Listen with me to the music. This document will introduce you to musical ideas designed to engage your imagination. This is the introduction. You will be gently drawn into the musical performance beginning with hints and warnings of the ideas to come. These program notes are written to help the audience prepare for the pending experience.

While listening to the overture, audience members must read these notes to understand why the music in this musical was written. Every musical work has a story to communicate, but the level of connection between the story and the music varies depending on the context.

The overture introduces the musical themes of the show to prepare the audience and set the mood and tone of the ensuing musical. Ideas hinted at in this section will be developed and expanded upon later in the musical performance.

The opening scene presents the audience with the setting of the musical. Place, time, main characters, and background are all introduced in this section, as well as the time frame and themes of the life we are entering. Background memories that the heroine chooses to share with us should be "pictured" in italics to indicate the romanticized nature of the memories. We are nearing the moment when the main story line will be introduced.

In the second scene, the struggle of the main character begins. The quest to define a philosophy is outlined, and the necessity for the main character's engagement is made known to the audience. Somewhat fearful, our lead sets off with a song to face obstacles placed in the path. In this scene, the heroine must draw on memories and journal excerpts in her more recent memory to help her determine a proper course of action. "Picture" this in Arial font.

The opening scene of act II describes the main character's quest in more detail. The object of the quest is a place where committed educators may work to their values without constantly contending with the slings and arrows of negative forces. A new land initially appears to be the land where everyone's melody may be accompanied and harmonized; however, initial appearances are deceiving. In this new land, our heroine has been handed a sacred trust--the responsibility of educating young children. How will our heroine rise to her challenge? How will she cope with the complications placed in her path? Who will be her companion in her quest? Will she have one or many?

The second scene of act II is quieter. Our main character has the opportunity to reflect on her trials and all that they have allowed her to learn about herself and about her responsibility in the new land. We learn of her trusted colleagues who support her on her quest. Some are on her quest with her, and others send aid and advice from afar. To protect the identity of her charges, they have been given other names.

Finally, the finale arrives! In this section of the musical, our heroine describes and outlines her newly discovered "armour"--her code of conduct. Her joy at determining her means of shielding her young charges and leading them to a lifelong love of learning means she cannot keep from singing. The maestro picks up the baton and leads the orchestra in the rousing finale as our heroine rides off into the future, armed with her "standards" as armour!