Julietta Blogs: Interview with Composer/Playwright Austin Zumbro

BACT Blogger Julietta returns; this time with an exclusive interview with the composer/playwright for The Day the Crayons Quit - Austin Zumbro! Julietta is a Bay Area native.  She enjoys art, crafting, theater, nature, and outdoors. In 9 years of soaking up creative talents, she has found many outlets for her creative energy. Activities such as Rainbow Loom, 4-H classes, Lego building and cartwheels take up most of her time.

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The Day the Crayons Quit play was great! It was about crayons quitting because they are not being treated well. Red doesn't want to work on holidays and Blue is so short she cant see over the edge of the crayon box, and Peach, Yellow, Beige, Black, Orange, and Pink are also quitting and Green is quitting only because Yellow and Orange are fighting about being the color of the sun.

After the show I got to interview Austin, who was the composer and writer of the play. To pick a book for a musical at the BACT office they have a bunch of books to read and they choose the best books for the play. Some books might not make a good musical because they are too complicated and some are not good because they don't have much of a story. To make a play they read the book and come up with ideas for the play. The Day the Crayons Quit was good because it has both words and pictures to show what the characters are like.

To make songs for the play they read the book and think of good ways to make songs for the book. Austin starts by by humming a tune and then thinking of good words for the song. The Day the Crayons Quit was a really good choice because the crayons write letters to Duncan and in addition to the letters the crayons could sing songs. Some of the lines in the songs are words the crayons say in their letters. When Austin first read The Day the Crayons Quit, he knew that he wanted to have it be in a play. He said the most fun to write was Peach's song and it was also fun to write Pink's song. It was also one of the first songs he thought of. The Day the Crayons Quit was Austin's 4th musical he has written. He wrote one about the California gold rush, one about a science fair, and one called Safe Routes to School.

Julietta (center) with composer/playwright Austin Zumbro (right)

His favorite crayon is Blue. He really likes Blue's attitude cause she is stubby but she is happy about coloring. In the book he likes blue's illustration. To get started being a composer/writer he has always liked writing and he would write stories a lot. And in 6th grade he learned to play the piano, and after high school he learned to play the guitar. He started making silly songs for friends then later on he started writing plays and wrote short movie scripts and mostly wrote stuff for his friends. He has done really great with his plays so far and I hope to see many more!

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The Day the Crayons Quit, the Musical is currently playing at Oakland Children's Fairyland thru July 26. You can purchase your tickets through the show page.

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