The Senior Center will host a performance of two scenes from Maggie Heston’s original musical “Are We Americans?” Monday, Nov. 4 — the night before the election. Pictured from left: Cedogg Glenn, Tom Seibold, Misty Gill, Lucia Livingston, Maggie Heston, Anna Arbor, Theresa Bondurant, Kelly Ann Tracy, Julius Martin and Melissa Heston. (Photo by Lauren "Chuck" Shows)
Seniors debut musical scenes in ‘Are We Americans?’
- Published: November 14, 2024
The night before the election, local resident Maggie Heston and her accompanying band of merry players hope to take their audience back in time 100 years in American history.
Two scenes from Heston’s original musical, “Are We Americans?” will be performed Monday, Nov. 4, beginning at 6:30 p.m., in the Senior Center Great Room. Admission is free.
The two scenes — directed by Melissa Heston and performed by Senior Center members Maggie Heston, Julius Martin, Velda Martin, Tom Seibold, Anna Arbor, Lucia Livingston, Theresa Bondurant, Misty Gill and Kelly Ann Tracy — take place in 1920, and feature a group of immigrants taking a citizenship class, celebrating Independence Day and relating stories of why they came to the U.S.
The scenes include four musical numbers, accompanied on piano by Caryn Diamond, including a rendition of “Yankee Doodle,” and three original songs, with lyrics by Maggie Heston and music by Brennan Paulin.
At a recent rehearsal in the Great Room, Melissa Heston told the News that Maggie Heston — her mother — worked closely with composer Paulin to set her lyrics to music.
“She sang the melodies to him the way she heard them in her head when she was writing the lyrics, and he turned them into full arrangements,” she said.
Moving together with an air of celebration, the play’s actors gathered around a table in the Great Room. The women characters were celebrating the 19th Amendment in the spoken-word piece, “We the People,” accompanied on a drum played by Cedogg Glenn.
The actors chanted: “Don’t tell us to go back to the kitchen stove, or back to washing clothes. … There’s freedom of speech, we got the vote, so it’s our turn to screech, ‘cause we the people!”
Following the rehearsal, Maggie Heston told the News that “Are We Americans?” is the result of about four years of work. A performer on the stage in summer stock and community theater, as well as on the radio and television, she said “Are We Americans?” constitutes the first full-length musical she’s written.
The work — which is set in Tipperary, Iowa — was inspired by the immigration of her own French-Croatian family to the U.S. and heavily centers the lives and experiences of coal miners.
“My father’s family and my mother’s family all came here, and then the two families met in this Tipperary coal mine,” she said, adding that the musical follows, in part, the love story of two characters based on her parents.
“It’s got love songs, tragedy, unions and union bosses and workers’ strikes,” she said. “Miners had to take care of each other.”
Both Maggie and Melissa Heston said they hope to produce a full version of the musical down the line; the News will follow up on any future performances. In the meantime, they plan to workshop the full book and music.
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