a new musical about
adoption, identity and truth
book, music and lyrics by Richard Uhrlaub
Selected
for the 2023
Colorado New Musical Festival!
Top Two Finalist
MusicalWriters, Inc.
Pitch Night!
Featured Songs
​Vocals
Michelle Bort, Angela Parrish, Marcello Vieira
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Arrangement and Vocals
​
Orchestration and Sound Engineering
About
The Story
An unexpected pregnancy thrusts teen lovers into the stark arena of adult realities in the fall of 1967. An infertile married couple longs to become parents via a system rooted in secrecy and shame. A beloved baby must grow up severed from roots and forced to navigate seemingly insurmountable obstacles in attempts to discover their full identity as an adult.
Emotions run high, but the potential human stakes are even higher. FOR THE RECORD(S) is based on the little-known true stories lived by millions of adoptees and their families by birth and adoption in the last half of the 20th Century - a time dubbed "the Baby Scoop Era."
Table reading, 11/11/23, Dallas, TX. MusicalWriters, Inc.
Image: Greg Pribaldi on Unsplash
Development History
March 31, 2023 - Louisville, KY. Open mic song presentation of "Testify" at the Untangling Our Roots Summit.
May 30, 2023 - Lakewood, CO. Table reading.
July 29, 2023 - Costa Mesa, CA. Song performances ("Real Mother" @8:20 and "Dying to Know" @53:20) as part of an adoption-focused gathering at the Orange Coast UUC.
August 18-20, 2023 - Broomfield, CO. Colorado New Musical Festival
October 26, 2023 - Dallas, TX. Finalist, MusicalWriters, Inc., Pitch Night. Full table reading 11/11/23.
April 25-28, 2024 - Aurora, CO. Upcoming partial staged reading at the Untangling Our Roots Summit, along with For the Good of Humanity, the 15 minute frozen embryo musical!
Comments
"Incredibly heartfelt musical - solid story - spurred on some really insightful conversations about the show and its themes." - Rebecca
"...brilliant lyrics!...I laughed, I was sad, and I was informed." - Kenady
"I was gripped from the opening scene." - Diane
"I woke up singing these songs the next day. That's a sign of strong writing." - JoLynn
"Looking forward to seeing the whole show!" - John
"Awesome! The dialogue is as good as the songs." - Craig
"This is a gem of a musical!" - Emma
"You could tell the actors enjoyed it too!" - Jere
"This story needs to get out there." - Lucy
"No hyperbole - this was the best show of the festival!" - Jorge
Rich Uhrlaub, M.Ed.
Rich is a longtime member of Denver's Lighthouse Writers Workshop and a member of the Musical Writers Academy and New Musicals Inc. The NMI Core Curriculum honed and showcased his skills as a book writer for the 15 Minute Musical "For the Good of Humanity," performed at the Broadwater Main Stage in Hollywood. Rich studied piano under the (then) Denver Symphony Orchestra's Kathleen Joiner and had his first piano lesson at age five when, after washing the dinner dishes, his adoptive mother asked, "Who wants to learn to play the piano?" Relinquished and adopted shortly after birth, Rich has been a volunteer leader in the adoption search, support and advocacy community for over twenty years. This project is born of that passion.
Some 1.5 million babies were relinquished for adoption in the post-WWII era, a time when secrecy, shame and sealed records dominated the process. But as adoptees came of age, they wanted answers to life's three biggest questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Some had the audacity to challenge the system in a grassroots movement for truth and transparency.
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"Much is at stake as the adoption experience reverberates throughout (adoptees') lives and influences them and the people they come into contact with in very fundamental ways." - Rafael Javier, Ph.D. in Handbook of Adoption.
Contact: ftrmusical@gmail.com