Agent Danielle, Mission: Creating a Children’s Musical

Danielle l -

Hello, showgoers!

My musical is starting to come about more! The five categories have been finalized: Ancient Greece, Shakespeare, Around the World, Ballet/Opera, and Modern Broadway! A song has been picked for each as well! Here, I will attach the link to a Spotify playlist that will feature all the songs that will be included in the musical. So far it, it only has those five songs, but I plan to finalize the plot, songs, characters, and title (something I almost forgot) by the end of the week (UPDATE: I just added the opening/closing reprise number and a big group number)! See if you can guess how each song matches to each category.  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3AtoUBD4Q02BNSXI2D6awF?si=xCwjqk1VRRGFsNn9CRXBkg

I also had the opportunity to go to ASU Gammage to watch the final showcase for Disney Musicals in Schools! The four schools chosen for the program performed one number each, including the school that I saw Finding Nemo Kids at. It was an upbeat, fun night, and you could the schools’ appreciation for finally having theater integrated into their program. They also did one big number together at the end called “It Starts with a Dream.” It was magical seeing all the kids from different schools unite to perform this big finale, and I could tell Alan Menken used some of his notes in Newsies (my second favorite musical) to create the tune for the number.

Last night, I was rewatching one of my favorite comfort shows: the anime Spy x Family. In the first episode, Agent Twilight, under the codename Loid Forger, has to learn how to raise a child for the sake of creating a pretend family for his mission. He spends to whole night reading parenting manuals and wondering why he even has to go through all this effort. Then he remembers that his ultimate goal as a spy is to create a world where children don’t have to live in fear anymore. Of course, I’m not a spy trying to achieve peace between countries, but I resonated with Loid more than ever watching this episode again. It reminds me of my ultimate goals for this project, so I’ve also got to do my best as well to understand the mind of a child. I am in the process of this through discussions with my mentor Breona Conrad as well as finding some texts to read!

Take 7 till next post.

At Tempe to watch the performance!

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Comments:

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    allison_h
    Hey Danielle! I love how you're looking at your comfort show in a new light now. I am also so excited to see the Ballet/Opera category of your musical and learn more about the dance style I currently do. Have you found any inspiration for your own musical in the school musicals you've been watching?
    March 4, 2025 at 1:23 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Howdy, Allison! I hope I can do the ballet/opera section justice for you! In terms of inspiration from the school musicals, I'm mainly picking up on the length of scenes and musical numbers as well as the acting style of the kids themselves. One thing that's interesting that I've been discussing is that kids tend to speak faster on the stage!
    March 4, 2025 at 2:29 pm - Reply
    nick_a
    Hello Danielle, I love the categories you chose for the different time periods! The songs on the playlist so far are some of my favorites and truly iconic. Did it take you long to decide which songs fit each era, or did you already have a vision in mind?
    March 4, 2025 at 7:37 pm - Reply
    katherine_v
    Hello, Danielle! I love the way you tied the plot for Spy x Family into your Senior Project. Even though you are not saving the world, your mission to create a safe space in the theater community will definitely make people happy. Have you already started to imagine choreography for the songs?
    March 4, 2025 at 8:17 pm - Reply
    cason_t
    Hello Danielle, the playlist is really nice. I like how it has already evolved. Just curious, which schools were performing for the program? I hope you make a lot of progress on your musical. Also, I like the Spy x Family mention.
    March 4, 2025 at 10:22 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Good evening, Nick! Thanks for liking the songs so far; I hope that they'll make for fun numbers when I actually write the show! Honestly, to your question, it was really neither. I wouldn't say I had a vision for most of them, but it also didn't take me too long to decide for most numbers. I sort of had a lightbulb moment for each, and I went from there. I did have a vision for the Taylor Swift number though since I have a core memory of all the girls in Annie singing "Blank Space" together (the Taylor number is the one that is most in the air though; I may discuss that next time). The ones that did take longer to think of were the opening/closing reprise song and the big group song.
    March 5, 2025 at 10:23 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Heyo, Kathy! Thank you so much for loving the comparison; it shows how sometimes watching some TV can really get you thinking (to a healthy extent of course). I hope I can carry out my mission well. As for your question, choreography is an idea that I have been tossing around. Choreography is usually something that's up to each individual school/company, so I'm not thinking of creating strict choreography for each song. What I may have instead is a guide for the director of the show to help them create choreography and give them tips and basic dance steps to work with! I'm not sure if I'll have the kids dance in the read-through yet either, but that would definitely be fun!
    March 5, 2025 at 10:29 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Cason! I am so sorry that I am getting to your comment unbelievably late. Truth be told, I forgot the name of one of the four schools, and I just kept forgetting to respond to your comment after that. The four schools that performed were Pedro Gurrero, Mitchell, Longfellow, and Gila River, all elementary schools. All four had existing theater spaces but no solid theater program, so Disney Musicals in Schools helps them establish that. The schools were chosen after signing up and submitting interest for the program. It's super neat! And thanks for the support!
    March 9, 2025 at 7:19 pm - Reply

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