Capstone Project Proposal Draft

Name of student: John

Date: 10/04/2023
Teacher: Lara Lacroix
Capstone strand I have chosen is Product creation
Proposed title for my project: The Zoo Story: A Musical

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that
connects with a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that
you cannot just google an answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.
My inquiry question is:

To what extend does music help to enhance delivering the emotions inteded in a piece of live
theater work?

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are
choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect
to your passion(s), purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

The reason I am choosing this inquiry question is that I am an opera/musical singer and I
believe that opera/musicals are more impactful than just drama.My reasoning for this is that
music adds additional emotional elements to the already emotional live theater performences.
This area of inquery connects to my passion and future career. I am planning on going into
opera in university and switching to musical theater production after college. Writing my own
musical will help me to understand deeper meanings behind the production of a musical
number and how a musical is put together.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this

area of inquiry?

Although I have never written a musical, I have performed a large amount of musical number
before. I have been studying voice for a couple of years now and I consider myself to be a
proffesional singer. I also play the piano, guitar and have my level 8 in music theory.

Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What
connections does this inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

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 My current career path is Opera/Musical performer. Although as a performer, we are not
generally asked to write pieces. However, I would very much like to write and perform a
broadway one day and i think this would be the perfect first step to take in that direction.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

Personal awareness & Responsibility:

Strength
- I take personal responsibility for my choices and actions.
Taking responsibility for myself is something that something that I learned from a very young age,
My parents always taught me to think twice before I make any choices, and to own up to the
consequences of my decision. Because of this, I have developed a good sense of responsibility early on
in my life.

- I am learning to take care of myself.

Lately since I entered my last year of high school, I have been leaning to take care of myself to
prepare for living on my own in university. I have found a job that can make me some spare money,
although I am still on the lookout for a more stable job. I also started learning cooking from the
internet. I really like to watch cooking shows and YouTube videos so it’s nice that I am putting to real
use now.

Limitations
- I am personally responsible, self-motivate, and can advocate for myself.
I am not exactly the best at being on task and that’s something that I have been working on for a
while
now. Procrastinations had always been a bit of a problem for me and sometimes I just can’t seem to
find the motivation to do really anything. I also have trouble sometimes to stay focused on one task.
There are times when I get easily distracted while on one task.

Social Responsibility:
Strength
- I value diversity, defend human rights, advocate for others, and act ethically in all my
interactions, including online.
I consider myself to have a strong moral compass. I would never do anything that I believe is
wrong.
I have a good idea of the controversies that are happening around me and I defend the side I believe is
right within my power.

- I have positive peer and intergenerational relationships

I would consider myself a decent friend to those around me. I would do anything to ensure the
safety
of those whom I’m close with. Because of how the choir in our school works, I have quite a few friends

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that are several grades above me. In fact, one of my closest friend is currently studying pharmaceutical
in UBC.

Limitations
- I can Identify and appreciate different perspectives on issues and use and evaluate strategies
to resolve problems
Keeping an open mind to things had always been one of my weaknesses. I can certainly use and
evaluate strategies to resolve the problems that I believe. However, I could be quite stubborn from
time to time and not be open minded when it comes to different perspectives.

Critical Thinking
Strength
- I can analyze and critique my work and my learning
I take time after finishing a project to analyze and see if there are things that I could do better. I do
the same with my learning. Most of the times, I am fully aware of what area is rather weak
compared to the others and what area needs a lot of work.

- I understand the purpose for my work and consider my audience

I am perfectly aware of the purpose that my work serves. I like to have a plan before I get to work
and know exactly what the finished product would look like. Most of my projects I do involves
music of some sorts. Because my love for music, a lot of times the purpose of my project is simply
to bring joy to myself, both from the finished product and the process in working on it.

Limitations
- I ask good quality question, gather relevant information, and come up with well-developed
conclusions.

I am capable of gathering information and coming up with well developed conclusion. The part
that I struggle on is asking good quality questions. I have found that most of the questions that I ask
are rather shallow and doesn’t hold a deeper meaning behind it.

Creative thinking
Strength
- I can use the environment around me, including other, and my unconscious mind to generate
new ideas
Coming up with ideas with what I have around me has been one of my stronger qualities. I am rather
good at taking the information and recourses that I can find in my everyday life and put them together
into something new. I also ask my friends for help a lot of the times to see what they think of the
project that I’m doing.
- I can take my ideas evaluate, develop,and refine them and make something productive out of
them
If I am motivated by one of my ideas, I could spend hours devoted to the one thing. Usually the end
results turn out pretty good since I would go over it multiple times after it’s finished just to fix the
minor details of it so the end results always seems to be rather pleasing.

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Limitations
- I can persevere, and understand that failure can be productive
There are times where I find it hard to stand back up after being faced with a failure and this is
something I am really looking to solve. I understand the fact that failure can help in the long run, but
sometimes I just can’t seem to find the motivation to restart a project.

Communication
Strength
- I can engage in deep and meaningful inquiry for a variety of purposes and audiences.
I am someone who really loves debate, I love to have deep and meaningful conversations with
others, something about it makes these conversations feel more fulfilling than just messing around
with friends. I also love to ask questions that are highly hypothetical and argue on if it could ever
become a reality. Topics such as the meanings of life or what happens after we die are ones that I
find highly interesting.
- I can reflect on the processes of learning and share what I have learned.
I love to share with other on the things that I have learned. This is why speeches are one of my
favorite things to do. I often give mini speeches in the shower to my shampoo and soap about life
or music or just any topic that I have going on in my head in general. I also enjoy teaching and
guiding others on the stuff I am confident about, such as music or fashion.
Limitations
- I can listen, learn to contribute meaningfully to discussions and debate, consider different
perspectives and build consensus.
Again, my close mindedness seems to be a big problem here. Usually when I have group debates
with my friend, I stick to one side of the argument. I do sometimes switch sides after some points
were made, but this rarely happens and I usually defend my side of the argument till the end of the
debate even though I am aware that I am losing.

Personal and cultural Identity

Strength
- I understand my strength and what makes me unique
I am perfectly aware of my ability and I am very proud of it. I have spent thousands of hours
training to get to where I am today and I am comfortable to use this strength to help myself and
others.
- I understand what is important to me
Personally, I value my family and friends over anything in the world. For me the people that I love
will always take priority. I understand this and I am aware that this trait have quite a few
downsides, but the way I see it, to be able to be surrounded by people I love is always going to be
better than having more money.
Limitations
- I understand how to use my strength and abilities to my advantage and I can explain how I use
them to contribute to my community.
I sometimes fail to utilize my ability to it’s fullest potential mainly because of my procrastination. I
am aware that with the time I have, I could probably get way more work done than right now, but
sometimes the lack of motivation can cause me to lose out on some opportunities

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Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to
present your project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once
completed. You may use a combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation
o YouTube channel

Youtube presitation
Physical protfolio

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what
will you research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced
at the end of this project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your
proposal.

For my Capstone project, I will be taking the play A Zoo Story by Edward Albee and making it
into a musical. The play itself is a two person dark comedy and it tells a serious story through
a rather humerous way. I have a good amount of music theory knowledge that will
undoubtedly come in handy in this project, and the assist of Mr Gray will make this whole
process quite a bit faster. I have done some researches on musical and theater as a whole
and have found some interesting information on how to write music. I have not yet wrote an
actual piece of music before this so these information will be of great help for me. As for what I
am actually creating for this project, there are two things that I am trying to complete. One is
the actual script and the music for the musical itself and the other is an recording/performance
of the musical. Script is mandatory and is something I will get done for this project. However,
with the limited time give, it might be quite hard if not impossible to get the
recording/performance done. Of course, I will try to get it done but there’s not much to do if
there’s not enough time. There are a few steps that i have to take in order to write a musical .
First, I will have to edit the play itself. This is an essential step to take espetially considering
how successful the next step is will be completely dependent on it. The important thing to
keep in mind here is that the finished product of this edit will still need to have enough of the
original play in it that the crucial message that the author is trying to deliver is still being sent
out to the audience. Also, it’s a good idea to keep the important quote and phrases in the play
as well as the motif. The most important step of this project comes right after the first step,
and that is to decide/write the songs itself. A good musical should generally have six songs:
The opening song, the “I want” song, the love balled, the villian’s song, the apology song, the
“Showstopper” and the finale. This is a good template to get started with, however, with the
length of this two person play being approximately 45 minutes, some of these might get cut or
be mixed with eachother. The opening song is pretty self explainatory, it establishes the
setting and gives just enough background information for the audience. The i want song
should be a solo performance sang by the “protagonist”, in this case Jerry. Although there’s

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 no clear protagonist and antagonist in this play, Jerry is the character that drives the play
foward, so this song should go to him. The love balled would be fairly self-explainatory under
normal circumstances. However, for this musical, there’s not nessesarily any romantic tension
between the two characters. Here, this song would refer to a duet piece sang by the two
characters exchanging thoughts. The villian song is somewhat the same as the “I want” song,
except this time, it will be sang by Peter not Jerry. It has a similar effect as the “I want” song
and it’s purpose is to give insight on the character for the audience. The apology song slows
down the action of the play and helps it to ease into the finale. The “showstopper” is the most
important song in the musical, it’s main purpose is not exactly to help express the story,
instead, the story here will complement the music. This should be the one song that people
will remember once they walk out of theater after watching the musical and it should leave a
huge impact on the audience. Finally, the finale of the musical serves to wrap things up and
concludes the story. If wanted, the finale can also raise a question and leave the audience
guessing what the ending might be. Musical theater song writing is slightly different than other
songs. Musical numbers usually focuses on delivering the message of the play instead of
having a pleasing melody, good writers will be able to do same. However, with the limited time
and me being quite new to this, I might only be able to focus on one (This does not apply to
the “showstopper”).

Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and

skills you will need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to
access/learn all of the resources necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail
your plans.

Piano
The Zoo Story PDF

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will

you need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you?
What is your plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this
project?

Mr Gray is the first person I went to for help in this project. He is the most experienced jazz
pianist in the school which means that he has quite some knowledge about chords and chord
progression. This will be very helpful to me once i actually start to work on the project. Another
teacher I went to was Mr Sidhu, who is the drama teacher in our school at this moment. I went
to him when I was struggeling to find a good play to make into a musical and he suggested
the play A Zoo Story.

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee
that might affect progress with your Capstone Project?

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 One of the biggest obsticle right now that i see is the amount of work that is required for this
project. Writing a song is one thing, but writing a whole musical requires quite some work.
Another thing is to find a suitable person to play the role of Jerry in this play. The musical
numbers for Peter will obviously be written with myself in mind. However, finding a suitable
person to keep in mind while writing the musical numbers for Jerry is something I am still
working on.

Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about
your project that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

There are still a few things I am considering when it comes to this project. First is the
alteration of the play. To write a musical number, some parts of the play must be changed to
fit the music. The only question about this is considering how much to change and making
sure these changes does not alter the origianl intention of the author of this play to a huge
degree. Another thing i am thinking about is whether to perform it and if so, when and where.
Because of the amount of time I have for this project, planning for performance might be quite
challenging. One last thing is the addition of other instruments outside of piano. Although it is
not nessesary and adding additional instruments would obviously mean more time spent on
this project, it is still something that i am considering.

References:

Attach a REFERENCE LIST. Your list should be written using correct APA formatting.
An example is provided on page 21 of your Capstone booklet.

References
BBC Maestro. (2023, June 7). Learn how to write a musical that’ll win over the hearts of your
audience with this useful guide. Learn how to write a musical that’ll win over the hearts |
BBC Maestro. https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/how-to-write-a-musical

Boltaboyeva, U., & Yu, K. (2021). The director's work on monologue and mise-en-scenes.
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS, 2(10), 71-77.

Coffin, L. W. (1970). Writing Song Lyrics. The English Journal, 59(7), 954–955.
https://doi.org/10.2307/814124

FERNANDEZ, E. TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS ON HOW TO WRITE SONGS.

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Juslin, P. N. (2013). What does music express? Basic emotions and beyond. Frontiers in
psychology, 4, 596.

McClary, S. (1997). The Impromptu That Trod on a Loaf: Or How Music Tells Stories.
Narrative, 5(1), 20–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20107098

Zimbardo, R. A. (1962). Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story.
Twentieth Century Literature, 8(1), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/440743

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