By: Woodriver/Willson
I used to have Word-documents with scripts of Hegenia on this site earlier, but those were sketches from '97 so I've decided to drop those because they were too crappy compared to what I'm writing these days.
Instead I've included this short presentation, and also a link to George's Willsons excellent website dedicated to Hegenia(see below).
My presentation, mainly focusing on the story behind the upcoming shows, is divided into four parts:
1. BACKGROUND
Hegenia was originally a fantasy adventure in three parts, where each part included 10 songs. The first song that I ever wrote that was to end up in Hegenia was called "Seventh Sea", and it was written way back in the summer of '94 and it's the third song I've ever written in a list of tunes that's now approaching the 100-mark(my very first song was written in May'94).
However, it wasn't until early'97 that I started to write the sketches of the story to Hegenia. At the time, I had 10 songs that made up the middle part of the trilogy, and also a few songs to the other parts.
The next major stop of the developing of Hegenia was in the spring of '98, when I used the trilogy as my special assignment for the last year in High School. The trilogy now had 10 songs to each part, and after some disagreements I finally ended up with the A I so righteously thought I deserved(the chief of the English institution, and also the teacher of my last English course at HS, had to talk to my assignment teacher before he was convinced).
Early this year, a great composer/script writer named George Willson(for samples of his music, see my "New Songs"-site) read the rough '97 sketches of Hegenia at my home page, and grew a fondness of the story. Despite that, there were still lots and lots to work on before it could get anywhere, so we decided to do something about it.
George offered to do music to half of the songs, but after hearing the melodies to the show(I only had these sung by myself on a tape, and I'm a horrible singer....) he agreed on transcribing the existing themes and working out the music to them.
This was of course a thrill for me, since I've only been composing since the beginning of '98 and therefore didn't have the skills or time to work out the music to my older songs.
2. STORY
As mentioned earlier, Hegenia is a trilogy, where the parts are:
Part I - The Arrival of Evil
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This first part tells of Hegenia, a glorious and prosperous land where people are living peacefully and in harmony with each other. To celebrate and enjoy each other, the people of Hegenia meet at the legendary Eagle's Peak, which is a cliff formed like an Eagle's Beak.
The story introduces a kid named Derek, and his circle of friends including his best friend Jabe and a girl named Siri, which he fancies a lot. During the first part, Siri and Derek become a teenage couple, and the story focuses around their relationship.
Another major element in the first part is how the evil came to the land(the title obviously suggests that). At the beginning of the story, happiness and light still prevails, but at the end sadness and darkness has conquered the kingdom.
Part II - The Legend of the Hero
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The second part begins a couple of years after the first part has ended. The war has now fully struck Hegenia, as we find ourselves in the village of Derek and Siri, a small one near the sea.
The old man of the village is about to tell the people about an ancient legend of Hegenia, where it's said that a hero will come and save the land in a time of need. After the old man's story, Derek and Siri leaves his house, but in separate directions. Even though Derek asks her to come with him, she agrees that she has to go and help her friends in neighbouring villages, and he accepts that. People are telling him that she's hiding something, but he just can't believe that she could be doing that, since he thinks their love is stronger than anything in this world.
Unfortunately, the stories he'd been told were true, and he finds out that Siri actually has been hiding a horrible truth from him, which makes him commit an even more horrifying act.
The first half of the second part basically tells of Derek's struggles with Siri and the evil troops.
After a failed attempt of getting the last magician of the land(who's given up any hope for Hegenia) to stop his endless sleep and joining the good side in the fight towards the evil, Derek rescues a girl from the evil troops. She tells him of the wonderful land that she was born in, and at the end of her describtion she calls it "The Land of the Heroes". He catches on this and takes her back to his village, where a journey's being prepared to find the hero.
The old man's been killed by the evil troops, but before he died, he saw a vision where the hero could be found in an ancient land. The last half of the first part deals with that journey, and the events that sorround it.
Part III - The Return of Glory
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The third part tells of how Hegenia was saved from the evil. The numerous subplots of the story unite in a grande finale at the end of this story, and quite a few surprises are also awaiting at the end of this part.
3. THE MUSICALS
After working on getting the story stageable, George and I decided that the trilogy should be transformed into two musicals. The first musical is based on Part II and III, while the second musical is based on Part I. We did it this way, because Part II and III works on their own and have the main story, while Part I rather explains the background of some of the things in the last two parts.
Our idea is that if the first musical would be successful, people would want to know more about what happened before the war came to the land, and therefor the first part would be interesting.
This is kinda like Star Wars, where George Lucas filmed the second trilogy before he did the first one(where the first part's of course coming to a theatre near you quite soon when this is written).
4. THE SONGS
The lyrics to the first part have now basically been written, and they will posted here together with MIDI-files of the music one by one as George works out the chords and/or arrangements.
