Some time ago, a friend suggested I try and write a musical dealing with some of the many "weird" ideas I've been talking about which came from the ancient Sumerian cunieform tablets. As I am a professional musician and co-own a recording studio, after much thought I decided to accept the challenge. It took months to write the story and then more months to write and produce the musical's 21 songs.
The result is a musical called "Down from the Sky." It is based on the ancient Sumerian tablets which tell of "Gods" coming down from the sky and teaching the Sumerians about farming, and technology, and laws, and culture. Mainstream Anthropology generally views these stories as "myths" rather than history. This musical is based on the assumption that the tablets mean what they say, and are recounting history. Just for fun, I've embellished the stories and characters, but kept in as much of what the tablets actually say as possible.
When people ask me about it I say some or all of the following: It's Sumerian Sci Fi; It's a docu-drama; It's a speculative history of Man. Whatever you call it, I believe you'll find it highly entertaining!
I originally conceived of this project as audio-only. But once that was all completed and I shared it with friends, it became clear that people are no longer used to what were once called "radio plays." Although there's a lot of action and great sound effects, my trial audiences didn't know where to look as they listened. Clearly they were uncomfortable. A solution was needed!
The solution I struck upon was to add images to illustrate the musical's narrative. I found many dozens of pictures and turned this into a very elaborate automated slide show. Once the slide show was finished, I produced it as a DVD video. Trial audiences have said it works quite well. Hope you agree! Alternative versions of the show are planned. Click here to learn about them.
I'll first be posting audio snippets of the production on this website for anyone to download and listen. One of these has just been posted: Click here to listen to MP3 audio files of "Down from the Sky": A snippet which includes the arrival of the aliens, their initial disruption of the indigenous animals, and their musical reaction...the song "There goes the Neighborhood." Click here to view WMV video files of "Down from the Sky": The first video trailer includes and brief introduction, and then covers the arrival of the aliens.
More audio and video snippets will be available soon.
If you like what you hear and would like to buy the DVD, it is available for $20. Please email me bruce@jeffries-fox.com to make payment arrangements. Soon I'll make it so you can purchase it directly from this website.
