I had the joy of writing my first film score since college (that was a teaching aid for education students) this year. Friends and neighbors Jerry Sipp and Janet Boudreau asked me to write incidental music for their filming of the play “He/She and Me”. It’s a one woman play written by Sharon Mathis that I had seen Janet perform live some years ago and they had decided to make a movie of it. The music is mostly short scene transitions and underscoring. I composed, performed and recorded all original music except for a few sections where they had picked out some pieces I had previously recorded for other projects and we used parts of them in the film. In particular, “Colorado” is a mashup of several pieces I wrote for the dance “Bamboo Wind” the previous year. There are also two pieces in the movie that were written and performed by the country duo Velvet Rodeo, but I did not include them in the “soundtrack” below.
The entire project was done on my aging and under-powered Dell computer. Recording/editing done with the wonderful open source software Audacity. A few pieces were created with the aid of LMMS and a small M-Audio midi keyboard. Everything else played by me on cello, bass, violone, melodica (with effects via Audacity), bouzouki, accordion and a deliciously-out-of-tune 1908 Steinway. I loved doing this project but really wish I had a more powerful computer for future projects. If you’d like to help make that happen: PayPal.Me/robbielink or Subscribe.
The movie is very nicely done and the story is powerful. I highly recommend it. There is a link below in the info from the Justice Theater Project website. Below that is the embed from Bandcamp where my music is currently hosted. Hope you enjoy listening! Comments welcome.
Also this: Sharon Mathis has said in interviews, when she’s prompted to say what caused her to write the play, that she wanted to write a love story. It’s very easy to fall in love but much harder to stay in love through all the trials that life throws at a couple. She wanted to write about a couple who could manage to weather the most disruptive and threatening event to their love. What she came up with was shifting identity and this is why she began interviewing many trans couples. Some stayed together and some didn’t. Some went through the surgery and others took other steps along the trans path but not that last one. I agree very much that this is a love story. I hope you do too.
The Justice Theater Project Presents: He/She and Me
Stage Play by Sharon Mathis, Screenplay by Sharon Mathis and Jerry Sipp, Music Composed and Performed by Robbie Link. Featuring Janet Boudreau.
Purchase on VIMEO on demand. $20 family price. $10 Individual.
The story of a husband who chooses to live the rest of his life as a woman after 40 years of marriage. Pat and Sam are soulmates, cherishing a 40-year marriage that has survived and thrived through thick and thin. Then their relationship faces the ultimate test: Sam chooses to live the rest of his life as his authentic self – a woman. During Sam’s three-year transition into becoming Sheila, Pat journeys through the confusion, disillusion, transformation, and acceptance, discovering that she, too, has become a new woman.