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You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown
3 February @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Written By: Charles M. Schulz
Creative Team: Director: Andrew Broadbent
MD: Serenity Ogilvie and Sophie Meers
Choreographer: Louise McCullough
Act I
Charlie Brown stands alone as his friends give their various opinions of him (“Opening”). Today everyone is calling him a “good man”. Charlie Brown is happy and hopeful as usual, but he nevertheless wonders if he really is what they say. He decides to find out how he can really become a good person (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”).
Alone one day, during lunch, Charlie Brown talks about his bad days. Then he notices the Little Red-Haired Girl and decides to go sit with her. However, he cannot find the courage to do so, and puts a paper bag over his head. It turns out it is Lucy and Sally, chatting together. They draw a dress on the paper bag, while Charlie Brown feels like he has no confidence (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” (reprise))
Lucy expresses her deep infatuation with Schroeder and asks him what he thinks of the idea of marriage. Schroeder is aware of her feelings but remains aloof as he plays his piano. Lucy then exclaims: “My Aunt Marion was right. Never try to discuss marriage with a musician” (“Schroeder”). Sally is sad because her jump rope tangled up.
Snoopy is lying on top of his doghouse, relaxing vacantly and peacefully. He begins
to daydream about being a wild jungle beast. In a few minutes, however, he is back to his peaceful state (“Snoopy”). Linus enters, holding his blanket and sucking his thumb. Lucy and Sally show up and mock him for this habit. Linus decides to abandon his blanket and move on, only to come running back to it in desperation. After the girls leave, Linus daydreams of a blanket fantasy where everyone can relax with their blankets (“My Blanket and Me”). Lucy later tells him that she would someday like to be a queen. However, Linus tells her that she can’t and she threatens to punch him. Sally gets a D for her pathetic coat-hanger sculpture.
Charlie Brown appears, trying to get his unusually stubborn kite to soar in the air. Eventually, he succeeds in doing this, and he enjoys a few minutes of triumph before the notorious Kite-Eating Tree eats it up (“The Kite”). After this trauma, Charlie Brown tries to find the right way to give Lucy a Valentine’s Day card, but he ends up saying “Merry Christmas”, making a fool out of himself. He later learns that no one sent him a card, whereas everyone else, including Snoopy, got several. He goes to see Lucy, who is at her psychiatrist booth. He tells her all the things he thinks of himself. Lucy then clears it up by saying that Charlie Brown is unique the way he is, then asks for the five-cent price (“The Doctor Is In”). Later, Charlie Brown sees a happy Schroeder spreading the word of Beethoven’s birthday and pulling together a celebration. He and company join Schroeder in the song of jubilation (“Beethoven Day”).
The next morning, Sally wakes up Snoopy to go rabbit chasing, and they go into strange places, like the Sahara. At noon, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, and Charlie Brown are working on their Peter Rabbit book reports, each in his or her own way. Lucy is simply babbling to fit the 100-word requirement, Schroeder is doing a “comparison” between the book and Robin Hood, Linus is doing an overcomplicated psychological analysis, and Charlie Brown hasn’t even started out of worry, while Sally and Snoopy continue to chase rabbits (“The Book Report”).
Act II
Snoopy, in his World War I flying ace uniform climbs atop his doghouse. He goes through a scene, with him being a pilot searching for the Red Baron. In his imagination, he is defeated by the Red Baron and returns to the aerodrome in France (“The Red Baron”).
Sally is clearly cross about a D her teacher gave her on her homework assignment. In response, she says, “Oh, yeah? That’s what you think!” Schroeder hears and asks why Sally is telling him that. It quickly becomes Sally’s new “philosophy”, and she bursts into song about her philosophies. Schroeder, after failing to explain to her how philosophies work, leaves in bafflement while Sally continues (“My New Philosophy”).
Charlie Brown returns, and, with his friends, plays the Little League Baseball Championship. After some mishaps, the team finally manages to make some progress. Charlie Brown steps up to the plate, and despite his valiant efforts, strikes out and loses the game. We learn that this was a flashback, and Charlie Brown expresses his deep sorrow to his pen pal (“The Baseball Game”). After Schroeder tells her she is a very crabby person, Lucy takes a crabbiness survey of all her friends to determine her crabbiness: Charlie Brown gives a waffling answer, while Sally is more definitive. Upon asking Linus, he refuses to answer until she promises not to punch him; when he gives her a score of ninety-five, though, she punches him anyway. After tallying the score, she realises that she is very crabby and becomes depressed. Linus cheers her up by reminding her she has a little brother who loves her, remarking as she sobs in his shoulder “Every now and then I say the right thing!”
Determined not to let what happened at the championship bother him, Charlie Brown decides to join Schroeder’s Glee Club and cheer up by singing “Home on the Range” with his friends. Unfortunately, a fight ensues between Lucy and Linus over a pencil. The fight spreads, and Charlie Brown decides to leave with his angry friends, leaving Schroeder and Snoopy the only ones singing (“Glee Club Rehearsal”).
Later, Charlie Brown comes across Lucy teaching Linus about nature the way she views it, with “facts” such as bugs pulling the grass to make it grow or snow growing out of the ground
in winter. Charlie Brown tries to correct her, but she retaliates with a false explanation, and Charlie Brown bangs his head against a tree in frustration (“Little Known Facts”). That evening, Snoopy complains that he hasn’t been fed yet, and begins to overly complicate and dramatise the matter until Charlie Brown shows up with his dinner. Snoopy bursts into song about his craving for supper until Charlie Brown firmly tells him to eat his meal (“Suppertime”).
That night, Charlie Brown is still sad that he has not discovered what it means to be a “good man”, then he discovers a pencil which has been dropped by the Little Red-Haired Girl (his perennial crush). As he examines it, he discovers that “there are teeth-marks all over it . . .
she nibbles her pencil . . . she’s HUMAN!” With that realisation, he concludes that today hasn’t been so bad, after all, and he’s done a lot of things that make him happy. As Charlie Brown expresses what makes him happy, everyone, touched by his love of life, begins to express what makes them happy as well (“Happiness”). Right then, he realises being a “good man” means trying your best and making the most of the things you’ve been given in life. As his other friends leave the stage, Lucy turns to him and puts out her hand, making him shrink back. As he reaches out, she shakes his hand firmly, then tells him, “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”
A medley of “Happiness” and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” is performed as the cast comes out for a final curtain call.
Information Session: 27/01/2024
9 Short Street Murray Bridge
Audition Information: https://form.jotform.com/240128180631043
| Audition Information #:0 | |
| Date: | 03/02/2024 |
| Time From – Time to: | 09:00 – 17:00 |
| Character Descriptions #:0 | |
| Role Name: | Charlie Brown |
| Gender: | Male |
| Stage Age: | 8 |
| Role Information: | The sometimes optimistic, sometimes self-deprecatory main character. The show is a day in the life of Charlie Brown. A loveable loser, his main characteristics are either self-defeating stubbornness or admirable determined persistence to try his best against all odds. He can never win a ballgame but continues playing baseball; he can never fly a kite successfully but continues trying to do so. Dominated by insecurities, this lovable blockhead is affable, humble but smart and vulnerable. |
| Character Descriptions #:1 | |
| Role Name: | Sally Brown |
| Gender: | Female |
| Stage Age: | 6 |
| Role Information: | A highly articulate, charismatic, lovable, sometimes eccentric, and argumentative younger sister to Charlie Brown. Despite being portrayed as innocent and adorable, she is noticeably intelligent for her age. She is absurdly intense, balancing angst with innocence, sweet but a sceptic. She has a crush on Linus. |
| Character Descriptions #:2 | |
| Role Name: | Linus Van Pelt |
| Gender: | Male |
| Stage Age: | 6 |
| Role Information: | The thumb-sucking, blanket-dependent younger brother to Lucy – and Charlie Brown’s best friend. Though young, he is the most educated character in the bunch. He is unusually smart, and he acts as the show’s philosopher. Despite his mature vocabulary, juvenile aspects of his character are also displayed; for example, Linus is almost always depicted holding his blue security blanket and often sucking his thumb. Acutely sensitive with brains and warmth, although he is the second youngest in the group, he is the most mature. |
| Character Descriptions #:3 | |
| Role Name: | Lucy Van Pelt |
| Gender: | Female |
| Stage Age: | 8 |
| Role Information: | The crabby, opinionated, manipulative, self-important older sister to Linus who bosses Charlie Brown around and perpetually offers arm-chair psychiatric advice for her rate of five cents. This actress will have dimension in her performance – she will have the ability to be a brute but also allow her compassion to shine when necessary. She is a friend to Charlie Brown and is constantly looking for ways to help him and Linus, though she is often misguided and pushy in her attempts to help. She has a strong, unrequited crush on Schroeder. |
| Character Descriptions #:4 | |
| Role Name: | Snoopy |
| Gender: | Undefined |
| Stage Age: | |
| Role Information: | Charlie Brown’s dog. A clownish, vaudevillian scene stealer who can really “sell it.” Snoopy is more human-like than dog. His character is that of a dog who pretends to be a person (or who sometimes forgets he is a dog). He can dance circles around everyone else. He is smart, wise-cracking, and joyous. This role is physically demanding both in innovation and execution. |
| Character Descriptions #:5 | |
| Role Name: | Schroeder |
| Gender: | Male |
| Stage Age: | 8 |
| Role Information: | A friend to Charlie Brown, he is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven. He is Lucy’s love interest, but he could care less about her. His love is Beethoven, and he is very serious about his musical hobby. That said, he comes out and shines in his one number, “Beethoven Day,” which can be a showstopper. |
More Information at: https://mbplayersandsingers.com.au/upcoming-productions/
Information Pack and Audition Registration Link and Audition Application Form will all be released on our website after the Information Session on Saturday 27th January.
If you’re interested in auditioning, but aren’t able to make the Info Session, please email us and we’ll send you a copy of the info pack directly.
For any other questions, please email us: charliebrown.mbps@gmail.com
Contact: Andrew Broadbent
charliebrown.mbps@gmail.com
