Fogfish Productions, Inc.

A’Musing is a love story, an allegory, a chamber opera. There are six main characters: Franklin, a cosmic curiosity just peeking out, a psychic inventor searching for something new to create and finding himself; Morning Glory, a careful blend of introspection sprinkled with humorous perception; Master Piece, affable, ego-destroying, lovable; Miss Fortune, limited in intelligence yet a useful mouthpiece for critical dialogue; an old man and old woman, narrators who deliver the story in a style of humor gained through wisdom.

 

The opera opens on the beach and we are invited to spin into a fantasy where wet winds howl like sirens through the caves. Franklin is introduced with a song requesting “enough wind to sail into the storm and fly my key.” Morning Glory (who will become Franklin’s wind) is introduced by singing “the sadness of all lives can be illumined—all humans can smile.”

 

Franklin is a singer and songwriter. He performs nightly at the Fogfish Bar and Grill. It is here that one evening he meets Morning Glory, inspiring him to sing about “Her soliloquy of laughter.”

 

After they meet, time becomes like a skip-stone thrown but never touching water while the other is around. They decide to move to the city to begin their exploration of humanity, testing their decisions in a club called “Collisions.”

 

A phone call alerts the agent Master Piece to this new act. He is told they are “a fusion of something old and new, a fresh slant, an invigorating chant.” He states: “They need my own very special care. I’ll be their agent today.”

 

Master Piece and his arm candy, Miss Fortune, arrive at the apartment of Franklin and Morning Glory. After listening to some songs, Master Piece sings, “Your music it glimmers; it glimmers and shimmers. It takes off like a sprite on its own little flight. It flies high in the air. That’s why people don’t care.”

 

Franklin slowly withdraws under this adverse criticism, leading Master Piece to sing “Hey there, Mr. Planetary Torn Asunder, see him lumber. Watch him stumble to the shoulders of his orbitary boulevard. Please don’t burn up in the atmosphere, leaving only steam from your sweet tears to remember you.”

 

Morning Glory is unable to reach Franklin in his despair. They part ways. But as the tempest roars inside him, he hears the laughter of the glorious morning and sings, “How many people are there inside here trying to take me away? Some wasteful, some distasteful, some with promise, oh it’s upon us. I feel one of those curious moments when you know you’re growing wiser coming on.”

 

So, the gift of realization that Morning glory had so tenderly offered, Franklin finally gives to himself. Accepting his weaknesses cures his failures. With a humorous glint in his eyes and a hint of mirth in his smile, Franklin goes back to the Fogfish Bar and Grill to begin again.

 

There, he is reunited with Morning Glory, and they sing a “Catharsis Medley” with Master Piece and Miss Fortune. We leave Franklin and Morning Glory outside on the beach singing, “We’re just coming back to where we were in the first place, moving the same direction as before.” Rejoining and rejoicing with newfound strength and energy, they sing to each other, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.