Intro:

Oh!

I can’t believe it!

This is such a surprise!

I have so many people to thank . . .

Verse 1:

I want to thank all of my mentors,

Like Jeff and like Chad

And like Tom

And especially Lane.

And those who are part of

My theatre fam’ly

Like Rick, Tim, and Tony,

And Jane.

Chorus 1:

I’m so happy!

I can’t believe it!

This is a moment

I’ll never forget!

And there are so many people

I still want to thank!

(So don’t cue the orchestra yet!)

Verse 2:

I want to thank all of the people

Who work on the crew

And keep ev’rything

Going to plan.

Like Bob, Craig, and Derek,

And Sharon, and Leroy,

And Deb, Mike and Mary,

And Jan.

Chorus 2:

Oh -- this is awesome!

Can you believe it?

This is a moment

I’ll never forget!

And there are so many people

I still have to thank!

Oh no!  The orchestra’s starting!  Uhh . . .

Bridge:

The writers:  Roger and Doug.

The backers:  Robert and Rick.

The managers:  Roger and Mike.

My publicists:  J.D. and Matt.

The orchestra:  John Dale and Dan

And John and Justin and Lynne.

And Marilyn catered the food!

(You gotta love that!)

Verse 3:

Our brilliant ensemble

Of Shelley, Barb, Emily,

Alison, Sue, and Janine,

Jay, Jim, Mark, Steve,

Tim, Tom, and Tony,

Dale, Gordon, and Monty --

The finest cast

You’ve ever seen!

Chorus 3:

I’m not finished!

Don’t play me off yet!

Leanor, Kelly, Sam,

Bill, Lee, and Dan.

And most importantly --

Just let me say this! --

Thanks to my . . .

Outro:

(Orchestra)

For this round of Masters of Song Fu, we were tasked with writing a song that ran exactly one minute.  And, since it had to be in standard form with a chorus that repeats -- we competitors knew that we were going to have to pack a lot into those 60 seconds . . .

At first, I toyed with the idea of writing some kind of a “countdown song” -- built around the idea of a bomb that was about to go off or a self-destruct timer that was counting down or something along those lines.  The song would have made fun of all of those movies where 20 seconds on a countdown timer lasts far, far longer in “real-time.”  My song would have lasted exactly 60 seconds, but it would have told the story of only the last 15 seconds of the drama . . .

However, I didn’t come up with a satisfying way to tie that idea together into something I thought I could write.  So I turned to a different kind of countdown timer . . .

As I write this, it’s the end of the current theatre season.  The Tony Awards were held a week and a half ago.  The local community theatres in my area have just closed their final shows, and they (as well as the local papers) are giving out their own awards.  So in a sense -- ‘tis the season for a song such as this.  (Plus it’s fun -- isn’t it?  “Watching actors never reach the ending of their Oscar speech”?)

NOTE:  I intentionally refrained from using last names in this song (for some measure of anonymity), but the names I used are, in fact, all names of various friends of mine in the theatre.  (They’ll know who they are.  I only wish I could have thanked more than just fifty-three of them . . .)

Download “Acceptance.mp3”

(Want the sheet music?)

(A similarly-themed comic strip posted at “Medium Large” on WordPress.  Click on the comic strip to go to the web site.)

The challenge?

Write a one-minute song.