say , ‘ Yes , I made mistakes , but , but , but there were reasons .’ I just wanted to talk about the mistakes , and what I figured out , and how I had figured it out , and to make it funny because that was the emotional process of experiencing the first five years of my son ’ s life . I would have these terrible experiences and I would go off and turn them into funny stories for my friends and that was how I survived it and how I processed it . I wanted to share that process of finding the funny in what ... I mean the whole family was treated for post-traumatic shock ," says Burke .
Through music , “ it is possible to touch something deep ,” says Thompson . He cites , as an example , one of the songs in the musical , “ All is Calm Now .":
All is calm now . This house a moment of truce . All time is measured mete . With all the firsts and thens complete . All is calm now .
" And then , it moves to a calming technique : ' Blow one candle out , blow two candles out ,...'"
" In between these two sections , there are some crunchy chords , an f9 with a flat 5 , and I think it ’ s kind of an uncomfortable chord ... So everything is calm , and we don ’ t need to label something upsetting ; the music speaks that and we do feel it , and then we go to this calming down technique . ... The music can touch something that words alone can ’ t ," says Thompson .
When Burke first heard “ All is Calm ,” she thought , " this is the opening of the show ; I can hear that is the beginning of the show ... It ’ s a much kinder beginning than I would ever have written . The song is really about the longing and the trying to hold on to the very few calm times , and the desire to believe that you are progressing toward a time when everything ’ s going to be calm . His reception , then , reframes the whole experience .”
Burke says , “ I can ’ t wait to try to perform this with music , because it will be the first time I experience it with that emotional undercurrent of understanding in the script .”
In the past iterations , the audience supplied the emotional undercurrent for Burke . There has always been somebody in the audience offering a hug . But the music , Burke says , provides “ these breaths and these moments of stepping back and thinking ‘ it ’ s far enough in the past that there ’ s actually a song about it ,’ so everyone can take a breath together .”
For Burke , performance of Ducks on the Moon has always been “ a community experience .” For instance , when Burke was very ill at a show in Brandon , she says , “ The audience literally held me up through the show .” Her experience became a metaphor for “ what community can mean to people who are dealing with these very common experiences ."
She adds , " My experience is comparatively easy . It would be wildly inappropriate for this to be about me . It has to be about us . My experience becomes a story by which we celebrate us .”
Thompson says , “ This is the strength of the arts-based research approach , that the community is involved more than in writing up a journal article . The community engagement is so salient .”
Burke says , " There are also songs that Scott ’ s written that express more of the mania and self-criticism as well . Some of it steps back , and there are a couple of songs that are quite funny , and everyone can lean back . I ’ ve never had that in the show before , that level of understanding underpinning the script . I think that is going to profoundly change how I perform .”
Burke says , I think the experience coming out of this musical is going to be more hopeful .”
The two researchers plan to perform part of the musical for Thompson ' s students on December 5 . Student feedback will inform their process . After that , they hope they can take the play with music into schools .
View Burke ' s TedxRegina Talk " Nights with ducks- -Why I memoir " at https :// www . youtube . com / watch ? v = UNTKKBYHfFk Thompson ' s reflection process throughout the research of writing the musical is documented online at : http :// scottanthonyandrews . com / sing-ducks-sing /
By Shuana Niessen
Scott Thompson receiving feedback on some lyrics from colleague Denise Morstad
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