100 mothers and daughters:
a Documentary with Song
100 Mothers and Daughters:
a Documentary with Song
is:
- 18 original songs
- 18 true life-stories
- 18 dramatic moments
- 100 mother/daughter relationships
- an on-stage performance
- with documentary interviews and footage
- revealing the mother-daughter journey from cradle to grave
- inspired by over 100 in-depth interviews with real women and girls about their mother-daughter bond, in all it’s diversity and complexity.
- a window to peer into … ourselves.
A Documentary with Song is:
- a hybrid genre,
- a blend of documentary and song
- a combination of live on-stage theater and video
-Werner Herzog
A Documentary with Song is a unique hybrid of theater, music, and documentary genres – yet solidly based on profound audience-pleasing works that came before.
PLAYS:
- Vagina Monologues by V (formerly Eve Ensler)
- and the plays of Anna Deavere Smith
powerfully use real interviews with real people to create successful theaterical experiences, literally around the world.
MUSICALS:
- Chorus Line
- and Cats
famously use song and theme to tell a story. The “plot” is following a theme, not a character. These successful musicals, just like 100 Mothers and Daughters, do not have a main character(s) in scene after scene. Instead, we use multiple characters, each with their own song and stories to advance a compelling portrait of the theme – and the characters provide a many-sided collective portrait of the theme.
DOCUMENTARIES with SONGS
Especially unique and relevant to us are
- The Act of Killing
- and Dick Johnson is Dead
The Act of Killing, the 2014 Oscar nominated doc that powerfully depicts the reality if killers – paramilitary Indonesian mass murderers, in an astonishing and creative way. In interview, they describe/admit their crimes – which is then dramatically reenacted as Westerns, gangster films, and in musical numbers. It is ground-breaking – and profoundly successful.
Dick Johnson is Dead is an insanely creative and brave blend of song, documentary, life and death. Also Oscar nominated.
MOTHERS and DAUGHTERS:
With a humble pride, we want to cite the precedent of our own documentary The Story of Mothers and Daughters. (viewable here.) :
- Its phenomenal ratings success and universally rave reviews validates our unusual but not unique theme based story-telling structure. (Sorry sceptics, but plot based and main-character based are not the only structure that works for story-telling.)
- That same success is undeniable evidence of audience enthusiasm for and indeed, hunger, for the theme of the mother-daughter bond. Even a tone-deaf sexist can see this market, this audience, is vast and profoundly engaged in this theme.
- Years of tributes received by us since. Read the testimonials (by scrolling down here)
- the ABC statistics – the greatest ratings leap ever. The details: Out of 35 years of ABC data for ratings, this mother-daughter themed documentary showed the largest ratings increase ever measured over the course of a single program – beginning with approx. 6 million viewers and ending with 7 million.
Since this was before the internet, the only explanation is word-of-mouth. During that one hour, out of the 6 million viewers, 1 million picked up their phones while watching to tell someone, “You have to watch this, right now!” In statistics, the technical term for a leap of this magnitude is: Oh-my-funking-God!!
Admittedly, not everyone will be interested in this play. Our audience is limited to:
- mothers and daughters
- plus people who have a daughter.
- plus people who have a mother.
But despite that limitation … and seriously now … we believe there is a devoted audience who care deeply about this theme and will care passionately about this musical.
For example – recent studies show that 63% of all Broadway tickets are purchased by women. We can safefy assert their interest in this play. Add to that the gay male theater goers, who famously (even if cliched) love musical theater and love their mothers. It is light hearted but also solid evidence based to assert that women plus gay men would make up an audience who is a safe bet to serve with a work such as ours.
Press:
POST BELOW IS FROM 2019
(so don’t try to sign up, you are a little late)
But included here to show just part of the process of development of the MotherDaughterMusical, now titled “400 Mothers and Daughters.”
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.
Port Townsend Film Festival,
Women in Film, Luna Productions present
.the world premiere of
.a work-in-progress reading of the future Broadway smash hit musical
Mothers and Daughters
The Musical
Based on the award winning ABC television documentary “The Story of Mothers and Daughters“, this musical portrays in song the life-journey of 30 mothers and daughters, each in her own way illustrating the mother-daughter bond in all its profound, poignant, and painful complexity.
VOLUNTEERS WANTED:
Readers, Singers, Musicians, & Critics
WATCH PARTICIPATE PERFORM
Watch:
Sunday, April 14, 2019 10:30 am, – The Rose Theater: Screening of “The Story of Mothers & Daughters” the award-winning documentary that the musical will be adapted from, Advance Ticket info at Women in Film festival office, 360.379.1333
Participate:
Tuesday, April 16,2019 6 pm– organizational meeting for the reading, plus film screening of the documentary. Open to all. Come and audition to read, sing, or just hang out and help organize the reading! Singers needed for six songs that have music. Readers needed for the many songs that have only lyrics. Everyone welcome. We are all experts in the mother-daughter relationship. Your insight and constructive criticism is welcome. PTFF office, 211 Taylor St., Suite 401A
Perform
Sunday, May 5, 12 noon, 2019, Rose theater – a public, free, everyone invited, work in progress reading of the libretto and singing of the songs of this future musical hit!! First ever public performance.
Trailer of documentary: click here
For more information contact info@lunaproductions.com
