Bucket List of Unbroken Dreams follows Erin K. Moffat on a quest to “unbreak” her broken childhood dreams. Watch as her past and present collide on her journey to rewrite her childhood. The show is an original musical featuring a unique blend of sketch comedy, showtunes, modern beats, movie shorts and live theater!
Script & Lyrics by Erin Moffat
Music by Bradley Scoville and Erin Moffat
This is Erin’s Story
Everyone deserves their moment in the spotlight. A moment to shine and a moment when they stand up and raise their voice for what they believe in. I think that life is about persevering against all odds. It’s about the difference that you make in the lives of others. It’s about what you do when you’re challenged and in the face of adversity are you going to walk away and give up or keep going. This is where true character emerges.
They told me “I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, and I shouldn’t. I asked myself who were they to say?” Life is full of tough breaks and hard knocks and sometimes you just want to give up. When I failed Geometry Sophomore year in High School and had to take it in summer school I learned a valuable lesson that I now carry with me through life. I realized that sometimes our greatest failures turn into our biggest triumphs. My teacher Mr. Daniel Ryan showed me that “I could, I would, and I should.” I didn’t believe in myself I wasn’t smart or talented and I certainly couldn’t pass Math. He said “leave your negative thoughts outside of my door and you can.” Take the “‘t” off of CAN’t and you get CAN. At the end of the summer, I passed Geometry with a C. I gained more then just a passing grade. A C which I believe stands for courage. Mr. Ryan showed me that although I may never be a math magician, if I just believed in myself I could do it. In the Wizard of OZ the Cowardly Lion searched for Courage when it was inside of him all along. Sometimes, we just need someone to remind us to keep keeping on and never give up…
A lot of my drive comes from my failures of my youth. Holding on to a dream and never letting it go. Who we are when we are young defines us even if we try to hide from it or run from it. Even if we don’t deal with it or use it we never move on. That’s where my idea for the show came from. They say “write what you know.” I know me!
Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be an actress. Being a part of a regional school district I had to choose a high school. I struggled scholastically and as crazy as it sounds I chose the high school that did musicals. It was my number one criteria. Then as fate would have it I got cut from practically every show. In some ways it devastated me but being rejected made me try harder. I also found other outlets helping out backstage. However, I started auditioning for community theatre and ended up at the Strand several years ago. After completing this original musical about my life the opportunity arose to do the show at the Strand. My life has now come full circle and I truly am rewriting my past by stepping foot on the stage once again.
The premiere of “Bucket List of Unbroken Dreams (B-LOUD)” will be at the Strand Theater, located in downtown Seymour, CT. The Strand Theater still bears its original neon marquee and is one of the last single-screen movie houses in Connecticut. In the past year, the Strand has begun to open its doors to live theater again.
This winter, there will be two performances of Bucket List at the Strand:
Friday, January 13th, 2012 @ 8 p.m. (Doors open at 7:15)
Saturday, January 14th, 2012 @ 8 p.m. (Doors open at 7:15)
The theatre houses 265 seats. Seating for this show will be general admission for both performances.
Tickets will be $15 and sold in advance via PayPal at http://unbrokendreams.com/?page_id=9 or at the theater box office on the weekends. If you do not have a Paypal account, you can still use this service to manually enter your credit card information. A receipt will be emailed to you to confirm purchase of the tickets. Please bring your receipt with you to the performance, this will serve as your ticket.
I am impressed that this young lady was inspired to write by a math teacher. I hope that it will be only the first of many successes for her.
Friday, February 24th, 2012 @ 8pm (Doors open at 7:15 Saturday, February 25th, 2012 @ 8pm (Doors open at 7:15) Sunday, February 26th, 2012 @ 5pm (Doors open at 4:15)
"Bucket List of Unbroken Dreams follows Erin K. Moffat on a quest to 'unbreak'” her broken childhood dreams. Watch as her past and present collide on her journey to rewrite her childhood. The show is an original musical featuring a unique blend of sketch comedy, show tunes, modern beats, movie shorts and live theater!" This is how Ms. Moffat describes her original show; while it is all correct, it doesn't really do this wonderful event justice. This young lady has cleverly designed a montage of her favorite things to entertain and often move the audience, all while making them laugh. I was invited by the very talented composer of the music, young Bradley Scoville, to attend one of the added performances with a complimentary ticket. Open seating allowed me to sit in the second row and the house at the Strand Theater was quite full at this Saturday night performance. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Scoville before the show began and he told me that while he composed the music on the piano, he would be playing mostly bass with the band because he can "rock out" better on it. I enjoyed hearing how he had crafted the musical scores on his Mac and all about the serendipitous meeting that led this collaboration.
My favorite numbers were in the second act. "Disney-Aholics" opened with another short film and featured an especially lovely (male) Cinderella. "Halls of High School" was especially well-staged and well-sung and reminded me of Rent. "This is the Soap Opera Song" was also a filmed piece and was hysterical. A video opened "Everyone Wants to be Annie" and then actors continued the bit onstage. The final song, "Waiting in the Wings," was the very best because of the staging and the beautiful arrangement. It also allowed Ms. Moffat to show off her beautiful voice.
The costumes by Kellie Winters Moffat were appropriately quirky. There were some sound issues which unfortunately seemed to affect the star the most and made it difficult to hear her at times. The musicians, "BF Jammers," are all friends of Mr. Scoville and were perfectly in sync. Erin K. Moffat directed the performers, in addition to choreographing the entire show. A talented comedic actress, this young lady was very impressive. It left me wondering how she had been cut from shows in her youth, because she clearly is a star.