Cerulean Blue

By Drew Hayden Taylor

Cerulean Blue is a comedic play about a struggling blues band invited to participate in a benefit concert for a First Nation community in conflict with governmental authorities. Upon arriving, the band discovers the entire lineup of musical acts has cancelled and they’re left trapped behind barricades. Complicating the matter, there is conflict within the band and the sudden appearance of an old girlfriend makes the event even more perilous.

This play is an homage to fast-moving farces while also addressing Aboriginal issues. Cerulean Blue deals with relationships, perceptions, politics, and what to do when you discover you’ve been dating your first cousin. Add a few spoonfuls of original blues music, and you’ve got a fun-filled evening.

The play was written for a large ensemble cast, which makes it ideal for musical theatre departments in high schools and colleges – every student can play a part. An original musical score by Andrew Clemens will be available for download from Talonbooks.com.

Cast of ten women and ten men.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Release date: Dec 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9780889229532

Drew Hayden Taylor

Ojibway writer Drew Hayden Taylor is from the Curve Lake Reserve in Ontario. Hailed by the Montreal Gazette as one of Canada’s leading Native dramatists, he writes for the screen as well as the stage and contributes regularly to North American Native periodicals and national newspapers. His plays have garnered many prestigious awards, and his beguiling and perceptive storytelling style has enthralled audiences in Canada, the United States and Germany. His 1998 play Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth has been anthologized in Seventh Generation: An Anthology of Native American Plays, published by the Theatre Communications Group. Although based in Toronto, Taylor has travelled extensively throughout North America, honouring requests to read from his work and to attend arts festivals, workshops and productions of his plays. He was also invited to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in California, where he taught a series of seminars on the depiction of Native characters in fiction, drama and film. One of his most established bodies of work includes what he calls the Blues Quartet, an ongoing, outrageous and often farcical examination of Native and non-Native stereotypes.

Book preview

Cerulean-Blue_coverCerulean-Blue_titlepage

To Ms Willie,

who keeps my world

from getting blue . . .

CONTENTS

Playwright’s Note

Production History

Characters and Setting

Act One

Scene One • Scene Two • Scene Three • Scene Four • Scene Five • Scene Six • Scene Seven

Act Two

Scene One • Scene Two • Scene Three • Scene Four • Scene Five • Scene Six • Scene Seven

Drew Hayden Taylor

Copyright

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE

Greetings and welcome. If you are expecting this play to be an exploration of some travesty of society visited upon the Aboriginal people of this country, or perhaps an examination of horrors or atrocities Native people have had to endure due to colonization . . . you may be a little disappointed.

Cerulean Blue, like many of my previous plays, is a little more positive. I like to think of it as a celebration of the Aboriginal sense of humour. Yes, there are some issues thrown in here and there – after all, what’s life without a few issues – but essentially, I have always felt the best medicine for many critical issues has always been a liberal dose of humour. That’s what this book will attempt to do.

But first things first: a little background. This particular play is a bit of a departure for me. I and my work are known for dealing primarily with the Aboriginal community. And while a good chunk of this play takes place in a Native community, the vast majority of the central characters in this play are . . . how should I put this . . . colour challenged? Pigment denied? People of pallor? You get the picture.

In the spring of 2013, I was writer-in-residence in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University. In the nearby Ryerson Theatre School (which ironically are part of the Faculty of Communication and Design), there are two fabulous women. One is Peggy Shannon, chair of the theatre school, and the other is Cynthia Ashperger, the director of the actor’s program, whom I’d had the opportunity to work with several times previously. Be that as it may, a number of interesting things happened during my residency and, just after my term ended, Peggy and Cynthia asked me to write a new play for the graduating class of RTS. I was excited but found the invitation a little daunting. You see, the graduating class consisted of twenty people, each of whom needed a role. In theatre, that’s a lot of people wandering the stage. In Canadian theatre you’re lucky if you can get a play with more than four characters produced; six if you are lucky and personally know the artistic director. I had never written a story with that many characters. The result is that some of the roles in Cerulean Blue are big and others are small, with barely a few lines; yet hopefully all are memorable and interesting. Of course, depending on the director and staging decisions, it is feasible the play could be produced with maybe fourteen or fifteen actors, doubling up some of the roles.

Another concern was that none of the actors in that year’s acting program were Native. But what’s a challenge without a little difficulty? Thus was born Cerulean Blue, the story of a blues band caught behind the lines at a Native protest. And let me say this upfront, seldom have I had so much fun working on such a project. The enthusiasm, the joy, and the dedication those students (and everybody involved) put into their effort, humbled me. And made me feel old.

In this play there’s music, an all-out brawl, some romance, laughs, and lots of wacky characters. I hope you’ll have as much fun with this play as I did. Thanks to the amazing Andrew Clemens for his fabulous music; he made my lyrics actually sound passable. Special thanks also to Cynthia, Peggy, and the amazing Ruth Madoc-Jones, who helmed the madness I helped create.

Special thanks to my editor, Ann-Marie Metten, and publisher, Kevin Williams, at Talonbooks, who somehow manage to keep me sounding coherent and somewhat reputable as a playwright.

– Drew Hayden Taylor

PRODUCTION HISTORY

Cerulean Blue was commissioned for the Ryerson Theatre School and first performed at Abrams Studio Theatre in Toronto from February 5 to 12, 2014, with the following cast and crew:

RUSSELL: Drew O’Hara

CASEY: Taylor Hammond

ASHLEY: Mani Eusis

ANDY: Jake Vanderham

JOANNE: Zenna Davis-Jones

PAULINE: Vasilisa Atanakovic

BILLY: Owen Stahn

JENNIFER: Molly Reisman

ANGELA: Victoria Houser

HELENA: Caitlin Graham

OFFICER DELAIRE: Isaac Powrie

BUCK: Eddie Gheorghe

SADIE: Dion Karas

ARTHUR: Mena Massoud

LENORE: Emily Nixon

RUBY: Jade O’Keeffe

OTTER: Maaor Ziv

POCO: Zach Parkhurst

DAVE: Andrew Pimento

EMCEE: Kaleigh Gorka

Directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones

Musical direction by Andrew Clemens

Sound design by Gordon Walker

Set design by Holly Meyer-Dymny

Lighting design by Andrew Morris

Costume design by Sidney Toole

Production management by Isabella Cesario

Stage management by Seren Lannon

CAST OF CHARACTERS

RUSSELL: Lead singer in the band

CASEY: Lead guitarist

ASHLEY: Keyboardist (Casey’s wife)

ANDY: Drummer

JOANNE: Bass player

PAULINE: Russell’s sister

BILLY: Joanne’s replacement and Pauline’s boyfriend

JENNIFER: New keyboardist

ANGELA: Band hopeful

HELENA: Ashley’s mother

OFFICER DELAIRE: Police officer listening to the story

BUCK: Native bus driver

SADIE: Billy’s old girlfriend

ARTHUR: Sadie’s new boyfriend

LENORE: Festival organizer

RUBY: Festival organizer who is completely silent

OTTER: Ruby’s translator

POCO: Barricade security

DAVE: Barricade security

EMCEE: Master of ceremonies at the Peterborough Blues Festival

LOCATION

Various locations in Toronto.

A bus.

And a First Nations campground in north-central Ontario.

TIME

There’s no time like the present.

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

A police station. OFFICER DELAIRE sits at his desk, listening to BILLY and RUSSELL, who are seated across from him. OFFICER DELAIRE seems weary. BILLY and RUSSELL seem nervous and look a bit roughed up.

OFFICER DELAIRE

Okay let me hear it one more time.

RUSSELL

Again?

BILLY

It’s been twice.

OFFICER DELAIRE

Humour me. Three’s the charm.

BILLY

Do you have anything to eat? We’ve been here like . . . four or five hours. I need to be fed and watered every three hours or so. It’s a Native thing. (pause) Seriously.

RUSSELL

It’s true. Or he gets cranky.

BILLY

I do. Really.

OFFICER DELAIRE

Well I can get cranky too. And I have a Taser. A gun. And a pair of rubber gloves. So now tell me what happened again.

RUSSELL

Again. Well again, my name is Russell Aymes . . . hi . . . and this