PENTAGONAL SKIES (pronounced: pen-tag-uh-nl)
Music composed and recorded by Patrick Richard LeRoy
Lyrics/Book/Screenplay conceived and written by Patrick Richard LeRoy
Audio mixing and mastering by Ryan LeRoy
COPYRIGHT © 1997, 2012, Patrick Richard LeRoy. All Rights Reserved.
ACT I
Scenes (vocal parts listed):
1) "A Major Fanfare and Theme (432Hz)" (CP monologue)
2) "Kyrone Can Dance" (CM, CP and Choruses)
3) "Interlude" (CP)/ "The Deceivers" (M)
4) "Hail To The Gun" (D and Friends)
5) "No Thang I Do" (CP, M, D, and Chorus)
6) "Royal Family Suite"
A) "Shine In The Light" (PB and J)
B) "Who Needs A Man?" (QB, PB, J, H and YDs)
C) "Strap-On" (H)
D) "They Live A Lie" (J)
E) "Awful/ Awesome Day" (PB, QB, J and Choruses)
7) "Time Out" (CM and Chorus)
8) "The Way That You Feel" (CM, CP, KY, QB and Chorus)
9) "Ky Met A 'Girl'" (M, D, J and Chorus)/ "Never You Worry" (KY, J and QB)
Intermission (15-20 min.)
ACT II
Scenes:
1) "The Inauguration" (QB, KY and Chorus)
2) "The Circle" (PB and Chorus)/ "Shine" Reprise (J, PB, CP and CM)
3) "Talk/Think It Over" (PB,J, CP, CM and KY)/ "Flying Though Time" (J and Chorus)
4) "She's Holdin' On" (KY and QB)
5) "The Visionaries" (CM, CP, J and Chorus)
6) "You're Busted" (QB, Prisoners, Guards, J and KY)
7) "Comin' 'Round/ Out/ Down" (Pris., Gds., CM, QB, KY, CP, PB and Chorus)
8) "The Visitors" (J and Chorus)
9) "Pentagonal Skies" (KY, PB, J, CP, CM and Children's Choir)
The Main Characters:
Cosmic Papa (CP): The masculine spirit of our immediate star, 'The Sun', and father of all Human Souls
Cosmic Mama (CM): The guardian galactic feminine spirit and mother of all life on Earth and in The Milky Way
Kyrone (KY): (Protagonist) Son of CP and Phyllis (M)
Queen Beeotch (QB): (Antagonist) Republican politician and mother of PB
Princess Bonni (PB): Liberal-minded wife of KY and daughter of QB and H
Jermaine (J): Cross-dressing gay male friend of PB
Phyllis aka 'Mom' (M): Mother of KY
Roger aka 'Dad' (D): Caucasian Step-Dad to KY
Harold (H): QB's husband
Secondary Characters:
2 Friends of Step-Dad (#1), (#2)
QB's Young Daughters (YDs)
Prisoners (P)
Robot Guards (RG)
(B) is used throughout to signify that 'both' characters are singing. (A) refers to 'all' characters. (CH) refers to 'chorus.'
The Players:
(CP) Patrick Richard LeRoy
(CM) Naome Bradshaw
(KY) Buddy Green
(QB) Laura St. John
(PB) Nina Lynn Metrick
(J) Karl Wahl
(M) September Bigelow-van der Stoel
(D) Mike Cantu
(H) Jim Mitchell
(Dad's Friend #1) Blaine Randall
(Dad's Friend #2) Ray Cornejo
(YDs) Ali Green and Meg Green
(Prisoner #1 Spoken Parts) George Neil
General Chorus:
(Prisoners)
(Robot Guards)
(Vegan Angels)
(Gardeners/ Angels)
(Maids & Butlers)
(Servers)
(Children's Choir)
All chorus parts listed above have been performed by the composer (for now).
The Instrumental Contributors:
Joe Calautti: Guitar track on "Royal Family Suite" and "Comin' Round/Out/Down"
Mike Cantu: Rhythm Guitar track on "No Thang I Do," Guitars on "She's Holdin' On"
Bjarne Jannik Kjaer : Drum tracks on "Hail To The Gun" and "No Thang I Do"
Jim Mitchell: Acoustic guitar track on "The Circle"
Arnaldo Torres: Rhythm Guitar track on "Kyrone Can Dance,"
and Guitar Wah and Keyboard Vocoder tracks on "No Thang I Do"
A very big thank you to everyone who graciously donated their time, talents and efforts to this project. I am eternally grateful for all your help.
Special thanks to my brother Ryan, who dedicated a great deal of his time and audio engineering expertise to making this music sound terrific.
Ideally, there should be live instrumentation playing along with pre-recorded tracks when performing this show in a theatre. This is due to the very dense orchestration (in many places) and for specific audio effects. Most of the live musicians should be able to double on various instruments in their field. The actual arrangement/ score for these live parts will be written out when the necessary time comes. They include (but are not limited to): drums/auxiliary percussion, guitars, keyboards, bass, flute/clarinet/all saxophones, trumpets/trombone/french horn and violins/viola/cello. Some of these musicians will also be onstage as the 'Live Band' during 'Kyrone Can Dance.'
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
From 1997 to 2002, I composed five concept albums which worked together to form a sort of esoteric epic entitled, The Aquarius Project. I had no idea during that time that the project would be a 'warm-up' for what was to come in 2010. After the last album (A is A) was finished in 2002, I began to play around with some new ideas for an album I was going to entitle Loose Ends and Unfinished Business. Most of the songs started out as just funny little melodies, chord changes, themes and lyrical ideas that would swim around in my head for years to follow with no real direction. In Spring of 2010, I had what they call a 'Eureka' moment or epiphany I suppose, because I suddenly awoke to the realization that the type of music I write (and have written for many years) just might be well received by a Broadway-type audience in the form of a "musical." I suddenly felt free to create the music I'd been thinking about for so long in any fashion that I wanted to, without worry of conformity for reasons of acceptance or exposure. It was at that moment that the show began 'writing itself,' so to speak. I soon became aware that this was the previously unrealized show that I began to uncover in 1997 with my first album, the original Pentagonal Skies. The five theatrical songs at the end of that album have been re-recorded and moderately altered lyrically to be used in this show (in Act II). These were (ironically) the five missing pieces of the puzzle that I needed when I was fitting this whole story/ show together. The original idea for 'Pentagonal Skies' was a "look back" at where we came from, where we are now, and where we're headed as a species. I tried to stay true to those themes with this show. I noticed as I was writing the new songs that they all differed stylistically, and I guess each one pays a homage of sorts to various Broadway Musicals of the past century. This was not intentional, just one of those funny synchronistic or subconscious accidents, I guess. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to and experience this work. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Oh, and one more thing... In case anyone is wondering, Patrick Richard LeRoy is my birth name. It was legally changed when I was a child, but it seemed fitting to use here, and probably from this point on.
*The first track in the show, 'A Major Fanfare And Theme (432Hz)' is the ORIGINAL track from A is A, Part 5 of THE AQUARIUS PROJECT (digitally modulated to A=432Hz-see below**). I felt that even though the recording quality isn't nearly as good as the rest of the tracks in this show, CP wouldn't mind if I used the original track to back him up. It has sentimental value for me- no big deal.
**ALL THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN RECORDED IN WESTERN MUSIC'S ORIGINAL A=432Hz PYTHAGOREAN TUNING, RATHER THAN THE NOW TYPICAL A=440Hz, INSTITUTED IN THE 1940'S. I HOPE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR AND FEEL THE DIFFERENCE- THE WAY THE MUSIC OF EARTH WAS MEANT TO SOUND AND COMMUNICATE WITH YOU. (Ideally, it should be experienced with a quadraphonic surround sound system with a 'fifth speaker' overhead for CP and CM's voices.)
***This entire show was written on a Korg D3200 32-track portable digital recorder which I carried around house to house to record the voices, guitars and drum tracks of my friends and family who so graciously contributed their time and efforts to help. I never got rich from The Aquarius Project, so everything here was made on a VERY low budget. That only meant that I had to work twice as hard to make it right, but I didn't mind.
****The music which should play before the show begins (as the audience is being seated) is 'Latvian Dance' from the 2002 modified Pentagonal Skies album, Part 1 of THE AQUARIUS PROJECT, and 'May 4th In New York' from
A is A, Part 5 of the project. The intermission music is 'Merkabala Pizza Party' from ELEKTRICON, Part 4 of the project. The after-show exit music should be 'Rondetta Vega' from tailor-made+strightjacket, Part 3 of the project.
***** WARNING: This recording contains material UNSUITABLE for Extreme Right-Wing Christian Conservative Republican Types (But if you want to try it out anyway, you're more than welcome to... I mean that.)
More Thanks:
Thanks to my wife Vanessa, whose support and encouragement were invaluable.
Thanks to Dave Melosh and Medusa Studios for use of their mixing console during mixdown.
Thanks to Mario and Christa Destradi from www.CasaAstro.com for use of their professional photo of SIRIUS (the blue star).
And finally, a thank you to Professor Phil Stone, who made all of this possible (including the non-linear time traveling).
Footnote:
The idea that the human being's body was genetically manipulated/ recreated by advanced extraterrestrial beings is not new. I find it to be the most logical and reasonable explanation for the sudden "warp" in our evolution. It is important to note that I am not religious, nor do I subscribe to any singular religion-based point of view. All of the material in the show dealing with these matters is based on the writings of the late scholar, Dr. Zecharia Sitchen, who's groundbreaking work with translating and interpreting ancient Sumerian writings/ tablets (the oldest surviving records on the planet, that we are aware of as yet) has been a source of great enlightenment for readers worldwide. It became quite obvious to me after I started reading his work that the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Torah and Christian Bible was based on (and a misrepresentation, mischaracterization, and complete misunderstanding of) these earlier Sumerian writings. If you have not read Dr. Sitchen's first book on this subject, The 12th Planet, I highly recommend doing so. My personal favorite is The Lost Book Of Enki, which is written like a summary of all of Dr. Sitchen's work/ translations in chronological order. It is a fascinating and detailed interpretive account of our lost history. Of course, all of this must be taken with a 'grain of salt', as it is clearly not possible at this moment to know exactly what occurred thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of years ago.
Or is it???