#musical comedy
Christian Bale as Jack Kelly in Newsies (1992) dir. Kenny Ortega
The Prince and the Actress: When Florence Met George
© E. Azalia Hackley Collection/Detroit Public Library
Though African American performers dazzled British society and its royals since the days of Walker and Williams(who brought their minstrel revues to English shores in the early 1900s), and performers like Aida Overton Walker, Sissieretta Jones, and others were viewed as the epitome of Black glamour–there was something different about Florence…
Credits and Lyrics for Episode 12 of Our Dumb Universe
starring:
Announcer - James B Kennedy
Y Ship - Amy Sheehan
The Sleepy One - Haley Bowery
Pangla - Melissa Lusk
Dankent - Nathaniel Kent
Bloor - Carl Howell
Sondra - Lauren Lim Jackson
Tinga - Emma Galvin
Huphalumpagus - Rachel Flynn
Feltina - Christina Pumariega
Fuzzo - Jared Loftin
Brushee - Matt roi Berger
written by Jonathan A. Goldberg
music by Matt roi Berger
recorded, mixed and edited by Martin Fowler
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2190 DAYS, PT 1
THE SLEEPY ONE
As they slipped to hyperspace
They gripped their chairs and made a face
Caught between a smile and a sneer
Pangla thought about her bro
The others noticed, but none spoke
Caught as they were in their own thoughts and fears
Slowly over several days
They explored the ship and picked roommates
Preparing for the six year trek ahead
The tension eased to boredom soon
Bloor dreamt of building a canoe
And Sondra made upgrades and checked the instruments
And Pangla brightened too in time
Regained her smile a bit
Singing softly to herself
No one could tell
The words for sure
But thought it sounded
But thought it sounded
Something like Fuzzsticks
Well she and Dankent threw parades
Invented their own holidays
Exchanging bits of tubing and some socks
And pretty soon, yeah pretty fast
They looked up and one year had passed
And wondered softly where the time had gone…
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2190 DAYS, PT 2
THE SLEEPY ONE
There’s something to a year in space
Keeping sane in a small place
Takes keeping busy, keeping on the move
Dankent’s play runs sev'ral months
Wins an award Pangla made up
And Bloor never does get to his canoe
The Y-ship springs a coolant leak
Sondra gives a peak
Under the hood, sees what she can do
Pangla continues to brush and floss
And thinks of those she’s loved and lost
And barely knew
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2190 DAYS, PT 3
THE SLEEPY ONE
Pangla invents a board game and soon
Game night’s every Friday 8-2
They all have dreams about the Ur Brain
And Bloor
finally begins to make his canoe
Ah-oooo
Dankent thinks about his lives
Thinks about his place in time
His play gets a revival, reviews are mixed
Sondra and Y-Ship go public with
Their feelings and relationship
They get angry, break up, for a bit
So much of what once was fades away
And in it’s place, what fades gives way
To a loving, simple, quaint year 3 in space.
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2190 DAYS, PT 4
THE SLEEPY ONE
Well four years is a very long time
Four years is a very very very long time
Pangla and Bloor take up parkour
And Sondra teaches Dankent to knit
They make a new hat for Dankent
And crocheted pads for Pangla’s new crutches
Sondra starts a handball league
The days roll on with seemingly no end
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2190 DAYS, PT 5
THE SLEEPY ONE
Year 5, Pangla starts to jog
Dankent starts to miss his job
And one night someone burns down Bloor’s canoe
Dankent’s on the case for months
Til he finds some matches in Bloor’s bunk
Who did it so Dankent’d have something to do
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2190 DAYS, PT 6
THE SLEEPY ONE
Dankent can’t sleep, dreams of Berdie
Dreams of Valborg too
Once their mem’ries hurt and burned him
Now he struggles to picture them
Days like layers, dirt displaces, their
Faces blurred to him
But when he thinks of all they gave him
There he finds the hurt, fresh and waiting
Oooo
Y-ship scrapbooks photos of the sites
Dankent and Pangla have a fight
Draw a chalk line to divide the ship in two
They don’t talk for a whole month
Before coming clean as they make up
That they were jealous of the others’ new dance moves
In the annual handball tournament
Y-Ship wins the championship
Narrowly defeating the favored Bloor
Each night they gather at family meal
And laugh and cry and hurt and heal
And question, just what it is they have in store
Two thousand one hundred and eighty nine days pass
Six years of waiting, forgetting, forgiving
Of wondering and living,
And then suddenly, a last day here at last
Bloor makes breakfast, Sondra checks lists
Y-Ship scans ahead
Dankent and Pangla play some games, all
Wait and wonder, are they at the end?
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WELCOME TO THE UR-BRAIN MEMORIAL
TINGA
Welcome to the Ur-Brain Memorial!
We’re donation based, so don’t be cheap.
Here take a brochure! The bathroom’s on this floor!
And the cafe’s by the viewing balcony!
The collection on display’s authoritarial!
If it’s Ur-Brain related it’s on site
Many of the displays are interactive and explain
The Ur-Brain’s sway o’er all matter and life!
The Ur-Brain was revered
They served for countless years
They organized and guided all from here!
But now they’re dead!
So! Welcome to the Ur-Brain Memorial!
We can host private events, just ask for dates.
Our facilities are clean - the sculpture garden is serene!
There was a wedding and reception there, just the other day!
Enjoy the exhibits
We hope your visit’s
Enlightening to you
Just exit through the gift shop when you’re through.
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WHATEVER WE WANT
VALBORG
Whatever we want
What more could we want
Then to be alive the same time as each other
Y-SHIP
Whatever we choose
Is what we will do
Is where we will go
PANGLA and BLOOR
Is what we will know
SONDRA
Is who we will love
VALBORG
Is this all there really is?
Where’s the cosmic sense in it?
Our only due, is what I owe to you
BLOOR SONDRA, PANGLA, VALBORG
Whatever we are / I’m kinda scared about it
s’Whatever we are / No guide to help us out
No destiny or prophecy to say
Y-SHIP SONDRA, PANGLA, VALBORG
Whatever we want / No purpose meant for me
Is ours tip we’re gone / No victory guaranteed
A galaxy of possibilities each day
SONDRA and PANGLA
We are never truly done
BLOOR and VALBORG
Only something that’s begun
ALL
Made of pieces of the people that we’ve loved
And somedays
There will be sunshine
There will be dark skies
On other days
And some days
There will be color
And on the others
There will be gray
And whatever comes our way
The family we’ve made
Will weather it together all the way
VALBORG
Whatever we choose
PANGLA
Well, I’m choosing YOU
VALBORG and PANGLA
To find the sunshine and share it when we do.
Credits and Lyrics for Episode 6 of Our Dumb Universe
starring:
Announcer - James B Kennedy
Sondra - Lauren Lim Jackson
John Quincy Carver - Heath Saunders
Dankent - Nathaniel Kent
Bloor - Carl Howell
Fuzzo - Jared Loftin
Valborg - Emily Gardner Xu Hall
Feltina - Christina Pumariega
Pangla - Melissa Lusk
Conta - Nathaniel Kent
Huphalumpagus - Rachel Flynn
Agent Squatch - Jenni Putney
Combolady 2 - Hannah Fairchild
Sleepy One - Haley Bowery
written by Jonathan A. Goldberg
music by Matt roi Berger
recorded, mixed and edited by Martin Fowler
Additional backing vocal on The Dark InsidebyMegan Bagala
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WAKE UP, SONDRA (AND FIRE THAT LASER)
JOHN QUINCY CARTER
Hey girl, I know you’re battered and broke
But they need you in the cockpit and it ain’t no joke
Test those ankles and breath through the pain
Trust me, a cheerful figment of your damaged brain
You gotta pull yourself together kid
The survival of your friends means getting to the bridge
Can’t be late, hurry, you’re doing great!
Now: enter the reactor room in this fugue state
And then you flip
The switch
Uh-oh and what is this?
Fix, the glitch
Returning power to the ship
Now, Wake up!
Wake up Sondra
And fire that laser!
Yeah you’re seeing double vision - just focus on the mission, kid. Yeah!
Trust this hallucination, get to your battle station, quick! Yeah!
Just down the corridor, you’re almost there
Don’t focus on the blood that’s matted in your hair
You took a hit, we’ll fix that when we can
But now for this cockpit door - it seems a little bit jammed!
And so you flip
The switch
Patch on into the ship
Fix, the glitch
You’re my queen of fixing it!
Now, Wake up!
Wake up Sondra
And fire that laser!
Oooooo!
Now, I know you’re new to space, but with all tech you’re just an ace, so adapt! Yeah!
The ships on auto pilot, Bloor’s lying on his side, he’s been zapped! Zapped!
So flip
The switch
Girl, you’re in your element
Fix, the glitch
Charge those blasters, take a breath
And
Wake up x8
Wake up Sondra x2
And fire that laser!!
Calm your hands from their shaking
No time to start fading
Your charging the lasers
And you’re doing great kid
Ooo-oo-oo-oo
Your friends all need saving
So remember your training
It’s as easy as aiming
Set those Null suckers blazing!
OOOOOOOOO!
Wake up, wake up Sondra! x5
And fire that laser!!!
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THE RHYTHM OF OUR LIVES
AGENT SQUATCH
The clock strikes one and the wind is in my hair
The rebels attack and I just cannot care
Out in the jungle, I know that you’re there
Your body lit by the moonlight
FELTINA
We take the village, secure the highway
I’m bruised and I’m tired from another long day
I see you standing there, my body starts to sway
Feeling the beat of the night
BOTH
We feel the pulsing of the rhythm of our lives We chase and run for it — the whole world over
We are the dancers in the rhythm of our lives
We can find a way
AGENT SQUATCH
I chase you through the heat and the dark
Drawn on by the rhythm and your haunting spark
And by my mission to infiltrate FARC
I know that you’re waiting for me
FELTINA
The moon is up and I’m under your spell
Haven’t felt such a charge since I worked for Fidel
Crouching in the bushes, behind you I smell
The sweet scent of dancing, so free
BOTH
We dance for freedom to the rhythm of our lives
We chase and run for it, the wide world over
We feel it pounding it’s the the rhythm of our lives
We can find a way
And we run! Oh oh oh!
How we run oh oh oh!
Yeah we run oh oh oh!
We feel the pulsing of the rhythm of our lives
We chase and run for it — the whole world over
We are the dancers in the rhythm of our lives
We can find a way
We dance for freedom to the rhythm of our lives
We chase and run for it, the wide world over
We feel it pounding it’s the the rhythm of our lives
We can find a way
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RO BATTLE GO BATTLE GO!
ETHEREAL BAND BEING
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Well she rips through the doors in the Cargo Bay
She sees three dozen null defenders and she’s into the fray
Her targets raise their lasers but she rips through their hulls
In a rocket boost menu ever, sending shrapnel through skulls
She’s murdering these pilots just to buy her mama time to run
But she knows she’d be a liar if she said she wasn’t having fun
Oh!
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go! Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Well the Null regroup and they praise the void
They scan the scatter shattered shards of the ships she’s destroyed
They find her on some space dust, all their lasers lock
But she turbo blasts faster; all they hit is rock
Before they notice that they’ve missed her, like a missile she dives into the swarm
Carving armor, making martyrs, and she does it all with perfect form
Oh!
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Ripping through flesh with such efficiency!
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Aw… she’s so metal! Literally!
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
They fire in dismay as she weaves through their formation
Every blast they land on her, two more send null to cremation
She pulls their squadron leader out his ship by his face
To watch his lungs exploding in the vacuum of space, goddamn!
Well the last ships charge, catch our lady off guard
She takes the impact and she flips back, hits some wreckage hard
In the moment that she’s dazed, the lasers blaze and carve;
But with the will of all first ladies she maintains and rearms
She wipes some oil from her nose, adjusts her freon hose and proudly she stands
Her reserve tanks are near empty, redirects it all to her laser hands - blam blam blam blam!
Oh! Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah!
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
The strength of Ab’gail Adams with the grace of Jackie O
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
With Martha Washington’s passion and the aim of Liz Monroe
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Blasting nulls to atoms, laughing as they go
Ro-Battle, Go-Battle, Go!
Go! Go! Go! Go!
Aiiiiii!
Aiiiiii!
Go Go Go Go Go!
With the last of her strength
She fell from the sky
Onto an asteroid nearby
Oh but she did not die
She looks up to the stars
Diagnostics are run
Without massive repairs, and without parts to spare
Her flying days are done
But she smiles, looks around
This is her home now
There’s no battle, no battle, no
She braved battle, saved what matters most
Oh-oh-oh-oh…!
Credits and Lyrics for Episode 3 of Our Dumb Universe
starring:
Announcer - James B Kennedy
Crogus - Nathaniel Kent
Aide - Christina Pumariega
Feltina - Christina Pumariega
Glorpo - Eryck Tait
Bloor - Carl Howell
Valborg - Emily Gardner Xu Hall
Fuzzo - Jared Loftin
Trogus Guard 1 - Milf Barfer
Trogus Guard 2 - James B Kennedy
Ship Computer - Jenni Putney
Jormund - Emily Gardner Xu Hall
The Atrocity - Daniel K Isaacs
Bongle Bingle - Jared Loftin
Lyman Keys - Janet Loafderp
Dankent - Nathaniel Kent
Sondra - Lauren Lim Jackson
Pangla - Melissa Lusk
Bogus - Maff Barger
Nupha - Kerry Ipema
Huphalumpagus - Rachel Flynn
written by Jonathan A. Goldberg
music by Matt roi Berger
recorded, mixed and edited by Martin Fowler
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LULLYBY FOR TROGUS (FUR OR LESS REPRISE)
BOTH
Nighty night
Don’t sleep tight
VALBORG
When you awake your nightmare will begin
FUZZO
It really worked
I mean, of course it worked!
I really did it! Fuzzo for the win!
VALBORG
Shh
FUZZO
Sorry!
BOTH
We made the plan and got them snoring
Side by side
FUZZO
My pride is soaring!
BOTH
Unlikely team up, perfect scheming
This dream team got the Trogus dreaming!
FUZZO
Best pal. c’mon, the world’s ours for taking
VALBORG
Enough with all this celebrating!
You we’re right, I owe that to you.
But step one’s done - on to step two.
So how do we do it?
FUZZO
Do what?
VALBORG
Get out of here and defeat the Trogus.
FUZZO
Take these pills, avoid detection!
VALBORG
No, we did that part.
FUZZO
And they fell asleep
VALBORG
Yes…
FUZZO
And then…
Best friends best friends now we’re best friends!
Something something save the world!
VALBORG
Fuzzo, that’s NOT a plan…
FUZZO
Oh, well, you know
VALBORG
What is step two of the plan?
FUZZO
Well, you know. Etcetera, etceteras…
VALBORG
Oh god you don’t have a PLAN
FUZZO
We can wing it!
VALBORG
I’m going to gut you like a piglet!
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BOGUS
Sure you chafe at the chain
Protest you’re not lesser, but what’s in a name?
As long as you’re in your place, safe
To learn at the knee of a superior race
Fight all you will, that’s the thrill for us all
To watch little dumb dumbs try to evolve
My sympathies - oh, how it must burn
When one learns one’s place is to serve
In every direction, we have searched and we find
Lesser being’s possessing a lesser mind, lesser mind
Galactically speaking, you’re of poorer design
It’s just a foible of breeding with your lesser kind, lesser kind
It’s so quaint what you have
A cute little culture that isn’t half bad
But look at the facts as they appear
Look at my people, the comparison’s clear:
You’re nobly savage, but your brain is your traitor
Quite below average by the metrics we favor
See it our way because we can’t see it yours
To stoop so low would question our worth
We have made the decision to do our best to be kind
Provide supervision to your lesser minds, lesser minds
Give you labor, for propose, let you bast in our shine
We are benevolent handlers of your lesser kind, lesser kind
Lesser beings!
Lesser beings!
Now you beg, I laugh! Your chance has passed
Your failures are vast - your planet had crashed:
We ended your wars, we cleaned your shores
We fed your poor - and now you want more??
When I turn you fools in
I’ll make sure you suffer
They’ll finally see my greatness
No longer lesser than my br-OH
…That hurt.
NUPHA
That’s one way to shut him up.
SONDRA
You hit him with a pipe! He’s been knocked out.
NUPHA
Fight all you will - that’s the thrill; did he say?
Well I hope that he’s thrilled from this pipe to his brain.
And fight, yes indeed - til the day we are free.
The rebellion forever are weeeeeeee!
Condescension and blame, threats to dissect and divide
Is the common refrain of a lesser mind, lesser mind
Tyrants beware - where you assail and malign,
13You may be caught unawares by a lesser kind, lesser kind!
Lesser beings!
Lesser beings!
SONDRA, PANGA
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na, na na na!
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na na!
Na na na na na, na na na!
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SONDRA
Nowhere left but up now
Our hope is in the sky
Relay stations’s our destination!
Reconnect with my ladies
Run diagnosis, hack from inside
Once we’re in the system, we’ll disarm all the prisons
With Resistance forces, turning the tide!
Somewhere up there, hope is in orbit
All we need is waiting for us
The future’s here, we’re hurtling towards it
PANGLA
We’re off into an adventure!
We’re heading into the stars!
A broadcast to compel the masses to rebel!
I’ll tell everybody I love them
And free the people of planet Earth
Send them all a message from way up in the heavens
To fight off those oppressing our world!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
SONDRA
Somewhere up there, hope is in orbit
The future’s here, we’re hurtling towards it
Launch the ship and set our course, it’s
Off to storm the Trogus fortress!
HUPHELUMPHAGUS
Somewhere up in the atmosphere
There I’ll find a way
Oooooo
Oooooo
Find and go to Tina
She’ll tell me everything is Ok
Everything is ok, everything is ok
Everything is ok, oh god I hope it’s ok
Way up there I’ll find a way
Make it right make it ok
The dark inside please go away
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
PANGLA
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
Hope, hope, orbiting Hope! Oh-oh, oh-oh!
SONDRA
Somewhere up there, hope is in orbit
The future’s here, we’re hurtling towards it
Launch the ship and set our course, it’s
Off to storm the Trogus fortress!
