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The Genesis of "Secrets in the Sand" . . .
My interest in live theatre dates back to Broadway and off-Broadway New York in the 60's and 70's when the "revivals" of today were just getting started. In fact, I recall going to a small makeshift "theater" about fifty miles north of the City and watching the performance of a musical. The theater was a converted pub and the audience sat on folded chairs in front of a plywood stage. The songs included, "Try To Remember" and the play was what has come to be known as "The world's longest running musical", titled "The Fantasticks". This is why, when I met a local artist, composer and lyricist, Kent Horner, who had written, produced and performed his own CD, I wrote a play based on his music. I took the songs out of sequence and created a musical tribute to the heroes of 9/11! It is a staged reenactment (tastefully done) depicting before, during and in the aftermath of that horrendous event. And the audience is left with the sensation that the performance itself was disrupted by the attacks. It pays tribute to the heroes with such patriotic passion, it would impress the likes of Sousa and George M. Cohan! And the composer and I knew that this play was meant to be for one reason in particular: when comparing notes well after the play began to take shape, we realized he wrote the final track of his CD first and I wrote the play's Finale using that song first. The song is titled, "Spirit Of America". This pretty much says it all.
The Future of "Secrets" . . .
Several years ago, I presented the play to the Mayor of El Cajon, California. He and the City Council liked the premise of the play so much (paying tribute to the heroes), they voted unanimously to allow us the use of their 1,200 seat theater: at no charge. Their main stipulation was that we pay tribute to their local heroes, too. So it Premiered on 9/11/09. I'm hoping that 2019 will be the year that "Secrets in the Sand" finds a theatrical trail that leads to near Ground Zero on the 18th Anniversary of 9/11! The Finale, in particular, pays massive tribute to the heroes with such lyrics as, "Flying high on silver wings, there were angels in the sky. Each of them knew what he had to do . . . before they called to say goodbye".