A long time ago, on a website far, far away...

About four years me and a buncha fellow nerds got together and put together a show. It was a musical based on the Star Wars trilogy. Here was the catch however; we would do it as if Lucasfilms actually made the original trilogy as a musical. Leslie Nielsen is only funny because he takes it so serious. Anyway, it was a crazy, fun ride. Meanwhile, in the Improv world there were just two websites devoted to Chicago improvisation. There was the Chicago Improv website which didn't last that long and kinda imploded... and there was that young upstart "Impravda" created by Rob Kozlowski. This was a fun website with a "rumors" page that were often completely bogus or bits. It was fun. Anyway, Rob asked me or I asked him (I don't remember rightly) to post a journal of the behind the scenes wackiness. And I did. Then his website went away and the journal was on my old website then that went away and it was lost. Thankfully, Rob kept his old stuff on a zipdisk as opposed to me; I keep everything on tiny post-its.

I haven't re-read anything, so here goes. But I do feel that I should mention something here.... I don't know if it's in the journal itself. Anyway, the very first human being I told about my idea was one of my fellow Second City souvenir/coatcheck employees, Samantha Albert. I was like, "wouldn't it be funny if someone..." and she said, "No, you should really do it. Honestly, Jason, you should do it." She convinced me and she's on the SC etc stage now and she's fantastic. That's a really good show by the way... anyway, Thanks Sam! Stay away from deaf guys! So, here goes:

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On December 20th, I was very, very bored at my temp job. To keep myself awake, I began to imagine a musical version of the Star Wars trilogy (ala the Simpsons' versions of "Streetcar!", and "Stop The Planet of the Apes I Want To Get Off!"). I laughed myself silly.

Later that night at the closing night party for THE NEIGHBORS, I spoke with Mike Ross whose enthusiasm and excitement told me that the idea was valid and that we should probably make a go of it. Mike became co-producer and the singing and dancing Luke Skywalker. Stuart Ranson was also at that party and when he suggested that he could play Princess Leia Organa I almost collapsed. He would be perfect.

I knew that the re-release of the Star Wars films was coming soon. We had to open the show during the re-releases or the whole thing would be off. There was a two week window between the opening of "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"; Friday, February 28th. After assembling a crack team of writers (mostly during Christmas parties at Bret Scotts' house), Mike Ross, Bret Scott, and Rich Prouty, I approached Dave Adler. Dave Adler is quite literally a musical genius and resident accompanist at the ImprovOlympic. Once he agreed to get on board I knew the show would fly.

Once the creation of the show was underway, a place to put the sucker up was the next major concern. Several areas were considered; Second City's Skybox, the Annoyance Theater, and the Del Close Theater at the ImprovOlympic were the top three contenders. I spoke with Charna Halpern, owner of the ImprovOlympic and when I mentioned Star Wars her eyes got big. When I mentioned Dave Adler her jaw dropped. "I want it", were her exact words.

I had the beginnings of a script. I had Luke Skywalker, a musical director, a theater, four amazing and talented people, and a head full of steam. The hard part was coming soon.

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Eventually, "Jedi! A Musical Tour de Force" would take some 21 people run it. Some people went far and above the call of duty. Particular "Heroes of the Alliance" include: David Jarzembski who designed the lights and provided endless technical advice and equipment, George Eckart who created endless creatures and special effects for the show (Dave, George and I would end up with two rehearsals ending at 5/6 am), the entire cast for putting up with grueling rehearsals that began at 10pm and sometimes ended around 2 or 3, Mike Ross and Stuart Ranson, both of whom not only had an entire script to memorize, also choreographed all the dance sequences.

A note here about Stuart Ranson. Stuart is one of the most talented people I have ever met. He and I went through the Second City training program together and the idea of him playing Princess Leia was simply genius. I was very, very worried about casting a male in the only female role in Star Wars. There have always been charges of sexism in improvisation productions and with this show being so closely related to improv in general, I wanted to take careful measures to insure that we had exhausted all the options in our casting decision. I tossed around several names and even spoke to one young lady about the show, she had never seen Star Wars. With Stuart's brilliance and incredible knowledge of the Star Wars films, I decided to make Stuart Ranson Princess Leia Organa. The Sun-Times called it sexist. I think Stuart Ranson is amazing. He's the only person in the entire world who can do a dead-on Carrie Fisher imitation. I have always called him the Spicy Heart of Jedi.

We had less than 45 days to slap together a musical with some total 37 costume changes, two exploding Death Stars, a dozen aliens, three lightsabre duels, and a whole crapload of duct-taped props. I still can't believe that we did it, and then maintained it. The script was written with spots for the songs and hints about their content (ie: "Darth Vader sings about Dark Side, should be fast"). The actors who were to portray the characters who sing were asked to write the lyrics to their songs and then meet with Dave Adler to finish it off. Rehearsal time was very tight and for the actors to practice their songs and for us to do staging and other work we had to move the piano into the ladies room so Dave and the actors could work in there. The sight of Dave pounding away while Pat Shay bellowed out a song is a audio/visual memory I will treasure forever.

The opening date was barreling down at us like a runaway Bantha. Would all of this work be for naught? I remember being worried that no one would "get it". Some of the cast and friends went to see the re-release of Star Wars. I was sitting next to Mike Ross (who actually cried! What a 90's guy!). When Luke whined, "But I was going to go to Tashii Station to pick up some power converters!", the entire theater burst out laughing. Mike and I looked at each other; the show would work.

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I have always applied the basic rule of public speaking to producing a show; know your audience! Who is going to want to see your show? With videotapes, cable, and movies to choose from your stage production damn well better have something different to offer that can only be seen at a theater. With my show "Superhero Society of America" I wanted comic book fans to come see improvisation. With "Dinner For Six" I wanted an improvised romantic dramedy ala "Mad About You". With "JEDI! A Musical Tour de Force" we wanted Star Wars fans, of course, but (believe it or not) fans of old musicals.

For an entire month, the cast and crew of "JEDI!" would rehearse on Sunday nights (10pm to 1am), Wednesday nights (10pm-1am), and Saturday mornings (9am to 12noon). O, they complained, and bitched, and asked to leave early, and acted like friggin' babies, but not a single person ever missed rehearsal. Twenty friggin' people working their asses off during the day to make a living, performing all over the city, and then making it to a late night or early morning rehearsal three times a week and putting up with my bullshit. God Bless 'Em. Every one.

"Jedi! A Musical Tour de Force" had a terrific buzz about it even before we opened. We were on the "Q101 Morning show with Wendy and Bill" (Bill Leff actually has a room in his house dedicated to Star Wars toys), and I was interviewed by the Sun-Times, both before we opened.

THE OPENING

Can ya say nervous? I was an absolute wreck. All the actors (19) were crammed into a very tiny "green" room and they were going nuts. I was meeting and greeting people on the outside and it was pretty obvious I was very apprehensive. The beautiful Dave Adler took my shoulders in his hands and said very slowly, "Everything's going to be alright." That actually worked. Go Figure.

The house was oversold with a 50/50 mix of friends and Star Wars fans. O, there were so many technical errors, but overall everyone was fantastic. It still amazes me that in that crappy, cramped Del Close Theater with some people running around (literally) with buckets on their heads, that not one person has been seriously injured. The Second City Blue Touring company all came. Rich Talarico in particular was very enthusiastic, which was great for me since he was my very first coach over at I.O. for my entire first year.

The initial schedule for "JEDI!" was four Friday nights at 10:30, and on March 22nd we began Saturdays at 11:00pm. For the first four weeks we were sold out by the end of business on Tuesday afternoons for the Friday night shows. A first for ImprovOlympic. So heady with the audience responses we were getting, Charna and I discussed taking the 8 and the 11 slot on Saturdays. The terrific FRANK BOOTH show, "THERAPY", had ended and we were selling out on Friday and Saturday nights.

I called A Jedi Family Meeting to discuss the proposal with the entire cast; especially those members who had to sing. While we all agreed that two shows on Saturday would be grueling and would severely hamper many I.O. Harold teams, we all eventually decided that we would give it a shot.

We ended up doing 7 (!) double Saturday shows! The audiences weren't so large for these. The lowest we had was 27, and we never completely sold out both shows on a Saturday. Probably the two best things to come out of the double-duty Saturdays were a) the little kids that got a chance to see the show ("That's Silly!", cried out one young lady, and little boy started to cry when the bad guys freeze Han Solo) and the trench-comradeship that developed between the cast members.

I would dearly love to mention and give the bios to each and every cast member of "Jedi! A Musical Tour de Force", but I realize that this would be very boring to some people. I will, however mention a few names in my next posting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank ROB and the staff of IMPRAVDA for putting up with this wreck and giving me this chance to vent. If you want to e-mail me directly you can do so at "ieatplanets@yahoo.com".

STAR WARS Trivia!

In the original script for "The Empire Strikes Back", what was Boba Fett called?

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We cranked out shows on an almost grueling basis. Most of the cast would work their 9 to 5 jobs and then run over to the IO to do a big ole 2 hour musical on Friday nights and then do two shows on Saturdays!

On Saturdays we had shows at 8pm and then 11pm. We barely had an hour to rest and re-energize for the 11. I ordered pizzas (which somehow never managed to be enough no matter how many pies I ordered. One of those roving black hole thingies, is the improviser's stomach) for the entire cast and support crew.

The support crew for "JEDI!" included the light operator, the audio engineer, one intern and Jamie the Cantina Bar manager. They all worked for the show and never really got the credit they deserve. Especially Bob Holomshek. This monster of an intern was almost overzealous with his crowd control and eventually took over my duty of ensuring that the green room was full of coke (a-cola) and ice water.

There were some 40 something light changes (with wiring changes required between acts) and about 20 audio cues. Jim Sharp and Mike McCarthy did the lion's share of the work for those respective jobs. Dave Jarzembski designed the original lights and ran them for four shows. Eric Magayer and I did audio when Mike didn't.

Some of the funniest bits never made it to the stage. Pack a room full of top notch improvisers and you're guaranteed some funny stuff, now put 'em in wacky space costumes and give them toys.....look out for HA-HA!!! Amazingly enough, they never ran out of Star Wars bits. One of my favorites is the dread Emperor Palpatine (Rich Prouty, in shorts and a t-shirt) bouncing on the couch and singing No Doubt's "Walking In A Spider Web" (y'know, that 'I'm not home right now....' song).

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Finally, it happened.

On Monday, June 2nd, 1997, the ImprovOlympic finally received a FAX that we all been dreading since January; LucasFilm finally found us.

The FAX came from Christopher E. Reggie, the Associate Director of Business Affairs for LucasFilms Ltd. They demanded, demanded, that we "immediately cease and desist from any unauthorized use of Star Wars-related materials...". They also demanded several pieces of information and materials pertaining to the show including the script, ticket sales and marketing materials.

I decided to cancel the shows that week as a show of good faith to the Empire. It hurt me to do so, but I think that the cast in some ways was relieved; they needed a break anyway. I really felt bad for the talented actors who were rehearsing to understudy for key roles; Ed Pierce for Chewbacca, and Matt Filipowicz for See Threepio.

We, Mike Ross and I, got together at his palatial office at the S***** C*** and compiled all the information that the Empire wanted. We FedExed it to Mr. Reggie that very Wednesday and I called and confirmed that they received it on Thursday June 5th.

I repeatedly called every other day to speak with Mr. Reggie about mayhap authorizing us and our little show. He didn't call me back until June 11th. In clipped phrases, he told me that he would review the materials (and the videotape that I sent) and call me back.

I asked how long that would take. He said a week. He asked if we had stopped performing. I said yes.

It is now 12:17am on June 18th. I'm going to play it cool and try not to call him (if he doesn't call me) on this Friday.

What could possibly happen? He could love the play and LucasFilm could authorize us and pay us to do it. He could just ask us to cut it out and not do it again. Or he could hate it and sue me for all past monies, plus punative damages. It's kind of a toss up right now. I'm not sure which one would be the most interesting.

In some ways I would love to acknowledged as a great show and continue making people laugh with their favorite Star Wars characters. In some ways I would like to just move on and start up another show. In some ways I would love a good press fight; sure they literally have billions of dollars and I just have a small Packard Bell Legend 3540 PC and a talking TICK doll, but I love a good scrap.

I will post updates as soon as I can smuggle them out of this damn gulag.

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Okay.

I phoned Christopher E. Reggie, the Associate Director of Business Affairs for LucasFilms, on Friday June 20th. I left a voicemail. (Hey, that same night I had a terrific Harold with the Pat Shay Dancers! God Bless the Harold!! Long Live the Harold!! Never say...sorry..wrong page.....)

Mr. Reggie has not yet returned my phone call.

On June 23rd, I called Christopher E. Reggie, the Associate Director of Business Affairs for LucasFilms. I left a message with his secretary. He has not yet returned my phone call.

This week the weekly national periodical ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY ran a relatively small piece on this whole JEDI! thang. They included a little drawing of Darth Vader singing on a stage with a big ol' hook pulling him off.

I have seen the article, but I don't have the issue yet!! They haven't hit the newsstands yet and it's driving me es loco! But on the positive side, I now know every single person in the Improv Community who has a subscription to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

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So, the question I get a lot nowadays is...What Next?

Will the JEDI show continue? I don't know...do I want to fight the Fight?

I, myself, am of two minds.

Part of me wants to fight (to quote Al Pacino in CITY HALL, "I choose to FIGHT!!") the Man and take the war to the papers. Entertainment Weekly told me that they would probably do a full article IF we were being sued. I could take the fight to the press and let LucasFilms sue me for the publicity, but for what? I think the show is great. I think the show definetely deserves to continue and with the Comic Book convention this very weekend, I know for a fact that the show would have continued to sell out.

Another voice (just another one of many, many voices in my head, I assure you) says It's Over, Johnny! Let it go! Would the show ever be the same as in it's first run? Ironically enough, when we received the Cease & Desist we were making arrangements for major cast changes; Han, Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and See-Threepio. I doubt if out of 20-something cast members I could wrangle up more than half of them to rejoin.

Perhaps, most importantly, the Man, the Legend, the SoulFinger himself, Mr David Adler will be departing the Land of Lincoln for the West Coast at the end of July. I seriously doubt the show could (must less should) continue without his Fuzziness. He has always been a genius and a tremendous source of inspiration for me. When project eventually begins it will be one that Dave has given his approval to. Speaking of next projects...

JEDI! began its' creative process in late December, went up in February, and ceased production in early June; that's six months. That's half a year devoted to one show. It may be time for me and everyone else to just move on to the next project. Mike Ross (Luke Skywalker), Bret Scott (Creative Counsultant), Brendan Gardiner (Darth Vader), Joel Mehr (See-Threepio), John Mulhern (Grand Moff Tarkin) are all in CODEPENDENCE DAY. Matt Filiopowicz (Stormtrooper 1, and three dead Empire guys) is currently in production with his own show with Kim Companic (Aunt Beru). Tim Chidester (Han Solo) and Stuart Ranson (Prinfcess Leia Organa) just returned from teaching acting and improvisation in another state. Rich Prouty (Emperor Palpatine) and Fitten Goldsmith (Yoda) continue to crank out the Ha-Ha with the Pack on Wednesdays at Sheffields at 8pm (they paid me $3.75 to mention them here.) Heck, Eric Spitznagel (Chewbacca) is flying between here and New York working out the details of his next book!!!

So, I think Jedi! has run it's course. The story is not yet over, but I doubt the show is fini. Perhaps now, my greatest fear is that I will end up some drunken sot at the corner of one of the various "Improv bars" rambling about my Star Wars musical and hitting on the interns.

NEXT UP: the actual transcripts from three conversations with LucasFilms.

God Bless. Live Long and Prosper (hmmm...there might be a musical in that....)

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So, I sat around for about two weeks waiting for Mr. Christopher E. Reggie to respond to the sending of the Jedi! A Musical Tour de Force materials. Mike Ross and I composed a letter which Mike ended with "May the Force be With You." In retrospect, the letter was probably a little kiss-assy. The materials were overnighted via FedEx on June 11th (received on June 12th). I spoke with Mr. Reggie about a week later and he said that he would review the materials and that he would contact me in a week or so. That would have been around June 19th.

I did not receive a message from Mr. Reggie, so I called on June 23rd and left a message.

On June 26th I called the LucasFilm legal department at 1:00 (Chicago time)

SECRETARY: Christopher Reggie’s office.

JASON (me): Yes, I was wondering if Mr. Reggie was in.

SECRETARY (not me): Yes, he is. Whom may I say is calling?

JASON: Jason Chin from Chicago.

SECRETARY: One moment... (she puts me on hold)

SECRETARY: I’m sorry, he’s not picking up. Would you like to leave a message?

JASON: Um, no thanks. I’ll call back later.

Later that day at 5:06pm (Chicago time) I called again. Mr. Reggie was not in and I learned that his secretary’s name is Christine. She sounds very nice.

On June 27th I called again and spoke with Christine. She told me that Mr. Reggie was out to lunch, but that he did call me and left me a message on my home answering machine. I checked and there was no message on my home answering machine.

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FINALLY.....

On July 1st, I managed to get through to Mr. Reggie.

He said that he had reviewed the materials and that "between you and I, it looked like fun" but that he felt that there was no way that they could authorize it.

He said that they weren’t going to "go after you" as long as we had stopped performing the show. Mr. Reggie also said, "I appreciate you being gentle with us in the press." I think that we both realized that if it came down to a public (ie: in the press) fight, we would both end up bloody. Mike Ross said that the Entertainment Weekly piece was our shot across the LucasFilm bow. They know that we could put up a good fight.

So, is this the end of our plucky young fighters? I think not. Not yet..

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So, we decided that to have one final Jedi! A Musical Tour de Force show in violation of the cease and desist.

It would be on Friday, July 19th. We would charge no fee and have no pre-publicity; strictly word-of-mouth. Everyone in the original cast agreed to be in town and do the show (with the horrible exception of the beauteous Jennifer Bills as Mon Motha who would be out of town). This show also would be a kind of goingaway performance for David Adler who leaves the Chicago scene relatively soon.

We decided to make this final, illicit performance something special. Yeah, that’s it...A Special Edition! Taking our cue (once again) from the actual films, we added several scenes and special effects. George Eckart truly deserves kudos for providing several new alien bounty hunters and even an AT-ST walker for the Ewok fight. I wrote up additional scenes that included Han killing Greedo, the conversation between Biggs, Luke and Captian Antilles, and the scene where Darth Vader debriefs the bounty hunters. Also, George duct taped a drum and a cymbal set next to Dave Adler’s piano.

We had one rehearsal and Wednesday and that was actually kind of fun. "Jason’s last chance to boss us around," as Stuart Ranson put it. Just about everyone who understudied for the show was in it. Craig Cackowski was to play Capt. Antilles. Bret Scott was Biggs.

*** on a personal note - I was struck down with a very bad case of the Chicken Pox this past week and it peaked on Thursday night. I was very contagious and my face resembles so much rancid, moldy pizza (all bubbly and oozy and stuff). My doctor warned me not to attend the Special Edition ***

So, Charna Halpern would act as house manager for me, and poor Mike McCarthy would have to relinquish his extra stormtrooper role to resume his job as audio engineer. Mike Ross, and Kim Companik took over my "party" duties.

The audience was large and very responsive; which was great for the cast. I wanted that show to be as special for them (the cast) as it was for the audience. The show ran long, but no on seemed to care. A few of the actors took the opportunity to make it "Bit Night" against my wishes and direct orders but they know who they are and I placed contracts on all of them. Daryl Jevens from the Sun-Times was there, as was Christina Van Blokland from CLTV. Mike and the other cast members organized a Heroes of the Alliance scene just like the ending of the first film to present Dave Adler and I with medals (real metal ones!) that say JEDI! That was cool even though I could not go on stage to accept.

Yes, I was there, even though I hid in the back with a hat and big dashiki on. The dashiki mask was as much for people’s protection as it was for my own vanity as my face was and still is a horrendous mess.

There were a lot of thank-yous that night and I just take this time to shell out a few more.

Thanks to George Lucas for the original stories and fun.

Thanks to Charna Halpern for giving me the opportunity and encouraging the show every step of the way.

Thanks to the ImprovOlympic and her students and faculty for being my Brothers and Sisters. Thanks to Rob and the Impravda website for allowing me to post this journal. and lastly...

Thanks to you for reading this thing and for supporting crazy pop-culture nonsense!

THE END.....???????

Jason R. Chin

(quarantined)