THE THEATRE

Harrison Hilltop Theatre

About Us
Established June 2008
The Harrison Hilltop Theatre exists to provide the Quad Cities Area with an eclectic range of professional entertainment - from plays and musicals to live music and comedians and everything in between - in a ultra-comfortable, “living room theatre” atmosphere.
The Hilltop opened in June 2008, the brainchild of Circa '21's Chris Walljasper and Tristan Tapscott, and has since produced over 20 high quality productions ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire to The Rocky Horror Show. The members of the Hilltop's production staff and actors are paid and hail from the Quad City Area, Texas, California, and New York City. The Hilltop is housed in an old bank building that was designed and built in the early 1900's. Now converted into a "living room theatre" - complete with couches, recliners, and other padded seating - the Harrison Hilltop Theatre can seat between 35 and 100 guests depending on the size of the show and/or audience needs. Having produced 20 full scale productions in 18 months, The Harrison Hilltop Theatre is the Quad Cities' most prolific production company. The Hilltop prides itself on being the QC's very own "Chicago style store front theatre."


"...the centerpiece of arts-based urban development."-David Burke, Quad City Times


"...eclectic to the point of schizophrenia."-Mike Schulz, River Cities Reader

a bit more HISTORY before we begin...

OKAY... so, like I said... I formed a band called DC KEY, primarily to make a record album with. And here's a pic from our little album photo shoot (I've got some better ones - maybe I'll post 'em later). From left to right here lies DC KEY:


PAT PAUTLER - an extraordinary drummer - he has what I can only call a finesse on those cans. He throws in so many nice accents when he plays and... he is the only drummer everyone tells to play louder. He just loves on those skins!
JIMMY LAHOOD - what I thought was a marriage made in heaven... my music and his guitar playing. He analyzed every song and gave every tune the different feel it needed. I loved hearing what magic he would bring to a session.
ME - in the middle... that cigarette is just a prop, kids! (cough...)
WES WATSON - what a cool musician name, huh? Wes is a fantastic Bass player. The funny thing was, he is in a band called Strangeland (heavy metal Christian) so this was much different for him. He developed a love for the fretless just before we recorded. We had to tune it up a little (fretless=difficult for recording) but he riffed it up right.


DC KEY started in my dinning room/living room. Me and Eric Keysor would sit around and sing the songs I wrote. "Taking too long" which is included in T.A.D. is true... we were sitting around fairly poor but that dad gum piano still played! And actually there' s a line in the song that says, "All that we need is just one stupid song"... it actually came from a quote from Eric, only he said, "One stupid ass song, that's all we need... BIG MONEY!" (I thought I'd better make it more listener friendly) Anyway, I said that I never would again sing "On the Line" after I heard Keysor (Eric) sing it. He made that song something even bigger than it is. But... alas... he wouldn't get off his ass and I had to move on ahead... Really, it's hard but you can only sit around dreaming about stuff for so long and then you gotta make a move. Keysor is a brother to me, but (at that time anyway) he didn't have the drive. And I always thought we could've done great things. That's what I find a lot in life. I've been dragging people along, trying to get them to do something with their talent, and you just can't. Even with my band. Jimmy just wanted to play out in a bar every once in a while and laughed at my huge dreams on occasion, Wes just wanted to jam with anybody and Pat... well, I'm not sure what he wants. BUT... the bottom line is this... I know what I want and I am moving. So, if you want to jump on the train... it's time!

On cutting my work... and generally messing with me!

At this point in TADs journey, it has been through about 5-6 re-writes, most at the hand of Tristan, the co-owner of the producing theater,(with my permission of course)and I am happy to say it is still pretty recognizable as my work. Anyway, today I received an e-mail from the music director who said she and Tristan had discussed and want to cut "BLACK" (one of the tunes). I have sent a protest e-mail, but ultimately left the decision (for THIS PRODUCTION) up to Tristan. Anyway, "BLACK" is the lowest of the lows for the lead character, Dylan, and "WHITE", which is sung in Act 1, is the highest of highs. So, I wrote that song to high lite the wide range of emotions Dylan goes through (AS A BI-POLAR DRUG ADDICT!). Anyway, I was a little upset, but we'll see what happens.
The other day I was surprised to hear that they were not planning on having a full band for this show. I think that is taken care of! It is a pop/rock show so I want justice done to it! It's not a 50 piece orchestra... just a rock band.
Anyway, ups and downs and surprises and stuff. I am just thankful to have my work being staged but, that being said, I do want to recognize it when it is staged and I do want to have a voice as the writer as to what things are important. And... Tristan, if you read this, you're the best for staging this piece of... ART!
DC

P.S. HERE'S "BLACK"... (as it appears in my original/1st draft)...

DRUNKEN MINDS!

THE TUNES

A DRUNKEN MIND SPEAKS A SOBER HEART
(IN THE ORIGINAL DRAFT, A CHARACTER NAMED IZZY – WHO IS NOT IN THE SHOW AT PRESENT – FINALLY DECLARES HIS LOVE FOR SUGAR – WHO STILL IS IN THE SHOW. SUGAR IS THRILLED BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS THOUGHT IZZY WAS GAY BASED ON THE COMPANY HE KEPT. IN THE CURRENT DRAFT THIS SONG IS ONLY PARTLY SUNG BY DYLAN AND HIS BAND BEFORE THEY ARE INTERUPTED WITH SOME UPSETTING NEWS. OF COURSE I AM THE WRITER SO IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT I THINK… BUT I REALLY LIKE THIS TUNE. IT’S A GOOD, SOLID, POP TUNE AND IT WILL SHOW UP ELSEWHERE IN THE FUTURE.)

HOT MESS!!!

THE TUNES

One of the things I'd like to include along the way are some song lyrics. Unfortunately we do not have a decent copy yet of all the tunes in the show so you can't hear them all. BUT... you can read the lyrics and here are some for "HOT MESS"... a song very much inspired by my friends!


HOT MESS
(AN OPENING GROUP # TAKING PLACE IN THE MIDDLE OF A RAUCOUS COLLEGE GRADUATION PARTY)

MISFITS
MIX IT UP AND MIX IT GOOD
STIR THIS - SHAKE THIS - ADD A FEW ROCKS, PLEASE
IT AINT A PARTY TIL THE PARTY HAS SOME CASUALTIES
AND YOU CAN COUNT ON ONE OR YOU CAN COUNT ON THE REST
TO BE A REAL HOT MESS
PLACE YOUR BETS - WHO’LL END UP A HOT MESS

READY to get TIRED!

Here we go! Welcome to my TIRED AMERICAN DREAM blog! I made a completely new blog so I could keep everyone up to date on the rehearsal process as we prepare to mount this show (PREMIER) at Harrison Hilltop Theatre in Davenport, Iowa. Please add yourself as a follower and you will receive notifications. So... just a quick rundown for those who don't know:

In 2000 something I decided I was going to record some of my songs that had been laying around for sometime. I put together a great band and we went to work. We also decided about 1/2 way through the process that we were going to play out, and began learning covers as well. Long story short... we recorded our album, played our much anticipated CD release party and fell apart. Being resourceful, I took the songs, added more and wrote a musical. As I was writing the show, I was cast in "The Buddy Holly Story". A guest performer (Tristan Tapscott)came in to play the great drummer, Jerry Allison. Anyway, one night we were talking and it was one of those moments of... "I have a theatre" & "well, I have a show". I gave him a CD of DC KEY and he fell in love (mostly probably because of all the love songs). The rest is history. I finished writing and he secured a slot in their 2010 season, right between "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "RENT". And now it's here! Rehearsals begin Saturday, January 30th.