FATHERHOOD: The Musical
by Phil Martin
A musical about a search for a better life—in America
Gateway is a musical about the dreams, hopes, and fears of the people who gave up everything they had in order to chase a word—America! It takes place on Ellis Island in the year 1907. Wilhelm Brenner, an apprentice printer from Switzerland is taking his family to Sheboygan, Wisconsin in search of a better life. During the long journey, he has made a number of friends—Jacob and Rebecca Jenofsky, Russian Jews escaping the pogroms; Rosa Milazzo, a young Sicilian who is sent to marry a friend of her father; Hans Jergenson, a cripple boy from Stavanger, Norway; and Aristophanes Pappavisalu, a proud Greek father on his way to California, America to join his seven sons.
As they progress through the bureaucratic maze of the Island, their stories intertwine—Rosa has fallen in love with another immigrant from the ship, the Scotsman Ian McLeod, but is afraid to offend her father; Hans, having already been marked by the doctors, tries desperately to find a way off the island and into New York; Pappas clutches his bag which the guards assume is filled with money, while Wilhelm handles a reluctant wife and a free-spirited daughter. The story comes to a climax when these new Americans must stand together against one of the guards who has taken Pappas' bag and destroyed its contents.
Each of these immigrants share the story of why they left their old country, what happened to them on the journey, and what they hope to find in this new country. They join with each other to survive the experience of Ellis Island, and wait for the final question to be answered—who will make it in— and who will not!
Cast Requirements: 9 major characters (6 men & 3 women), 5 supporting characters, 2 children, variable chorus
Set Requirements: The stage is a unit set, representing various locations on Ellis Island. The locations should be identified with minimal props or set pieces and the changes should flow from one to the next without any stoppage of the action.
Period: 1907
Location: Ellis Island, New York Harbor
Gateway is currently orchestrated for a small pit orchestra: piano, bass, drums, woodwind, trumpet and trombone.