I love it when someone creative takes a book I've written and figures out how to tell the story in some other medium. The composer Narcisa Campion made a beautiful dance-drama out of The Mountain That Loved a Bird, and a gamelan in Vermont transformed the same book into a magical shadow-puppet play. These performances, however, would perhaps be difficult to duplicate elsewhere. The play "Roxaboxen" by Richard Rosen, however, could be staged in any community, using adult or young-adult actors with reasonably good singing voices. It's adapted both from my picture book and from "The History of Roxaboxan" by Marian Doan -- the 1916 book that now is the heart of The Legacy of Roxaboxen. Roger Underwood's underscore and songs work perfectly with Richard's words to create theatrical magic. If you want to know how much I like the play, and why, read the chapter on it in The Legacy of Roxaboxen. If a group might like to stage the play in your community, license to do so must be arranged with Richard Rosen, director of The Magik Theatre in San Antonio. Potential stagers can ask him to send you a review copy of the script, and a score for the music. The theater's address is 420 S. Alamo St., San Antonio, TX 78205-3202; the telephone is (210) 227-2751. I saw the first six performances of the play, and loved it more each time! My Aunt Jean (the "little Jean" of Roxaboxen) was there for the final performance along with her son and Diane, one of her granddaughters, and they loved it too. Here is Jean with the cast and creators of the play. Richard Rosen, the playwright, is in the back row on the right. The fellow with the long hair, beard, and hat is Roger Underwood, who composed the wonderful music for the play. He and I became friends, and I see him every time I get to San Antonio. We are now laying plans to make available in printed form the lovely song from the finale, the "House of Jewels" song, so that school choruses can sing it. Stay tuned! Return to home page