The Family Tree

The Family Tree is a story about the power of love of family on many levels, from our own families to the global family that bonds us all together. In this story we’ll follow one young couple as they start their own family and we’ll watch and listen through the years of ups and downs and changing dynamics that all families and relationships go through in varying ways and degrees. The story covers the span of approximately 25 years, from this couple expecting their first and only child, through the growing years, and eventually to their son moving out to start a life of his own as they subsequently deal with facing their empty nest. And as we meet our fourth main character, their son's new found love, we'll get to watch as their relationship blossoms and grows.

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My emphasis in this project is on the music. The story I’ve outlined is just a sketch with many holes in the storylines waiting for details to be filled in. In fact, the entire story is very flexible as far as setting, timeframe, characters and events go. I created the concept envisioning it taking place from the mid 1960's through the '80's on the coast of California. However it could be anyone, anytime, anywhere. I hope this may only be the beginning of conceptualizing the storyline. As I've said, there are many layers of the story missing, timelines to be filled and specific events to be defined. There's a lot of character development to be expanded on, as well as detailing events and conflicts. I’ve occasionally inserted some dialogue in the interludes of some of the songs, but I have not written any kind of script or definitive dialogue at all, and I don’t currently plan to. I’d love to find someone who would like to try. Like I said, for me it's all about the music, which is how this all started and where I've concentrated my efforts throughout my writing. I’m not a playwright or a screenwriter, much less a comedy writer and I would love there to be an element of humor in the show. There are many layers of messages I’d like to see materializing in the storyline, as I believe I’ve done with the music. But for now it’s going to take some imagination to visualize how you might see the story unfolding while you listen to the music. Again, it's all about the music.

 

The leading couple in our story are Kyle Tanner and Monica Moon, both in their mid to late 20’s in their first year of marriage when we first meet them. Kyle is a novelist who is already enjoying a fair amount of success, especially for his age, having two best selling novels already on his resume. He’s a witty, funny guy, in a macabre kind of way, and in fact that’s how he writes. His novels are gaining a reputation for his unique mix of the supernatural and humor. He’s a Stephen King type in a world where there is no Stephen King therefore presenting him with the opportunity to dominate the market in this very specific literary genre. He’s an east coast transplant, born and raised in Needham, Massachusetts just outside of Boston. He went to Boston College and got his first novel published shortly after graduating. It was while he was at BC that he met Monica.  Monica is Native American, born Rising Moon in the Yurok tribe in northern California. Gifted with a natural talent for music she found her way off the reservation via a music scholarship to The New England Conservatory Of Music in Boston. It was there she started going by the name of Monica Moon. She majored in performance piano while her love for composing grew, and eventually she started making some money in the commercial jingle business. It was while she was in school in Boston that she and Kyle’s paths happened to cross in a bar in Harvard Square in Cambridge one fateful friday night. A friend had recommended a band that was playing at Kings (later to become Jonathan Swifts). Kyle caught a glimpse of her, bought her a drink and they quickly agreed that they didn't know what they were doing there since they both had no patience for country music. So they left together, walked down the street to Jacks, another bar in Cambridge that featured local rock bands, and found that night's band much more to both their likings. They had a couple of drinks at Jacks and they’ve been together ever since. By the time Monica graduated she was still establishing herself as an up and coming talent in the song writing  community while making a living writing jingles.

 

So after a modest wedding they made the professional decision to pack up and move across the country...back to Monica’s home state, but still worlds away from life on the reservation...to one of the music hotbeds in southern California to optimize Monica’s exposure in the song writing community. All Kyle needed was a room and a typewriter so it worked for him. In fact they’ve cultivated a common dream together...an oceanside home where they can start a family...

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Very early in the show they welcome their son, Wilson, our third main character, into the world. Monica has no problem with Kyle's desire to name his first born son after his father, but they mutually decide that they'll be calling him Willy when he's young, expecting it to evolve into Will as he grows older.

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Our fourth character is Will's girlfriend that he meets in his late teens, Genevieve. She's French, born and raised in Paris, France. Will likes to call her Gen, or Genny. They meet at a concert/festival while she's briefly in the USA. Their meeting is followed by a short lived weekend together during which they quickly fall in love before she has to return home across the pond. I'll describe the few events I have in mind for their evolving relationship in a few of the individual song descriptions.

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I'll introduce each song in the show with a setting and circumstance and describe the events that led up to the scene and in some cases the choreography that takes place during the song. Again, this is a very incomplete storyline with the emphasis on the songs, so I invite you to use your imagination and write your own story that you hear in the music.

The two main sets where most of the scenes will take place are the inside and outside of Kyle and Monica's house on the California coast.  The menu to navigate between the songs is always at the top of the screen.

So...when I close my eyes I see the house, inside and out, and I see a young couple starting their dream together on the pacific coast in the late 1960’s...

So put on your headphones or ear buds and make yourself comfortable. You're sitting in the theater and the lights go down...