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ABOUT THE MUSIC DRAMA

JUMPING MOUSE

Jumping Mouse is a Plains Indian story about a mouse who leaves the small
world of his fellow creatures in search of the unknown and mysterious. His journey
begins with a troubling noise he hears but which no one else has ever noticed. All
the other mice are too busy collecting food and rushing about to pay attention - they
live in a world of prairie grasslands, and have never heard of anything larger than a
bush or rock or an eagle. One day he asks a racoon about the sound he hears and
the racoon takes him and shows Jumping Mouse just what it is . . . he takes him to
the River. Jumping Mouse can barely believe his eyes; this is something
magnificent, something he must tell the others about. A frog at the river’s edge
tells him to crouch down as low as he can and to jump up as high as he can, and he
does. He sees something even more magnificent - the Sacred Mountain.

Back at home, even though nobody believes him, he finally decides to set out on
his own in search of this new world. On the way, he meets a hermit mouse who
thinks he has all the answers, but doesn’t. Then a huge, ailing Buffalo, who he
hasn’t seen before, says he needs a mouse’s eye to get better again. In awe of the
huge creature and concern for his condition, Jumping Mouse gives up one of his
eyes to help him. In thanks, the Buffalo takes him to the foot of one Mountain,
protecting him from the Eagles above.

Here he meets another creature in distress - a Wolf who keeps forgetting who he
is. He too needs a mouse’s eye to get better, and Jumping Mouse generously gives
it to him. Wolf regains his memory and identity, and guides Jumping Mouse up the
mountain tothe Sacred Lake.

The Wolf leaves him there alone, and it is not long before an Eagle spots him -
and strikes. Out of the darkness, Jumping Mouse hears a voice. “‘Crouch as low as
you can, and jump up as high as you can.’’ He does, and feels himself changed, his
vision blurred, but getting stronger as he goes up and up. Jumping Mouse
recognizes the voice, now coming from below him as that of Frog, who telis him the
wonderful thing that's happened . . . ‘‘Jumping Mouse... . you are an Eagle!”’

BREAKAWAY

‘Breakaway ’’ is an adaptation of the Jumping Mouse tale, and is a story about a
young boy who struggles free from mediocrity. It takes place in the future on board
a space station once built by peace-loving refugees from Earth, -under the
leadership of Luna. The ideal soon became corrupt however, and for some time the
society has been overrun and occupied by an unknown force. Luna has escaped
back to Earth with most of her people, but their children were kept captive on the
station.

Now these children have grown up and had children of their own, but each

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