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May 10 - 28, 2021

Best enjoyed by Grades 1 - 6

Student Matinee
This event has passed.

Audrey is a 9-year-old girl…who happens to be the greatest filmmaker in the world!

Possessed by her ambitions and high standards, Audrey is egocentric, demanding, and hilariously extreme. Part Ed Wood, part classic Gilda Radner character, Judy Miller, Audrey creates whole planets, grand stories, music, and special effects…with no budget and no crew.

As Audrey shoots her masterpiece, she struggles with school bullies and constant creative setbacks (like getting grounded!). As she stages the climactic final battle, she uncovers the superpowers she holds within her.

Created by Autumn Ness
Directed by Reed Sigmund

A Children’s Theatre Company Original Production

  • Run time

    Seven 10-minute episodes

  • Best enjoyed by

    Grades 1 - 6

  • Stage

    Virtual

About the Show


  • Audrey Saves the Universe is an original digital series created by CTC Acting Company member, Autumn Ness and directed by CTC Acting Company member, Reed Sigmund.
  • This production was inspired by the comedy styles of Gilda Radner and directing styles of Ed Wood.
  • We know that teachers are the best judge to determine the right fit for their unique group of students. We recommend Audrey Saves the Universe for students in grades 1 – 6 due to content and themes of the performance. Check out the synopsis and content advisories for full information.

Content Advisories


 

Language: 1 out of 5 stars
Audrey is not always kind to Kyle and teases him for not having friends. Kyle says “what the heck.”

Themes and Situations: 1 out of 5 stars
Audrey is bullied at school and struggles to make friends. Audrey is not always kind to her cousin Kyle.

Violence and Scariness: 1 out of 5 stars
Audrey creates imaginary worlds in her bedroom including an evil alien empire that threatens to attack an innocent village. This only happens in her imagination. Audrey falls from a tree and breaks her collarbone. Kyle is scared that the aliens will attack him.

Sensory Advisories: 1 out of 5 stars
Sound effects may be loud and bright lights may be used. We flash back and forth from Audrey’s imagination to her real world.

Potentially Anxious Moments: 1 out of 5 stars
Audrey feels lonely and struggles to make friends. Audrey is grounded. Audrey and Kyle are injured by various stunt attempts.

Plot Synopsis

this is a complete synopsis of the play, so it is full of spoilers.


This script is still in development. content is subject to change until script is solidified.

Audrey is a nine-year-old misfit who creates epic blockbuster movies from the safety of her bedroom. Or at least she attempts to film between her mother’s frequent interruptions telling her to get dressed, clean her room, and go to school. Her latest movie creation takes place in the depths of outer space complete with stars, puppet space-ships, and an evil alien empire that has its eyes set on destroying a peaceful village. With the limited resources of her bedroom, Audrey creates original music, costumes, and special effects. As the audience, we frequently switch between Audrey’s movie world and Audrey’s reality.

Dad takes Audrey to school and attempts to impart some wisdom on how to make friends. Audrey’s usual method of attempted mind control doesn’t seem to be working well for her. We flash back-and-forth from the car to flashbacks of Audrey attempting to make friends with Kimberly. Between accidentally spitting on Kimberly, Kimberly destroying one of Audrey’s projects, and Kimberly’s teasing on the playground, it is clear that Kimberly does not want to be Audrey’s friend.

At the end of the day, we see Audrey walking back home. It was clearly a rough day as she has a “kick me” sign taped to her back. Dad encourages her to try again tomorrow.

To make herself feel better, she makes the next scene of her movie. The role of the queen has been replaced by “Queen Kimberly” who is torturing the villagers and spreading misery to everyone she meets.

In an attempt to make Audrey feel better, Mom invites cousin Kyle over to help Audrey make her movie. Kyle immediately greets Audrey by asking her to smell his hands. It becomes clear that Kyle is even too odd for Audrey. Kyle begins to sing to himself as Audrey turns on the camera to lament about her current situation. Kyle asks about her movie and Audrey begins to explain the plot. Kyle begins to inject his own ideas into the plot which annoys Audrey. Kyle brainstorms a whole list of things that he could help Audrey with on the movie but Audrey rejects each one until Kyle volunteers to be the stunt person. This idea intrigues Audrey. She decides to let Kyle audition for the role of the stunt person.

Audrey retrieves a bucket of water and tells Kyle that if he is able to hold his breath under the water for 5-minutes, he can be the stunt person. This fails miserably. They decide on a different audition task. This time, Kyle must break a board in half with his face. Audience members do not see Kyle hit the board but we hear it. Kyle is knocked out but a juice box and cheerios help revive him. Audrey decides on one last task that Kyle must complete in order to become the stunt person- jumping off the roof of the house. We hear Kyle falling and a thud as he hits the snow.

Audrey is convinced and decides Kyle is allowed to be the stunt person but at this point, Kyle is mad. He calls Audrey the Evil Queen and a bully. Audrey teases Kyle for not having any friends and threatens to tell his mom a lie. Suddenly, Kyle has an idea for a stunt but he discloses that it might cause a certain amount of property damage. Audrey is intrigued by this idea.

Back in Audrey’s bedroom, Kyle & Audrey are in the tent “studio” with two liters of coke and Mentos rolls ready for ignition. We suddenly flash to Audrey’s imagination and see Queen Kimberly’s ship being blown up. Kyle & Audrey celebrate a successful day of filming.

Unfortunately, this latest stunt results in Audrey getting grounded. Audrey laments her loss of freedom through song while Kyle cries via video call expressing his sincere apologies for the explosion. We flashback to see the results of the coke explosion including the image of coke dripping through the dining room ceiling. Kyle bemoans his long list of punishments including being grounded for a month, community service picking up trash next to the highway, and his new bedtime of 3:30pm. Kyle continues to cry while Audrey encourages him to get over it with a song about how trash is his only friend. Audrey is over the crying and decides to shut the laptop, hanging up on Kyle mid-sob.

We hear Audrey’s mom remind her that she needs to clean her room and that she is not allowed to film while grounded. Audrey attempts to clean but the boredom is overwhelming. While attempting to put toys into the toy chest, she sees 3 characters she created for an upcoming scene of her movie- Lady Noodle, Battle Shark, and the Two-headed Bear. The temptation is too much for Audrey to handle and she decides to film the next scene.

Each Bear head attempts to gather the people of the city. He informs them that it is time for the “ritual of the cones” in which they touch two glitter-covered ice cream cones together to make music. They take a brief moment to dance before the bear informs the citizens that it is their job to protect the sacred cones from Queen Kimberly. Shark suggests that they fight her. Lady Noodle suggests they hide.

Suddenly, they hear Queen Kimberly’s ship fly overhead. The citizens begin to panic but Shark has an idea. He touches the magical cones and they reveal a plan to him. The citizens work together to build a barricade against the evil queen. The barricade stops her for a moment but they need another idea. The cone suggests that they sing as high as they can to break her navigation system. This only works for a moment and the citizens scramble for the next idea. The cone then suggests they make fake cones to fool the queen. This works! The bear scurries away to a hide-out with the two real cones safely tucked away.

Audrey becomes carried away with the scene she is creating and doesn’t notice that her mother has entered the room. Uh oh! Audrey’s mother decides to make Audrey pick up trash next to the highway with Kyle.

In her backyard, Audrey & Kyle film a “flying” scene which is achieved by rigging a harness to a tree. Kyle is in charge of ensuring Audrey doesn’t fall using a rope but the rope slips through his hands and Audrey falls to the ground. Back in her bedroom, Kyle is feeding Audrey ice cream as she bemoans her broken collar bone. Audrey asks what she missed at school and Kyle informs her that Kimberly picked on another kid. Audrey decides to film through her pain so she can document the demise of Queen Kimberly. We jump back and forth from Audrey’s imagination world to reality as Kyle keeps interrupting the action.

Audrey’s computer begins to beep but the imaginative kids believe that this is the beacon they have been waiting on. She begins to see evidence that the aliens might not only be in her imagination.

Audrey begins to believe that Aliens have really taken over her room. The world she created in her own imagination, is coming to life. She embarks on experiments to prove her theory and searches her bedroom for signs. In Audrey’s imagination, the melted ice cream on her bedside table becomes “alien goo” and the socks in her drawer are suddenly all mis-matched- clearly done by aliens. She becomes concerned that Kyle is actually an alien spy wearing Kyle’s skin as a disguise but decides that her dog is actually the alien. Kyle & Audrey run downstairs to tell Audrey’s mother about their discovery but she is too busy to listen. They return to Audrey’s room to plot their next moves until Kyle’s mom arrives to take him home.

Audrey falls asleep and dreams that Queen Kimberly has plotted to follow the beacon to Earth and into Audrey’s room. Audrey wakes up from her dream and becomes scared of what will happen next.

Audrey, is captured by the aliens! They tie her to a chair and interrogate her and realizes that her imagination is creating the aliens- so her imagination must be able to create a way out. She imagines herself bursting into the room and defeating the evil empire- and it works! Audrey heads out into the real world armed with newfound confidence, courage, and self-worth.

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Audrey Saves the Universe Student Matinee

May 10 - 28, 2021

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