The Story
Overview
The music and lyrics of award-winning songwriter Patrick Dwyer take center stage in Cardboard Trees and a Painted Moon, a love letter to community theater people in all of their messiness and all of their infinite possibilities.
This musical celebrates the everyday people who leave their real-world lives at the door as they come together to form the cast of a community theater show. As their lives intertwine and intersect across 90 minutes of songs, scenes, and monologues, these twenty individuals forge unexpected connections and discover commonalities as they form a community—both onstage and offstage.
Cardboard Trees and a Painted Moon is dedicated to all of those who put the “community” into community theater.
Detailed
Synopsis
Note that the below synopsis reflects the original version of the script as presented by Old Library Theater in 2025, and does not include subsequent rewrites and edits. Characters in the original production were referred to by the actors’ actual names—below character names are for reference and are subject to change.
You may toggle through the synopsis by tapping the right button to go forward.
Nineteen individuals appear, each in their own world. They’re all anxious for a spark in their lives. In a brief PROLOGUE, they sing:
When reality’s too real,
When you don’t know how to feel,
When you can’t tell rightside-up
From upside-down...
I sing beneath the cardboard trees
And a painted moon.
