Quantum Physics: The Musical

JOIN US AT OUR VERY OWN WEBSITE!

2006-08-12T06:15:58+02:00

At last, we have our brand new website, with all our musicals, and lots of fun features - music, audio, pics, script samples, CD store and more!

There's a link on each side of this page to take you there. (See "WE'VE MOVED!")

See you there!

Vanessa & Ian

Sending out the quantum wave...

2006-02-10T09:36:16+01:00

Ian and I (writers of the show) are busy with a couple of other shows right now, so we haven't been paying as much attention to QP:TM the last little while. We're working on a brand new show, "Decide", a campy science-fiction musical about decision-making for high schools, for which we were the happy recipients of a sweet Canada Council Grant (thank you!). I am also making band charts for our (already written) next musical "The Dreamer's Quest" which is having its world premiere this January with Western Canada Theatre (see the link, below, left). However, we did do some revisions to Quantum Physics, and we are sending the show out to several competitions for plays about science in the United States. Three of them are supported by the Sloan Foundation (yay, Sloan!), and one is through UCLA, a big $10,000 prize for best play with a science theme. Wish us luck! And remember, you can still buy the CD. Just contact me, and we can work it out. Only $17/$20 US including shipping and handling. (US prices are more because of shipping & banking costs. Sorry!)

Vote for Quantum Physics for Best New Musical!

2006-01-01T01:09:02+01:00

The second annual Vancouver Ovation Awards are coming up and we need you to vote for Quantum Physics: The Musical for "Best New Work"! (see link, right)

Voting ends at midnight, January 13th, 2006. Please take a moment to fill out the voting form. You can find it at:

http://www.applausemusicals.com/page7.html
(see link, right)

Here are the possible categories you can vote for our show, and the names you can fill in! You need to fill in five votes (not necessarily all for our show) in order for your vote to qualify. Please note the guidelines for voting, below.

Best new work: Quantum Physics
Music Director: Vanessa LeBourdais
Director: Ian Gschwind
Choreographer: Kerri Minty
Performance - female: Amy Wallis (Mathematician Gwen Shapley)
Performance - female: Barbara Tomasic (Lt. Commander Morgan)
Performance - male: Leon Willey (Percy)
Performance - male: Michael Walker (Captain)

Thanks so much for your support!

SYNOPSIS OF THE SHOW

2005-12-18T01:47:14+01:00

On its last mission quantum ship Lollipop experienced a collision between parallel universes. Crew member Ensign Percy was exchanged for the Ensign Percy of the universe next door. Now the Lollipop must make it again through the quantum foam, switch back their crew members, and be the first to reach the mythical Dimension of Lost Quarters.

As we open, the Lollipop makes a quantum jump to the size of a carbon atom (“Hold Onto Your Seats”). Capt. Arthur and Lt. Cmdr. Morgan are flirting. Ensign Percy is baffled by the quantum physics of this universe. The Captain sings “Clockwork Universe” and explains the difference between Newtonian and Quantum physics. The crew breaks into a game of Quantum Ball –how a ball game might work if it followed quantum rules. Back to work, Percy befriends Lt. Shapley, while the Captain revels in anticipation of being the first to find the mythical Dimension of Lost Quarters – that place where a quantum wave sits until it is noticed, and then it collapses.

The crew traps their target particle. Percy doesn’t understand what a quark is, so Gwen explains (“Quarks”). The Captain reveals his beloved “Hadron Accelerator”. Jealous of the attention he’s paying to his machine, Morgan thwarts his efforts and the particle is lost. They must look for it again, but have to beware of Bohr’s Complementarity and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty. All of this is completely confusing to Percy, who worries that he’ll always feel like a “Man From Another World”. Percy and Gwen compare formulae and think they may have discovered a trans-universal mathematical theorem which will help track their target. Gwen glows, “I Love Math”.

They run into trouble with Observer Theory and their particle gets lost in one of many “Parallel Universes”. Just when they find it, they get sucked into the gravity well of Dark Matter. Percy realizes that he knows about Dark Matter, in his universe they call it…Heavy Metal. During the heavy metal tune, “Dark Matter”, the ship goes into an uncontrollable spin and loses power. Commercial break (“Neutrinos Breakfast Cereal”).

Percy returns power by jury-rigging the engine. The Captain, meanwhile, has been chasing Morgan around. Morgan is irritated as she is trying to control of an increasingly out-of-control mission. Gwen and Percy are no help, and Morgan wonders why she has to always be the serious one in “Gravity (It’s Getting Me Down)”. Percy gets them out of their predicament; this time by utilizing a technique he learned on TV: mixing matter and anti-matter – which is what Morgan and the Captain are increasingly resembling. (“Matter/Anti-Matter”).

The crew is finally ready to load the target particle into the Hadron Accelerator, when they realized that the particle in their possession is not their target but its entangled partner. Gwen and Percy dance the “Quantum Entanglement Tango”. At last they have the right particle, and they smash it open in the Hadron Accelerator. Now they jump down to sub-quark size (“Hold onto Your Seats”).

The Lollipop is traveling in the micro-dimensions, which affect the crew’s sensibilities. Percy is left in control of the mission. Alarms sound, and Percy tries valiantly to save the ship, to no avail. At last, he decides that he’s going to do things the way they’re done in his universe, where a more consciousness-driven paradigm is used to describe quantum phenomena. He meditates and disaster is averted. He realizes that quantum physics has similarities to the ways that ancient mystics have seen reality (“Funhouse Mirror Ride”). Everyone else is returned to normalcy, and accepts Percy, who decides to stay in this universe, as their new crewmember. The Captain announces that their goal is reached, that they are ready to return to macrosize, and they jump back (“Hold Onto Your Seats”), ready to go home.

Music and pictures are back up!

2005-10-27T18:59:42+02:00

Thanks for your patience. The MP3s from the show are back online, as are our photos. Enjoy!

Technical difficulties...

2005-10-19T05:50:49+02:00

My apologies...apparently Blogspirit, our host, was attacked over the weekend of October 14, and so our photos aren't yet back online. We're working on it. Hopefully they will be able to be resolved soon. Thanks for your patience.

Welcome to the quantum flux

2005-09-26T21:08:12+02:00

Look on the side panels of this page to find information about the show - song clips on the left, reviews and pictures on the right. "Recent posts" include reviews, from newspapers and audience members, and some peeks behind the scenes written by your intrepid blogger, Vanessa (me, aka composer, co-writer & producer). Enjoy!

Post-show post

2005-09-22T17:01:02+02:00

It's five days after our last show and I'm beginning to recover enough to post here. Before I could recover I had to pay some attention to my almost three-year-old daughter who has been incredibly patient and happy despite her parents (the creators of the show) being so busy. Ian and I (the parents/creators) are very happy with how the show was received - the buzz around the city and the Fringe in particular was great, and audiences would come out just shining and smiling. Several cases of husbands, who are usually dragged to theatre they don't enjoy, who were ecstatic that our show spoke to them. Lots of physicists came, and laughed at the physics jokes. Theatre folk came, regular folk came (we call them "civilians"). There were jokes for everyone. Even my jokes got laughs, which pleased me to no end, because I always think Ian's the funny one.

I did have a bit of post-show letdown, which is what happens after all the excitement is over, and you look around and realize how much housework you have to do.

But we're looking at theatre's around the country to talk to about this show.

Please, post a comment when you come by, we'd love to hear from you! Just click on "comment", below.

#1 Fringe Show! & More audience raves

2005-09-18T19:58:27+02:00

Arts Rational ranked us the #1 Fringe show on their "Best of Fringe" radio program on September 15!

We keep receiving written raves from our audience members.

"We're still riding high on the fun we had last night. [My daughter's] singing 'Quarks' and we're killing ourselves laughing about quantum physics being "a bunch of hoofala". I consider this show a service to humanity; tour it please." Lisa B., New Westminster.

"My wife and I were at the Friday show and loved it! Thought the cast was strong, music great and choreography just fine. (despite what one critic said). It's a show for all ages (we're 60ish, but 'Young at Heart')" - Stuart.

"The songs were definitely the highlight of the play, which is fortunate since it is a musical. They were largely up-beat with lyrics rich in nerdy references to physics, and Star Trek alike. . . All of the cast did a terrific job! . . . Leon Willey, and Amy Wallis stole the show. Combine all of this with Leon's uncanny physical comedy, Amy's unbelievable voice, and their mutual good looks and you've got quite the power house of entertainment. . . All told it was a fantastic play and a very enjoyable way to spend 75minutes. I laughed, I giggled, I may have even guffawed. " - JonBen (posted on his webblog at http://jonben.blogspot.com/2005/09/wave-collapsed-and-state-is-good.html)

Audience reviews

2005-09-17T10:10:51+02:00

I just found this on a website - reviews of our show from some audience members!

Their group's rating of our show: "100% positive"

"Hi-larious! The actress playing Lt. Gwen Shapley is quite the talented little pixie."

"Well, this was a very clever, funny performance. The music was lively, and the perfomers were good. I thoroughly enjoyed it."

" I enjoyed the musical tremedously (enough to wish I could have afforded a soundtrack). . . the event was both quite cool and worthwhile. (I thought the lyrics of many of the songs quite clever)"

"The musical was funny, sweet and educational in turn."

"Funnier than I thought it would be!"

"I learned some interesting "smart people" stuff! Fun event."

from http://firefly.meetup.com/12/events/?eventId=4760866&action=pastdetail