1939 Canadian 'Rurals' meet Canadian 'Royals' (real life Governor General and world-famous author John Buchan and his family and staff* from Ottawa). It’s the eve of our nation entering WWII. In a little rural village, a crowd gathers at the train station to "Greet The Great" as they arrive with books and conversation for all. Three comedic fictional characters, an unpracticed bagpiper, McLaughlin, and his two friends: French fiddler and lumberjack Guimont, and a conservationist maternal leader of the First Nations' Gookum Perley Bear, (the latter based on 3 real women) represent many of the founding families of our country. Two teens, Pete, a white boy and Beth, a BIPOC girl, discover their love for each other there in that last 'innocent' summer. And back in Ottawa at Rideau Hall the staff of Buchan, (many of them real-life characters who have helped develop the culture and conservation of our nation), struggle to see their boss and idol begin to fail health-wise as he is forced to sign with P.M. Mackenzie King, the declaration that puts us back into the travesty of war once again. With only a few months to live, both young Pete and world-weary Lord Tweedsmuir struggle to leave their legacies behind.
16 original songs which include the era's swing-style with fast-paced upbeat dance numbers, 2 love songs, a soaring '11-o'clock' male solo, and several comedic numbers.
Development: After numerous readings, song demo recordings and performances in various venues and provinces, including by Sheridan College MT students, dramaturgy by such as Charlottetown's Adam Brazier and Toronto's Curtis Sullivan, Zoom work with many including Britta Johnson and John Sparks, Rough Notes won a national grant of $20,000. from Canada Council for the Arts (in addition to several smaller local grants), and was thus professionally Equity/ACTRA-workshopped and filmed in 2022. It has been shortlisted by Highland Arts Theatre (NS, 2019) and by the Living Library at Beechwood National Historic Site through Ottawa School of Theatre, for partial production at Ottawa's Bi-Centennial (ON, 2026).
A trailer, teaser or entire show may be viewed here: https://linktr.ee/roughnotesmusical with photos, historical character details, photographs and more here: https://mckencroftproducti.wixsite.com/roughnotes
Piano, Violin, Trumpet, Drums
After numerous readings, song demo recordings and performances in various venues and provinces including by Sheridan College Musical Theatre students, dramaturgy by Charlottetown's Adam Brazier and Toronto's Curtis Sullivan, Zoom workj with many ibncluding Britta Johnson and John Sparks, Rough Notes won a national grant of $20,000 from the Canada Council for the ARts (inaddition to several smaller local grants), and was this professionally Equity/ACTRA-workshopped and filmed in 2022.
"Where the Rurals meet the Royals, on the eve of World War II"
"Rough Notes" – the historically-based, traditional, wholly-Canadian musical in which "the Rurals meet the Royals".
It’s the eve of our nation entering WWII – another great horror, so soon after the FIRST… and 3 diverse Canadian couples at different ages and stages are about to be vastly affected. Here the Scottish, French and Wolastoqiyik/Maliseet-tribe rural peoples of New Brunswick are juxtaposed with the real-life representative Royals, combating a spy and an undercover female journalist at Rideau Hall, Ottawa. The joys and sorrows of this tense time in our history are also witnessed from the eyes of a 7-year-old boy, the daughter of the first woman of colour to graduate from the University of New Brunswick, and world-famous author John Buchan, Governor General of Canada - who has only a month to live and in which to leave his final legacy to the arts, to the environment, and to humanity.
After 3 table-reads, a mini-workshop and much dramaturgy by such as Adam Brazier in Charlottetown and Curtis Sullivan in Toronto, "Rough Notes" has received a $20,000 grant from Canada Council for the Arts to professionally workshop it, with recorded film/demos, in the Upper River Valley of New Brunswick, a very remote area of our nation and in which it is partly set.
https://pitchit.playwrightsguild.ca/uncategorized/j-ivanel-julie-johnson/
