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Sixties Soap was written by EYT Artistic Director Tony Gears during the Summer of 2001 especially for the Youth Theatre Summer School production. The original programme notes follow...
The idea for this show came from a conversation in Tesco when a member of staff said they would only come and see a show if it was a sixties musical or a soap opera!
Well here we have it, Sixties Soap!
It has been a very intensive rehearsal period with songs, dances, fight scenes and accents to learn, let alone lines! The cast have worked really hard and the whole show is built around them and their talent rather than any special effects or gimmicks unlike many professional shows.
This is a very demanding piece and the cast has had to work really hard.
We do hope you will laugh, clap and sing along because this is a show designed for your involvement.It is 1967 and we are in the studios of LBC
Television, Philadelphia, U.S.A. We are about to see the live broadcast of
LBC’s hit soap opera, ‘The Washingtons’, featuring
that ever popular all-American family, the Washingtons played by 1940’s
film star Sarah Elizabeth and popular TV father Nick Carter.
Once
highly popular the show has started to lose viewers and is increasingly seen as
old-fashioned and outdated. Producer, Nelson Fitzpatrick anxious to keep the
sponsorship of Maxcafe is bringing in British director Georgina Luton, famous in
England for the gritty realism of Up the Poor Cow and Saturday
Night in Thornaby.
To ensure popularity for the show she has brought
over the new pop sensations ‘The Danger
Men’ and intends lead singer Billy Walters to appear
as an English student on an exchange programme who’s hits include their theme
song ‘The Danger Men’ and ‘Eight Days a Week’, written for them by some
of their mates. They and their entourage of girlfriends and manager present a
real culture clash for the conservative Yanks.
Forties
heartthrob and hero of numerous war films, the Englishman Lloyd Laurence has
also been booked to appear in the series. The ex-star who won the war numerous
times and received a congressional medal of honour for his contributions to
morale, has since slumped into an alcoholic depression! Will he turn up? Will he
be sober? How will the others react? Who was the mystery woman who broke his
heart?
The
lives of the people in the studio are also influenced by world events, and few
can forget the on-going Vietnam War, least of all Korean veteran Vince, the
security guard.
