Under the Live Oaks And Sycamores
"Under the Live Oaks and Sycamores" - Part of a Concert Reading at Yale's Lighten Theatre (Inaugural Season) Performed by Alaina Anderson and Brandon Levin April 18th-21st, 2018 Music, Lyrics, and book by Solon Snider Performers: Willie "Fixit" Ashford - Erron Crawford Trent "Ulysses" Hunter III - Brandon Levin Penelope Lavelle - Alaina Anderson Mara Wilson - Erika Anclade Walter "Daddy" Lavelle - Xavier Washington Marie-Thérèse Thibodeaux - Camille Umoff Cara Mia O'Flanagan - Delilah Napier Saxophone - Hersh Gupta Piano - James Brandfonbrener Percussion - Julian Rosenblum Trombone - Mitchell Ostrow Clarinet - Jacob Miller Trumpet - David Gruskin Bass - Aurora Asadorian Production Team: Director - Ilia Paulino Producer - Max Sauberman Musical Director - James Brandfonbrener Orchestrator - Griffin Strout Orchestrator - James Brandfonbrener Lighting Designer - Ryan Seffinger Props Designer -Tavi Wolfwood Graphic Designer - Iliana Cabral Dramaturg - Callie Fosburgh Description: “Crescent City Baby” (a staged reading), Solon Snider’s senior thesis in Music and Theatre Studies, is the product of years of research and collaboration. Developed with guidance from Professor Joseph Roach through his seminar, “Literary New Orleans Performed,” it is a musical set in 1933 New Orleans and Chicago, at a time when many of New Orleans’ celebrated jazz musicians (such as King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Sidney Bichet, and many more!) were moving to places like Chicago and New York. In New Orleans, a city of mixture—ideological, racial, cultural—a musician who played with Buddy Bolden (the quasi-mythic founder of jazz), his handyman, his forbidden ex-lover and their mixed-race daughter, the daughter’s own forbidden lover, and a communist stripper unite to create their own radio station, where they can play music together without constraint. In “Crescent City Baby,” we trace the Odyssey of American music out of New Orleans and into the minds and hearts of the world through a plot that mirrors Homer’s Odyssey. The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair becomes the site of Odysseus’ (Trent’s) adventures, while New Orleans comes to represent Ithaca, where Penelope, Trent’s forbidden lover, stays, leaving room for a suitor (Mara) to pursue her love. As we trace their adventures, we learn that you can’t take the jazz out of New Orleans, and you can’t take New Orleans out of jazz. To hear individual songs (and more!), visit solonsnider.com
