Download the post-production Tavern SCRIPT (335k pdf)
Download April 14th 2007 Video production ACT 1 (200 meg wmv file)
Download April 14th 2007 Video production ACT 2 (200 meg wmv file)
There are directorial discrepancies between the script and video.
Please reference only the script for production consideration.
Original video recorded on mono VHS (2 cameras).
The song lyrics in the script supercede those of the song demo's as
the songs were written before the script.
Added song LYRICS link to songs page.
Download a larger DESKTOP PICTURE in jpg format of the above Tavern model pic for your computer.

2 Acts
20 Scenes
10 Songs (9 can be played by a single acoustic guitar, the 10th - the Fairy Godmother Rap - is a pre-recorded piece meant to be played over a PA system),
10 Males (minimum, additional parts can be doubled, 13 w/out doubling - see PropsnChar page).
5 Females (minimum, additional parts can be doubled, 9 w/out doubling - see PropsnChar page).
There are no set changes (see below...)
Minimal costume changes (notably, Sarah's dress, Henchmen outfit/bunny costumes and Caducias' pants).
2.5 hours long (per the production videos)

The Tavern and The Storyteller is about a tavern visited one night by the Storyteller. He tells a story to the local fishermen about "A tavern just like this with fishermen just like you". They and the Tavernkeepers become characters in the Storyteller's story about Lily, the daughter of the Tavernkeepers. She is loved from afar by William, a poor boy and is lusted after by the Baron's evil son Caducias. The story weaves in and out between the 'real' world of the tavern and the Storyteller's story, maybe even blurring the lines at times.
Is it just a tale or is there something more to the story?
Comedy, happiness, sadness, death, rabbit assassins, singing wall mounted stuffed fish, an arrow that looks a lot like a chicken, a Fairy Godmother and her Golden Spatula and the far reaching magic of love...

STAGE SET NOTE:
The stage set can be intricate (as in my design) or with minimum "tavern" scenery but there should be some form of upper platform used (large enough to hold 4 girls and a bed) as a bedroom or sufficient stage area for the room to be off to the side as scenes and songs take place in the room. A perfect example is Act 2, Scene 11 where Lily & her friends sing and then make their way "downstairs" to the main room and are joined by the Fishermen and Lily's mother in song.

In an age long past in a land so far away from here you could never possibly hope to get there by walking unless you have very long legs, and even then, you'd probably be put off by the weather, was a small tavern in a coastal fishing village.

The tavern is in a small barony where the aches and pains of the day were flushed away by long heavy draughts of thick bitter ale and bad singing which would have kept the locals up most nights except for the fact that the locals were smart enough not to have moved into that part of the neighborhood in the first place.

The tavern was run by the Tavernkeeper and his Wife who's children had managed to escape at an early age and get good jobs not cleaning smelly fish. But they do manage to come by once in awhile to say hi and eat the food and do a bit of laundry. They don't appear in the play and are not mentioned at all.

The tavern has not been doing well lately and the customers are few because the Baron's son has been raising taxes, which makes it hard to get to the tavern and spend the money that you don't have in order to drink the ale that you can no longer afford because of the high tax rate that you can't pay because you spent it all at the tavern.
It's a vicious circle but a hardy few manage it because they know the Tavernkeeper, and it's in the script.

The Tavern is sometimes visited by a person known only as the Storyteller. He's a strange person who wanders the land telling stories and swapping news between towns and villages and will occasionally deliver the mail and a baby or two if there's no doctor around.

On this particular night, the Storyteller visits the tavern after being away for some months.
The locals ask him to tell them a new story to help lift their spirits a bit higher than what the spirits in their mugs are failing to do.

He tells them a story.
A local story that they've never heard before.
A story about a poor boy in love who came from hardly anything and went on to something a bit better.