Children of Eden - Avondale Theatre 2017 🎭

The company of this production came together only a week before the show to build and rehearse the production in literally six days (though there was plenty of pre-planning work done by the staff in advance).

This was Edmond Guay's final show before retiring after 30 years directing the Avondale Theatre Company at Avondale High School in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It was a special one-night performance featuring alumni and students of the Avondale School District spanning from the graduating classes of 1987 to 2034 to celebrate the teacher who influenced thousands of students who have been a part of the Avondale community covering Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills, Bloomfield Hills, and Troy in southeast Michigan. The gentleman who sings the solo during Abel's death is Mr. Kevin Cornwell who has been the renowned choir director at Avondale schools for over 25 years so many of these alumni had been his students as well.

The show had a lot of meta/self-referential elements: Eve was played by Mr. Guay's daughter while Noah was played by his older son. Adam was played by the same actor who played the role when he was a student at Avondale High School 18 years earlier. Father's costume was made out of t-shirts from many of the shows he'd directed. The leaves of the Tree of Knowledge (which become panels of Noah's Ark) were logos of the some of the most memorable shows in Avondale's history. At the end of the show, Mr. Guay literally hands his keys to Michael Sheldon, who is an ATC alumnus himself and is now the new director of the theatre company.

I was the music director and played guitar for "Father's Day" and "Generations" -- the guitar hints of Jesus Christ Superstar and The Who's Tommy were nods to the alumni shows we'd done in 2012, and 2009, respectively (which are both on my YouTube channel as well).

0:00 | Welcome
2:51 | Let There Be
9:14 | Perfect (Part 1)
11:31 | The Tree of Knowledge
12:05 | The Naming
16:40 | Grateful Children
17:26 | Father's Day
19:31 | Perfect (Part 2)
23:33 | The Spark of Creation
26:49 | In Pursuit of Excellence
31:11 | The End of a Perfect Day
32:30 | Childhood's End
34:56 | A World Without You
37:50 | The Expulsion
39:53 | The Wasteland
43:16 | Wilderness Family
45:22 | The Spark of Creation (Reprise 1)
46:46 | Lost in the Wilderness
51:04 | Lost in the Wilderness (Reprise)
53:10 | Close to Home
56:43 | A Ring of Stones
59:17 | Clash of the Generations
1:03:34 | The Death of Abel
1:04:20 | The Mark of Cain
1:07:34 | Incidental Before "Children of Eden"
1:08:52 | Children of Eden
1:12:19 | Generations
1:18:54 | The Gathering Storm
1:20:34 | A Piece of Eight
1:26:02 | Blind Obedience
1:27:11 | The Return of the Animals
1:29:52 | The Naming (Reprise)/Noah's Lullaby
1:31:35 | Stranger to the Rain
1:35:44 | In Whatever Time We Have
1:39:21 | The Flood
1:42:40 | What Is He Waiting For?
1:45:45 | Sailor of the Skies
1:49:51 | The Spark of Creation (Reprise 2)
1:50:41 | The Hardest Part of Love
1:55:00 | Words of Doom
1:56:28 | The Hour of Darkness
1:58:54 | Ain’t it Good?
2:04:39 | Precious Children
2:05:55 | In the Beginning
2:11:20 | Bows and Acknowledgements