Borrowed from Broadway Fan Club’s November Newsletter

 

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE,

the beloved children’s book, is now a new musical that is currently touring the US.  Melissa Gilbert, who rose to fame playing “Laura” in the 1970s TV series based on the book, stars as “Ma.”   We asked Donna Di Novelli, the show’s lyricist, to share one of her lyrics with the Fan Club. She gives us some insight on the writing process for lyrically adapting a book for the stage.

 

The Prairie moves,
All around it moves
All the time it moves.

 

The land transforms
Every day reborn
Every morn.

 

Its grasses bend and bow
Its flower petals blow
Its stars will sow another prairie night.

 

The bison thunder by
In a whirl of dust and sky
Barely shy of a swirling storm.

 

We’ll build a home
A homestead home
From where you’ll watch the prairie move.

 

Through windows open wide
To catch the morning air

 

You’ll see the mustangs ride
You’ll see the leaping hare
And geese that fly beyond the countryside.

 

Along with them you’ll grow
Learning lessons as you go
From the glory the prairie’s own

 

We cannot stay the same
As we rise with each new day
On a land that the wind has grown.

 

-From “The Prairie Moves,” lyrics by Donna Di Novelli. Reprinted by permission.

 

Q: Why did you and your collaborators choose this moment to be a song?

 

A: This was one of the first songs Rachel Portman and I wrote, almost four years ago. Prompted by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s words, we started our collaboration by writing two love songs: one to the sky, one to the land. “Endless Sky” did not make it into the final script but “The Prairie Moves” did because of its strong dramatic function.

 

What were you trying to accomplish in this particular musical moment?

 

Several dramatic moments come together at this point in the musical. On the most basic level, Pa is trying to convince Laura that her restlessness can find a home on the prairie, that she doesn’t need to keep moving because “The Prairie Moves.”

 

On another level it is an ode to the beauty of the land, which is not static but alive with movement. The land and all its motion is a gift in song that this father gives to his daughter.

 

And on a third level, it is Pa trying to convince himself that HIS wanderlust will find peace on the prairie. At the end of the song what was second person singular addressed to Laura: “Along with them you’ll grow learning lessons as you go, from the glory the Prairie’s own” becomes third person plural “We cannot stay the same as we rise with each new day, on a land that the wind has grown.”

 

Why is this one of your favorite lyrics?

 

You can’t write a work called Little House on the Prairie without falling in love with the Prairie–and that beautiful French word. This song is also emblematic of the entire piece. The land will transform and the settlers will be the ones that change this open grassland to farmland. The struggle to tame the land parallels the story of Laura’s taming and her resistance to that. The entire staging of this musical is about the Prairie’s movement and transformation: the people, the sky, the set, the protagonist. 

 

To what extent, if at all, did you base these lyrics on text from the novel?

 

We based it both on the books and on historical research. “The bison thunder by in a whirl of dust and sky, barely shy of a swirling storm.” The swirling storm is, of course, in reference to the buffalo’s inability to outrun their own destruction. While allowing the actual geography of the plains into the song, the dramatic function comes from Laura’s desire to go “on and on” and follow the sun. Pa and Ma are always dealing with this middle child’s defiance of convention and decorum–it’s woven into her character, and reining her in is part of theirs.

 

Was the lyric or music written first for this song?  How were most of the songs written for this show (music or lyrics first or alternating)?

 

Rachel Portman likes to work lyrics first, but at an early point in her composing, she often asks for the lyrics to adapt to her developing musical structure. There are a few songs, “Old Enough,” “Thunder,” “Faster” which were set basically “as is”, but mostly we alternate after the lyrics are initially on paper and go back and forth until satisfied.

 

Popularity: 30% [?]

By Lisa Orzolek, Set Designer for THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE

 

In The Space Theatre, architectural sense can be challenging…who has pentagonal shaped rooms?   We closed off 3 of the 5 entry voms for seating, which allowed for places to put bigger scenery: the fireplace, window seat and the bar.  We needed the fireplace to be tall enough for a man to lean against so not putting seats directly behind the fireplace allowed this option.

 

One of the first questions director Bruce Sevy asked when we sat down to design the Voysey library was how far into the room we could put the doors.  Though it would impact a few seats on either side of the doorway, we put the doors 6 feet away from the main playing area, instead of the usual 12 feet.  Keeping the audience view of the stage as unobstructed as possible is one of the constant challenges of designing in the round.  Sometimes we make the furniture shorter than normal or only use a half door so that they can be “inside” the room.  We needed to keep the doors real and have them make architectural sense.

 

The Denver Center has an extraordinary stock of props and a particularly great selection from the Victorian era.  Nearly every item in the warehouse is catalogued, so it was with pictures in hand that Bruce and I began arranging the room.  Needs: desk, large table, bookshelves, fireplace, chandelier, rugs and plenty of “conversation areas” for the family to sit.  Stock was plentiful for the furniture.  Missing items were:  a tall fireplace, barrister bookshelves, an ottoman and a period looking desk.  We built the fireplace, purchased the bookshelves online, built the ottoman and our prop shopper found the desk at a local antique store. We added a window seat to fit in one of the odd corners.  We found a door and doorway in stock and built the double door to match.

 

But even with so much stock, the prop shop has been busy. Among the projects undertaken for THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE:
•    85+ legal looking period documents created and printed (some pulled from stock)
•    14 items upholstered or reupholstered
•    12 floral or fruit arrangements designed
•    6+ trips to the warehouse for room décor not including trips for rehearsal props
•    5 table runners sewn or modified
•    4 mourning decorations created
•    3 pillows remade
•    3 magazines scanned and printed
•    2 period newspapers created and printed
•    2 carpet runners with fringed ends made from “runner on a roll”
•    1 chandelier completely disassembled, rewired and new chimneys added
And in we are also creating the realistic 1950’s Chicago apartment interior for A RAISIN IN THE SUN.

Popularity: 21% [?]