Oh No, Not Emily!: An Operetta of Academia, Fraud & Emily Dickinson

"Oh No Not Emily" is a Gilbert & Sullivan-like operetta based very loosely on actual events. It is the story of Molly Writerblock, an aspiring poet, as she enters a graduate English program at a very large public university located next to an ocean. There she meets another newcomer to the department who is attempting to sell a hitherto unknown original poem by Emily Dickinson to the same English Department. There are also supportive parents; older, helpful grad students who have been there a very long time who willingly share how to be a successful grad student; an extremely knowledgeable professor who willingly shares his brilliance and an unseen Dean who communicates entirely through memos. In the end, only one newcomer will remain. With "Oh No, Not Emily!" you have the recipe for a show that will have your entire campus buzzing. With "Oh No Not Emily" you get a show that has: 8 strong characters all of whom get their own songs and "time in the sun". A musical score that is continually rich and inventive. One song actually combines each of the chord triads based on the 11 semitones of the Western Musical scale (really). A show that lovingly, yet satirically, through song and dance examines academic life from the inside. People who will especially be attracted by this script are: People who have spent time in an English department. People who know what a paradigm is. People who exist in large bureaucracies. People who are in grad school and need to laugh about it. People who are thinking of going to grad school and want to know what is is really like. People who are paying for grad school and are curious about what they are spending all that money for. In short, a show with something for everyone.

Author: Dan McLaughlin
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 03/02/2012
Pages: 104
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.33lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.22d
ISBN: 9781468104776

About the Author
Dan McLaughlin was born in Hollywood during halftime of a Rams (then in Los Angeles) Colts (then in Baltimore) game. Although the Rams scored a touchdown soon after his birth to tie the game, the Colts then scored 17 points to win. This, along with multi-decade stints at UCLA and as a government bureaucrat, has given Dan an appreciation for the subtle and sometimes capricious agency of action and words. Among his philosophical influences he cites Thomas Kuhn, David Springhorn, Paul Feyerabend, the Reduced Shakespeare Company and Bullwinkle the Moose. When not working as the local history reference librarian at the Pasadena Public Library, Dan can be found working merrily in the garden, pacing nervously during any UCLA game where the lead is less than 25 points, or walking sedately the beloved puppies with his even more beloved honey, Vendi. "Mime Time" is Dan's fourth book. Previously Dan has written three books and one musical. In reverse chronological order his other works have been "Gott Mit Uns," a novel that tells the story of an 8 1/2 foot penguin, who is a goddess, who is pursued by two people, who are bureaucrats, through today's America; "Pass the Damn Salt, Please" a novel which explores the importance of language and politeness in relationships told entirely in dialogue; "ICE Girls" an award winning novella which examines the story of the Little Match Girl from the point of view of management; and the award winning musical "Oh No, Not Emily!" an operetta in which a modern fake Emily Dickinson poem is sold to a post-modern English Department. Before that he and Mark Sellin were the comedy phenomenon "2 Guys from the 70's" where they served to remind people of the emotional honesty of the 1970's. Before that, again with Mark and several other friends, Dan wrote, directed and acted in several plays at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Southern California, including their greatest hit "Ye Olde Tale of Goode King Arthur." Also from that era he created radio play versions of the Trojan Horse "The Big Horsey Ride" and the Odyssey "Going Home and Getting Lucky."

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