Paulanne Simmon's Musicals & Music
In The Schoolyard
About In The Schoolyard:
In the Schoolyard tells the story of native Brooklynite childhood buddies Larry, Jerry, Dave, Eddie and Manny. They played stoopball and stickball in the streets and basketball in the schoolyard of PS 8. They all worked for or stole from the grocery store owned by Manny’s mother, Mrs. Rivera.
Although they have all married, established careers (more or less) and moved away, they still come back to Brooklyn the last Saturday of September to play basketball in the schoolyard, have a few drinks at O’Leary’s bar and talk about old times and new events. But this time Larry insists he can’t make the reunion for reasons he won’t entirely reveal, Dave has lost his wife and the last of a series of jobs, and Manny is determined to bring his aging mother back to Florida where he lives. As the guys look back to the past, they realize they must figure out how they are going to face the future.
Writers Inspiration: While writing for the Brooklyn Papers, I was assigned a story about a group of men who came back to the P.S. 8 schoolyard every September to play basketball. I wrote my first play, Basketball Lessons, based on these men. After a while, I realized the play had the elements of a good musical. Six years later, I wrote In the Schoolyard.
Book & Lyrics: Paulanne Simmons
Composer: Rachel Kaufman
Produced: The New York International Fringe Festival
Year Produced: 2010
What The Reviewers Say...
Simmons (book and lyrics) can write funny lines, and there are more than a few in her musical… But this musical is not simply a showcase for some good actors to show-off their vocal cords or hoofing. And it's not about cracking jokes for their own sake…This show is funny, sad, and ultimately tragic. Even if you don't cry easily, you just might find yourself shedding a tear at the ending.
Deirdre Donavan, Curtainup
In the Schoolyard’s top-flight musical numbers range from heartwarming — “Just a Small-Town Attorney;” to rollicking – “Blue Chip Teleconferencing: it’s here, it’s new, it’s the next best thing;” to hilarious – “The Best Latin Lover of Dartmouth ’71.” The sad secret of one of the men, which brings them all to a deeper appreciation of what is really important, is illuminated with a particularly haunting “I’m Coming Home.
Mary Frost,
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
For Brooklyn Heights resident Paulanne Simmons, inspiration for the musical In the Schoolyard was found close to home. It's about a group of guys who reunite each year to shoot hoops at P.S. 8, which, she says, ‘is five minutes from where I live.’ Simmons, a journalist and teacher, adapted the show from a play based on her newspaper feature. ‘I did the story about 10 years ago,’ she says, adding that she was struck by how eloquent the guys became when they talked about basketball. Big ideas about friendship, loss and life dribbled into the conversation. ‘When they were young, the game kept them out of trouble,’ she says. ‘As they got older, it was a fountain of youth’
Joe Dziemianowicz,
Daily News
A small handful of long-graduated Brooklyn students understand the commitment and value held in a lifelong friendship…In the late ’90s, Heights resident and writer Paulanne Simmons discovered this crew, which, she estimates, had already been reuniting annually for about 20 years at that time…She was touched by the story and identified with the friends’ ties to Brooklyn, having been raised in East New York herself…
Caitlin McNamara, Brooklyn Daily Eagle