Show Synopsis:
This song-and-monologue cycle is about loss as a consequence of AIDS.
Character:
Judith
Song Context:
Bud tells the audience how his sister tried to legally bind him as much as possible to his dying partner so that they could buried together, and then took care of him and fought for him in court when his deceased partner's parents denied him a place in the family plot. Judith then sings about her connections to the AIDS-ravaged gay community.
Fun Facts:
1. This song cycle was inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and Edgar Lee Masters? early twentieth century collection of poems Spoon River Anthology, and includes monologues along with the music selections.
2. Bill Russell, who had the idea of this production and collaborated on it with composer Janet Hood, said in a late 1990s interview with Aisle Say that "It's so easy now that people aren't dying every week and we aren't going to funerals every week, it's so easy to push that way in the background I really think it's important to touch base with that. It's one of the shaping events of our lives. We've been through such devastating loss that's never going to be completely dealt with?and I think it's healthy for us to go there once in a while. So I hope this can be a vehicle for people to do that. It's about loss, and that's universal, whether it's from AIDS or not."
"My brother lived in San Francisco.
He said he?d finally found his place.
And when I go to San Francisco,
Everywhere I look, I see his face.
Bud and I faced childhood
?Neath stark Montana skies
And Bud, he seemed to always
Have cities in his eyes.
He longed for possibility.
He lived to move away,
And he finally found his dream
In the city by the bay.
Joe and I were best of friends
In our small-time college town
And Joe had personality -
What a campus clown.
His jokes hid deeper rivers
That bubbled far below
And he rode the current West
Where the rapid waters flow.
Oh, lots of us had brothers
Who would love to show the sights
And share the balmy freedom
Of San Francisco nights.
They liked it so much more
Than anywhere they?d been
And we thought they would be there
When we made it back again.
My brother lived in San Francisco.
He said he?d finally found his place.
And when I go to San Francisco,
Everywhere I look, I see hi."