10-MINUTE MUSICAL COLLECTION
Book & Lyrics by
Alice Jankell & Pamela Weiler Grayson
Music by Aaron Drescher
Contemporary Drama
Old Man In The Wheelchair
Shelly worries that she and her elderly father have never really connected, and time is running out. She compensates by splurging on expensive gifts for him, but this puts a strain on her marriage. It seems her spouse doesn’t understand her any better than her emotionally distant father ever did. But what SHELLY can’t see is the complex inner life that awakens in her slumbering father whenever he smells the lavender cologne that his nursing home aide wears. Memories of WWII and foreign romance enfold him even as SHELLY’s lonely frustration engulfs her. Then, as they each dive deeper into their own heads, father and daughter accidentally find each other for a very meaningful moment.
Overview
Cast Size
3 (2f, 1m)
Duration
10 Min.
Setting
Assisted Living Residency, Present.
Subgenre
N/A
Themes
Aging, Father/Daughter relationship, Marriage
Target Audience
Appropriate for all audiences
Style
Indie Rock
Instrumentation
Rock Trio
Additional Resources
Cautions
N/A
Casting Information
OLD MAN IN THE WHEELCHAIR - Male, Shelly’s father, plays 80’s/90’s, any ethnicity.
SHELLY - Female, to play 50’s - 60’s, any ethnicity
PAULINA - Female, 40’s - 60’s, Health Aide, any ethnicity
Songs
Media
Production History
Author Bios
ALICE JANKELL helped create and develop new Broadway musicals for Disney. As Associate Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, directing work included AS YOU LIKE IT, DINAH WAS, and ENOUGH ROPE starring Elaine Stritch. She’s worked at the Mark Taper, the L.A. Opera, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, La Mama, City Theater and many others, as well as in film and TV. Her own scripts have appeared across the country. Favorite acting roles include a solo performance, backed by the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and she taught acting at Carnegie Mellon. Alice was Creative Director of The Barrow Group’s F.A.B. Women, helping generate and produce 48 new plays. Her musical with Pam Weiler Grayson, URBAN MOMFARE (Director/Co-Writer), won Best Musical from the NY International Fringe Festival, was a Critic’s Choice, and garnered 4 stars from Time Out. More recently, Alice directed AN ENCHANTED APRIL Off-Broadway, and MORE BEAUTIFUL, a brand new play by Craig Lucas. https://www.alicejankell.com
Member: The Actors Studio PDW, National Musical Theatre Workshop, New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, co-founder of Putnam Theatre Alliance.
PAMELA WEILER GRAYSON's musical, Urban Momfare (composer/lyricist/co-book writer), won a Best Musical award, at the New York International Fringe Festival, garnered four stars and a Critics Pick from Time Out. Pam’s award-winning plays and musicals have been seen on stages throughout New York and nationally, including Primary Stages, Naked Angels, Theatre Now New York, The Group Rep/Lonny Chapman Theatre, Southwest Theatre Productions, Cincinnati Lab Theatre, and Emerging Artists Theatre. She is the co-writer of Cicadas, The Musical, featured on Season 2 of the Amazon streaming series, The Other F Word. Pam’s songs have been performed at The Metropolitan Room, The Laurie Beechman Theatre, and The Duplex, among others. She was a writer-in-residence at Kervigo Ensemble Theater (NY) and a member of Theatre Now’s National Musical Writers Lab. Her newest musical, co-written with Alice Jankell and composer Aaron Drescher, was a 2021 semifinalist at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Music Theater Conference. Her play, Observant, was a semifinalist in the Jewish Play Project’s 12th National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Dramatists Guild member. Education: Brown University, Fordham Law School, New York Theatre Workshop, The BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. https://www.pamelaweilergrayson.com
Aaron Drescher is a Nashville and New York City based drummer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Drescher has performed with artists such as Georgia Webster, Sacha, Teigen Gayse, Lainey Wilson, Josh Mirenda, Robyn Ottolini, Chapel Hart, Lucas Hoge, and many more. NYC theatre credits include A Strange Loop, Kinky Boots, Elf, We Are The Tigers.