I first had the idea for Still Water after writing a short story about High School relationships and how people's lives intersect and, and how as humans, we learn and grow side by side and often because of each other. As I wrote, I found that some songs I had written fit remarkably well with the idea, so I began writing more music specifically for the show. I worked solely on guitar, and eventually on piano to write harmonies and background vocals, as well as translating some songs into piano chords rather than guitar. Below is the outline for the plot points of the musical and demos of music that I plan to include in a stage performance.

 

Still Water Complete Show Outline- by Aine Palumbo

 

Concept excerpt:

For most young people, it's easy to stay in line with what life has planned for you. Most girls are ambitious. Most boys can find something to keep them occupied. Those that can’t tend to gravitate towards each other, and if you don’t have ambitions, and you don't play sports, and there’s not much keeping you grounded… social trials and tribulations take the reins.

• • “It was easier to pretend that was true than to describe her detailed imagination and extensive analytical perspective on the world to people she assumed wouldn’t understand.”
  • Include a scene where Molly is bullied and then Francine has to help her, and James is there.
  • Scene where Molly asks Francine if she can set James up with one of their friends when francine and james are still only platonic, 
  • “Sometimes you say things or do things.. and then I just feel guilty. Like the things you do that are making me fall in love with you aren’t on purpose. Like you would stop doing them if you knew it made me love you more each time.” “It’s always on purpose.”

• Social commentary is the center-point of modern day entertainment.

• Some kind of unity number between the women in the show

 

Key

• Plot points
  • Dialogue ideas/notes

{} songs

 

Character list:

• Francine
• James
• Molly
• Levi
• Leah
• Violet
• Dirk
• Bullies/ ensemble

 

• • Characters 
    • Francine- she is kind of an airhead, she stares at the ceiling tiles, or accidentally bumps into people, and is confident. She doesn’t care (or know) that people think she’s dumb.
    • Molly- Francine’s friend, she encourages her to be social. Molly is strong, confident, but naive. She doesn’t like to express weakness. She is made fun of, and allows this to distort her perspective of herself.
    • James- An artist and pop culture enthusiast who tends to distract himself from the real world.
    • Violet- Molly and Leah’s friend, she is soft spoken and kind. Used to Molly’s strong wit and loud personality, she is a listener.
    • Leah- Very intelligent and happy girl, she is in a relationship with Dirk, who is valedictorian. Both intellectuals, they are seen as the cutest couple; the perfect match. But they aren’t what they seem.
    • Dirk- Boyfriend of Leah, passive aggressive, but very smart.
    • Levi- James’ cousin, very close friend of Violet. He is the star of the school’s wrestling team, but secretly hates his team and the sport itself.

• Plot
• Act 1

• • • Scene 1- {1} -> Francine walks through the hallways, staring at the walls next to her. Molly approaches her asking if she will attend the wrestling match that evening. Leah joins in on the conversation.
    • Scene 2- James is in his room, drawing, when he remembers the wrestling match he was supposed to go to, and he jumps up, gets in his car, and begins driving {1A}
    • Scene 3- Francine gets a call from Molly and leaves for the school on her bike, including something to make it clear it's dark and raining. {2} she is hit (lightly) by James' car. 
    • Scene 4- Car ride, {3} They arrive at the school, and both sit with Molly to watch the match. James and Francine continuously act like they’ll stop hanging out, but they don’t really want to. 
    • Scene 5- The next Monday, Francine and James walk to classes together, and as the week goes on, they become closer and closer.{4} They are seemingly inseparable by the end of the month. They don’t hang out in the same group,and have both begun to stop talking to their friends as much so they can hang out with each other, which turns into everyone being friends with each other. At this point it is platonic.
    • Scene 6- Molly, Violet and Leah discuss James and Francine, and Violet confesses that she has a crush on James. Molly and Leah conjure up a plan to get them together {5}.
    • Scene 7- Leah opens up about her toxic relationship with her boyfriend (to violet), and how she realizes she has been manipulative. {6}. They are terrible for each other, and fight often. Violet is surprised by this, confused on how they are able to maintain an image of a perfect couple.
    • Scene 8- At Francine’s house, she plays him a song she wrote, and explains how she was inspired by him to write music. {7}. Molly is made fun of and harassed at a wrestling match, and Francine and James come and help her. Throughout the scene, when James and Francine talk to Molly, she asks them about their relationship. Talking to James, she implies that Francine’s quiet demeanor and ‘ditsy’ look make her dumb, and James is taken aback. He doesn’t see her this way, and is confused. 
    • Scene 9-  James and Francine have a deep conversation about how she is perceived {8}, and she tells him that she doesn’t care, and she knows who she is, and the way others see her isn’t her concern. James opens up about how he closes himself off from others because he is worried about being perceived poorly. The contrast brings them together {9}. For now, they’re secret.
    • Scene 10- James’ cousin Levi confesses to Violet how he hates wrestling, and he has wanted to quit for months. In return, Violet tells him about how she truly feels, and how she stays quiet all the time to cover up her anger. They form a friendship, and are soon as close as brother and sister. {10}
      • “Not quite siblings not quite lovers but something entirely new”
    • Scene 11- Leah and Francine talk about Leah’s need to break up with Dirk, when Molly and Violet join in. They all decide that it is for the best for them not to be together. Violet confesses to her crush on James, so Francine pulls Levi aside and tells him she and James are together. Leah meets up with Dirk, and she talks about how they should end things. Violet and Levi stay close by to support. Dirk assumes that Leah is being manipulated by her friends, and picks a fight with Levi, who being a star wrestler, ends quickly. 
      • Levi: “sometimes there is no reason other than sometimes people aren’t right for each other"

• Act 2

• • Scene 1- {11} James and Francine announce their relationship, and everyone thinks they’re really cute.
  • Scene 2- Violet and Levi have a heart to heart, and she explains that she never goes for anything she wants, and the one time she does, all she did was embarrass herself. Levi confesses that he fought with his mom about wrestling, and how his grades won’t be enough for him to get enough merit to afford college, so staying with wrestling is his only hope. Violet feels terrible, and like her problems don’t nearly measure up to those around her.
  • Scene 3- Molly and Francine encounter Molly's bullies at a community service event. They are picking up trash around the school, when guys start walking by them and calling her names. She starts to listen and close herself off, but then Francine starts to speak for her, so Molly pulls her aside and asks why she feels the need to protect her. Francine talks about how they protect each other. {12}
  • Scene 4-James and Levi scene, they talk about wrestling, relationships, and their family {12A}. 
  • Scene 5- short romantic scene with Francine and James, maybe on a picnic or something, they have a conversation/(maybe an argument?) about how they need each other, and promise not to leave each other. This is the beginning of the end for them, they have become too codependent. {13}
  • Scene 6- Violet confides in Molly, complaining about how she only ever embarrasses herself. Molly brings up how Violet should just go date Levi since they’re so close. Violet stops and thinks about this. Molly, getting frustrated, gets up and yells at Violet, “God, have you always been this desperate?” Violet asks for an explanation, to which Molly can't provide. Violet storms off stage, and is replaced with Levi, who asks Molly what's wrong. Molly confesses her feelings for Violet to him. 
  • Scene 7- Francine and James' first big argument, James tells Francine about Molly's feelings for violet, as he heard from Levi. Francine is surprised, and confused as to how Molly never told her. James tells her that she had never asked. Francine claims she shouldn't have to, and that he shouldn't act so high and mighty since he outed Molly to Francine anyway. The tension builds from here, but quickly, they resolve the issue, but more in a way that leaves the conflict open. The tension some-what remains.
  • scene 8- Leah and Violet meet up and talk. Violet confesses what Molly told her, and she doesn’t know what to do. They hug it out, and talk about how she’s feeling. Leah then brings up how she’s worried Levi and Francine are spending too much time together. They gossip for a bit, then close out the conversation.
  • scene 9- Molly asks Francine to go out for ice cream so they can talk. Francine is quiet and doesn’t really start conversation when they’re out. Molly then says that she 
    • “I feel like everything is changing and there’s nothing I can do to stop it” “I didn’t keep this from you because I don’t love you. I was so afraid that it would change things… I was so afraid of losing you… I couldn’t. And I tried so many times, but I- I just couldn’t get it out. I’m not angry at you for finding out. But I’m also not angry at myself for keeping it from you. It was my choice who and when got to know. I know that I should have told you, part of me knew that it would’ve been okay, but I couldn’t take losing my best friend on top of the bullying, and on top of being hopelessly in love with a girl that will never look at me the way I look at her. And you can’t pretend like you know what I’m going through, because you just don’t, Francine. I don’t think anybody does.”
  • Scene 10- Three spotlights, center stage is James and Francine, stage left is Levi and his family, and stage right is violet and molly. Molly is confessing to Violet, Francine is breaking up with James, and Levi is telling his family that he is quitting wrestling. Each conversation is slightly overlapping, and there are more words and phrases thrown out so the audience gets a gist of what is happening. The show closes with a letter to the universe, (subject to change). {14}.
  • Final notes:
    • The show closes as up for audience interpretation; maybe Francine and James get back together, maybe Violet loves Molly too, maybe Levi’s family will support his choice, nobody knows. Not even me and I literally wrote the show. 
    • Probably rewrite or edit at least letter to the universe, because I don’t like it enough to make it the closer.
    • The theme of the show is fate, and uncertainty of the unknown. The idea is that we have control over our future, but sometimes we have to allow things to not be okay, and sometimes people aren’t right for each other. Subplot themes of growing up and being afraid of change.

1- Opening Number Demo

10- Something Strange

14- Letter To The Universe