exercise our emotions just as much as we need to exercise our bodies and our minds.

So there’s humor in there too? 

Lots of humor throughout the script! Even when dealing with big emotional topics like grief, actors and audience can have a lot of fun along the way.

The Lawn Care Professional is a goofy character, one that I think a lot of people will enjoy. The Witch is sarcastic and self deprecating. And I think the Storytellers have a lot of humor potential in the way they interact with each other and the audience. The goal is to make a fun story that’s also emotionally impacting for the audience.

Why did you write this story? 

My work over the last few years has been all about empowering girls. I have three daughters, so it’s personal for me. I changed the genders of the older kids in my production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so Susan got to kill the wolf and Peter had to experience the death of Aslan up close. In my retelling of the Guinevere and Arthur myth, I started with this idea: What if Guinevere and Arthur pulled the sword from the stone together? That lead to an empowering story for Guinevere and a more interesting one for Arthur as well. In Kazoo, I stayed a little closer to home, setting the story in modern times, perhaps making it even more accessible to our teen girls who dealing with difficult emotions every day. I wanted to provide a positive vision of girl friendship, where they help each other and even call each other out in a good way. Most of all, I wanted girls to know they’re not alone. Even if they don’t lose their mom, they are going to feel pain, emotions are going to seem overwhelming, and maybe they can help each other a little bit, by reaching out and listening to each other.

And mostly I just really liked Wren and I wanted to tell her story.