Mayo (2018)

Act I – Autumn (55 minutes)

(Prologue) The voices of a young boy and his mother are heard as they travel by overnight train in 1907. (Scene 1) The lights come up on a city street in mid-America circa 1900. A pro-Eugenics group has hired indigent men to humiliate themselves in order to demonstrate “the menace of the feeble-minded.” In the hiring process, the indigent out-negotiate the eugenicists and win a decent wage. The leader of the eugenicists recites his screed, and the indigent men make plans to spend their money.

Scene 2 takes place in the Superintendent’s Office at the Iowa Home for Feeble-Minded Children, 1907.

A women’s choir is heard rehearsing for a Sunday church service. Mrs. Buckner is being interviewed by the Superintendent of the institution as she delivers Mayo. The deputy superintendent, Miss Goodrich, questions Mrs. Buckner about her decision to leave Mayo at the institution.

Scene 3 is set in the Boys’ Dormitory at the Iowa Home, twenty years later in 1927. Mayo, now a man, mentors many of the young inmates, including young, recently-admitted Jimmy and blind Wesley. The orderly, Beckmann, instructs the boys to get ready for bed. There is a great commotion when Jimmy wets himself during the night.

Act II – Valeria (27 minutes)

Scene 1 takes place that same season in the garden of the Iowa Home. A young girl, Jo, sings a lullaby to her doll, as the orderly Beckmann recalls the same folk song with different lyrics. Carolyn and Valeria are assigned to weed the garden but are soon distracted as Valeria confesses that she has fallen in love. Later that week (Scene 2), in the Chapel at the Iowa Home, the Sunday serviceconcludes and the congregation files out. Valeria and Mayo remain behind and dream of a home together. Miss Goodrich returns and is surprised to find them together. Later that day, in the Superintendent’s office (Scene 3), The staff is alarmed at the depth of Mayo’s relationship with Valeria. They interrogate him about his conduct and determine that something must be done.

Act III – New Voices (27 minutes)

The act opens in the chambers of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1927. As Holmes recites from his Buck vs. Bell decision, (with its infamous phrase, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”), voices from the institution mix with his. The decision allows the coerced sterilization of those deemed “unfit.” Thirty years later (Scene 2), a new superintendent has been hired and questions the effectiveness of Miss Goodrich’s dated methods. After she is discharged, Miss Goodrich insists that she is the only one who under-stands the children and that she taught them when the state and their own parents thought it too difficult a task. Mayo, now an older man (Scene 3), is re-evaluated and his above-average intelligence recognized after a modern IQ test. He is told that he may leave the institution, but he reveals to Jimmy that he’s always been afraid to go. He finds comfort in music and in the poetry of Whitman. In the concluding scene, the din of children playing yields to a single character: Wesley has found his voice for the first time.

Crane School of Music, 2018

Artists:

• Conductor - Kirk Severtson
• Director - Dean Anthony
• Mayo Buckner - Ben Edquist, baritone
• Miss Goodrich - Lisa Vroman, soprano
• Wesley - Allie Brault, soprano