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Finding MedusaLibretto by Madeline Puccioni, Music by Jeff DunnWebsite: https://www.findingmedusa.com Contact Email: jdunn@mmalameda.com |
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Finding Medusa is a rarity these days–a light opera full of fun, drama, captivating characters, catchy tunes–and surprises! The goddess Athena cons Perseus into being a “hero” by finding and beheading Medusa. In doing so, he meets her three weird sisters, two of which are cannibals and the third vegetarian, and he discovers Medusa is not what she seems. In fact, she wants him to use her head to punish male abusers, which he does so on the way to a triple wedding. It’s a feminist take on a classic myth that’s a Head of its time! The work has been through a six-year development phase, including two partial showcases and several dramaturg-supervised readings. Several costumed videos and professional recordings have been made of 9 of the 19 scenes. We are looking ideally for a workshop or black-box production of the piano/vocal score to work out any remaining kinks. Madeline Puccioni is happy to be back at her real work, after grading English 1A papers for 30 years. Her first full-length play, Two O’Clock Feeding, was produced by The Magic Theatre in SF in 1980 and published in West Coast Plays IV. Raising a family and teaching college English full time left no time to write plays, but since retiring in 2014, she’s written over 40 short plays, and has had most of them produced, hither and thither, all over the world. Her one-act, Playland Forever, won a spot in the William Inge Festival in 2018. Scene One of her Monticello 2020 won a spot in PlayHouse Creatures’ New Playwrights Festival, NYC, in January 2022. The Cassandra Murders was a semi-finalist in the Bay Area Playwright Festival competition in February. Piercings, a full-length collection of her “sad and hilarious little love stories,” was published by Next Stage Press in April. Her short play, Queen of Sorrows had a full production for Towne Street Theatre’s External Forces show at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena in May, and her one-act, The Saturday Nighters, had a full production for B3 Theatre in Scottsdale in June. Her 1913 was up and dancin’ for Spectral Sisters’ New Plays Festival in Alexandria, LA in July 2022. Three of her plays have been scheduled for theaters so far in 2023. Like Dominique Morisseau, Madeline believes that “good writers see themselves in everybody.” She lives with her handsome Monroe in Oakland, California. She’s having fun.
Jeff Dunn, composer, first began to love the creation of musicals when Meredith Willson played a preview of his The Unsinkable Molly Brown on the piano at his childhood home. Earning a B.A. in Music at Grinnell College, where he received the Steiner Prize for musical composition, Jeff went on to a career in academia and project management while composing art songs, a film score (A Wilderness in Your Heart), and chamber works, many of which were performed as part of concerts for the National Association of Composers, USA, where he is a lifetime member. Jeff has been a music critic in the San Francisco Bay area since 1993, writing for many journals including San Francisco Classical Voice, American Record Guide, and 21st Century Music. His musical Castle Happy (with collaborator John Freed) received a festival run at the Altarena Playhouse in 2017. As a co-founder of EastBay PlayReaders, Jeff has composed considerable incidental music, including for The Tempest, and, for a PTSD program coordinated by the USS Hornet in Alameda, Sophocles’ Ajax. |
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Finding Medusa
Libretto by Madeline Puccioni, Music by Jeff Dunn
Website: https://www.findingmedusa.com
Contact Email: jdunn@mmalameda.com
Finding Medusa is a rarity these days–a light opera full of fun, drama, captivating characters, catchy tunes–and surprises! The goddess Athena cons Perseus into being a “hero” by finding and beheading Medusa. In doing so, he meets her three weird sisters, two of which are cannibals and the third vegetarian, and he discovers Medusa is not what she seems. In fact, she wants him to use her head to punish male abusers, which he does so on the way to a triple wedding. It’s a feminist take on a classic myth that’s a Head of its time!
The work has been through a six-year development phase, including two partial showcases and several dramaturg-supervised readings. Several costumed videos and professional recordings have been made of 9 of the 19 scenes. We are looking ideally for a workshop or black-box production of the piano/vocal score to work out any remaining kinks.
Madeline Puccioni is happy to be back at her real work, after grading English 1A papers for 30 years. Her first full-length play, Two O’Clock Feeding, was produced by The Magic Theatre in SF in 1980 and published in West Coast Plays IV. Raising a family and teaching college English full time left no time to write plays, but since retiring in 2014, she’s written over 40 short plays, and has had most of them produced, hither and thither, all over the world.
Her one-act, Playland Forever, won a spot in the William Inge Festival in 2018. Scene One of her Monticello 2020 won a spot in PlayHouse Creatures’ New Playwrights Festival, NYC, in January 2022. The Cassandra Murders was a semi-finalist in the Bay Area Playwright Festival competition in February. Piercings, a full-length collection of her “sad and hilarious little love stories,” was published by Next Stage Press in April. Her short play, Queen of Sorrows had a full production for Towne Street Theatre’s External Forces show at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena in May, and her one-act, The Saturday Nighters, had a full production for B3 Theatre in Scottsdale in June. Her 1913 was up and dancin’ for Spectral Sisters’ New Plays Festival in Alexandria, LA in July 2022. Three of her plays have been scheduled for theaters so far in 2023.
Like Dominique Morisseau, Madeline believes that “good writers see themselves in everybody.” She lives with her handsome Monroe in Oakland, California. She’s having fun.
Jeff Dunn, composer, first began to love the creation of musicals when Meredith Willson played a preview of his The Unsinkable Molly Brown on the piano at his childhood home. Earning a B.A. in Music at Grinnell College, where he received the Steiner Prize for musical composition, Jeff went on to a career in academia and project management while composing art songs, a film score (A Wilderness in Your Heart), and chamber works, many of which were performed as part of concerts for the National Association of Composers, USA, where he is a lifetime member.
Jeff has been a music critic in the San Francisco Bay area since 1993, writing for many journals including San Francisco Classical Voice, American Record Guide, and 21st Century Music. His musical Castle Happy (with collaborator John Freed) received a festival run at the Altarena Playhouse in 2017.
As a co-founder of EastBay PlayReaders, Jeff has composed considerable incidental music, including for The Tempest, and, for a PTSD program coordinated by the USS Hornet in Alameda, Sophocles’ Ajax.