New excerpt:
RAINDANCE
The Play
by Uncle John
Art Work by Michael Waters
Music by
Uncle John & Tobey Stein & Gary Sangervasi
Grateful Dead
& Bob Dylan
Special Thanks to Playwright Lauren Gunderson
Spanish translation by Tania Carrasco
Characters
Storyteller
Sundance
Raindance
Lady Liberty
The Joker
The Purple Sage
The Hermit
Daniel Rafael
Michelle
Pretty Peggy
Ida Red
Billy Dee
Jesse
Freya Chanteur
Johnnie Walker
Harry Jardiniere
Maria Bonita
Seven Gypsy Women
Bobby Sugarfree Sugaree
Rainbow
The Magician
The Raindance family tell their story in tales, through poetry, songs, art, and dance.
excerpt from RAINDANCE
Storyteller:
Stories and the people in them are true inspiration. A band of musicians gather together as family, known as Raindance. Their famous and well known guitar player is Bobby Sugaree, he calls himself "Sugarfree". His family calls him Sundance. The Purple Sage is riding with Bobby Sugaree in San Francisco who suggests they stop for tea. Sugaree puts on a hat and sunglasses and they walk into a busy bakery and there are two counter chairs together available, and they sit down there. They order tea. Suddenly, Sugareeīs hit song "Around and Around" plays on the loudspeakers, and as soon as someone spots him, the whispers and pointing begin. They notice at one table are the clique known as The Gypsy Women. They are the only ones who get up and dance in the bakery aisle. There are seven of them, and The Sage points them out and ask Sugaree if he recognizes them as the dancers in his audience.
Sugaree
:Sirens of Titan
Storyteller:
Titan is a moon of Saturn.
Purple Sage
:That spurs my memory of the recent moment I had dancing with them.
They are a tight clique who hang out and dance exclusively with one another.
One night I am able to speak with one of them and ask her name,
Gypsy Woman
Gypsy
Purple Sage
:And then I ask her, "What do you do?".
Gypsy Woman:
Astral Navigator
Purple Sage
:She responds quickly and tersely.
"Where are you from?" I ask and she answers,
Gypsy Woman:
From the future. We listen to the Golden Record and that made us come.
The Golden Record VOYAGER - NASA
The music stops and the dancers sit down. The place is lively with conversation.
Storyteller
:Their tea arrives, and the Sage takes a couple packets of sugar and offers it to Sugaree.
He grabs the sugar, stands up and slams the packets on the counter.
Sugaree
:"I hate sugar!"
Storyteller:
He says in a loud and booming voice that silences the rest of the room who are all staring.
Sugaree sits down and the Sage whispers to him.
Purple Sage
:"Bobby, weīre in a bakery!"
Storyteller:
Suddenly, one by one, each of the seven gypsy women stand and sing a line to Sugaree
Gypsy Woman #1
:When they come to take you down
Gypsy Woman #2
:When they bring that wagon around
Gypsy Woman #3
:When they come to call on you
Gypsy Woman #4
:And drag your poor body down
Gypsy Woman #5
:Just one thing that I ask of you
Gypsy Woman #6
:Just one thing for me
Gypsy Woman #7
:Please forget you knew my name
All Seven Gypsy Women
(in harmony):My darlinī Sugaree
All Seven Gypsy Women (dancing)
:Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Gypsy Woman #1
:You thought you was the cool fool
Gypsy Woman #2
:And never could do no wrong
Gypsy Woman #3
:Had everything sewn up tight
Gypsy Woman #4
:How come you lay awake all night long?
Gypsy Woman #5
:Just one thing that I ask of you
Gypsy Woman #6
:Just one thing for me
Gypsy Woman #7
:Please forget you knew my name
All Seven Gypsy Women
:My darlinī Sugaree
All Seven Gypsy Women
(dancing):Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Gypsy Woman #1
:You know, in spite of all you gained
Gypsy Woman #2
:You still had to stand out in the pouring rain
Gypsy Woman #3
:One last voice is calling you
Gypsy Woman #4
:And I guess itīs time you go
Gypsy Woman #5
:Just one thing that I ask of you
Gypsy Woman #6
:Just one thing for me
Gypsy Woman #7
:Please forget you knew my name
All Seven Gypsy Women
:My darlinī Sugaree
All Seven Gypsy Women (dancing)
:Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Gypsy Woman #1:
Shake it up now Sugaree
Gypsy Woman #2
:Iīll meet you at the jubilee
Gypsy Woman #3
:And if that jubilee donīt come
Gypsy Woman #4
:Baby, Iīll meet you on the run
Gypsy Woman #5
:Just one thing that I ask of you
Gypsy Woman #6
:Just one thing for me
Gypsy Woman #7
:Please forget you knew my name
All Seven Gypsy Women
:My darlinī Sugaree
All Seven Gypsy Women (dancing)
:Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
Shake it, Shake it Sugaree
Just donīt tell them that you know me
All Seven Gypsy Women
now standing behind Sugaree and hovering over him, shout together in one voice:
Take us to your leader, Johnny B. Goode!
The bakery now is jam packed with people, and outside looking through the big plate glass is a large crowd.
The loudspeaker is playing the mellow Workingmanīs Dead album softly:
"It's the same story the crow told me, it's the only one he knows
Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go
Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait
Wo-oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?"
Storyteller:
As soon as Sugaree stands up, the crowd and loudspeakers go quiet.
Sugaree picks up a guitar, turns to each of the seven gypsy women and sings loudly
Sugaree:
Just like Jack the Ripper
Just like Mojo Hand
Just like Billy Sunday
In a shotgun rag-time band
Just like New York City
Just like Jericho
Pace the halls and climb the walls
and get out when they blow
Storyteller:
It is the blowing of the ramīs horns, the sound of musical trumpets, accompanied with loud choral voices that bring the walls of Jericho down. Following Godīs instructions accomplish the unexpected.
Walkinī i
n through the crowd are The Joker & Raindance, & Liberty.They pick up a cup and spoon and start a chivaree, a noisy serenade.
Sugaree:
Did you say your name was Rambling
Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
Did you say your name was Rambling Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
I'm gonna sing you
A hundred verses of ragtime
I know this song
It ain't never gonna end
I'm gonna march you up and down
Along the county line
Take you to the leader
of the band
The Joker:
Just like crazy Otto, just like Wolfman Jack
Sittinīplush with a royal flush, aces back to back.
Just like Mary Shelley, just like Frankenstein.
Clank your chains and count your change and try to walk the line.
Storyteller:
The Joker, Raindance,
& Liberty, toast the gypsies and join their brother Sugareeand in perfect harmony sing together a capella
The Joker, Raindance, Liberty & Sugaree
Did you say your name was
Rambling Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
Sugaree:
The Joker, Raindance, Liberty & Sugaree
Good-bye mama and papa
Good-bye Jack and Jill
The grass ainīt greener
The wine ainīt sweeter
Either side of the hill
Did you say your name was Rambling Rose?
Ramble on baby, settle down easy
Ramble on Rose
/
Cut to Hermitīs Cave
Storyteller:
Raindance & his friend the Joker
About the best of ramblers on a pair of posters
Opportunity knocks whenever they talk
With it made in the shade inside everyoneīs thought
But Raindance has long been misunderstood
Hidden behind his cloak and his hood
There are so many tales I donīt know where to begin
So many secrets they been whispering about him
The great grandson of a rum runner bootlegger & smuggler
Heīs Raindance the Juggler
His friend the Joker
Known as the finest gambler around
He sings with Lady Liberty
They are the talk of the town
Lady Libert
y:I wanna tour the world in fancy cars
Dine out on Rue de Mars
With a diamond watch on a golden chain
And a chauffeur with a silver cane
At a secluded party by a river of wine
On Turtle Island with my valentine
Hermit:
There's are four giant terrapins
Holding up the world
One to the north
One to the south
One to the east
One to the west
The sight of an eclipse
To fasten the fate of the test
There are four giant terrapins
No more and no less
Who stick out their necks
To make some progress
We saw one man climb while many others crawled
We saw liberty rise and the oxen fall
Pulled out in the springtime call
When the big sky shadows the small in us all
Storyteller:
Freed in her painted gown
With her rouge-colored fan
Raises her horn to the dawn
With Jesse watching Venus rise
Riding on the back of a terrapin
Raindance family & Wingmen
THE MISSION
Mississippi Captain fell in love
With the distant stars far up above
And got it together to build a ship
And get all his friends together for the trip
One lone dreamer came on by
Said "Mississippi Captain, how high is the sky?
I always had hopes to travel into space
And find new direction for the human race"
Well they got together and made a plan
To find another planet with air water and land
And in one swift stroke find the solution
To the cost of living with climate pollution
excepts
from the science fiction musical Play "RAINDANCE"
SUGAREE, RAMBLE ON ROSE
Songs by the Grateful Dead
Lyrics by Robert Hunter & Music by Jerry Garcia
Lyrics by Robert Hunter & Music by Phil Lesh
more excerpts:
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