Gary Sironen

Gary Sironen

Gary Sironen is a composer, songwriter, lyricist, playwright, arranger, musician, vocalist, conductor and music director. He has written and/or collaborated on several full-length musicals, including "Reformation" (book, lyrics music), "Please Come Home for Christmas" (music & lyrics) and "Fable Us!" (music), and several short plays, musicals and dramatic readings. His short...
Gary Sironen is a composer, songwriter, lyricist, playwright, arranger, musician, vocalist, conductor and music director. He has written and/or collaborated on several full-length musicals, including "Reformation" (book, lyrics music), "Please Come Home for Christmas" (music & lyrics) and "Fable Us!" (music), and several short plays, musicals and dramatic readings. His short monologue, I CAN FLY, has been published in several collections of short plays and has had several productions. Gary has also contributed music and has been music director for several high school and community theatre musical productions. As a church music director, he has written over 100 worship songs, choral anthems and worship liturgies in a variety of musical styles. Gary is a member of the Grand Rapids Federation of Musicians (AFM Local 56), and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Plays

  • I Can Fly
    An 8-9 minute monologue in which a young student learns the power, value and danger of secrets. They have one of their own. I CAN FLY is being published in a collection of short plays & monologues entitled GO PLAY OUTSIDE, published by APPLAUSE BOOKS, available Spring 2022.
  • What's That Entrée?
    A detective finds that guessing what his wife prepared for dinner and investigating a murder have more in common than he could have imagined.
  • Angels Unaware
    A moment of road rage turns to understanding and recognition.
  • Evicted
    Evicted from their home, a YOUNG MAN places blame, while a YOUNG WOMAN challenges the YOUNG MAN's views on gender roles.
  • Please Come Home for Christmas - book & lyrics Eric C. Jones; music & lyrics
    In this full-length family musical, a troupe of actors, the Magi Players, is presenting a play to passersby in the lobby of New York City's Grand Central Station.
    In the play-within-a-play, Jane Rogers has built what she feels is a successful television/tour guide career, when suddenly everything falls apart. She loses her job right before Christmas, no one returns her calls, and she alienates her...
    In this full-length family musical, a troupe of actors, the Magi Players, is presenting a play to passersby in the lobby of New York City's Grand Central Station.
    In the play-within-a-play, Jane Rogers has built what she feels is a successful television/tour guide career, when suddenly everything falls apart. She loses her job right before Christmas, no one returns her calls, and she alienates her family and her only potential love interest. Along comes an angel posing as a talent agent who promises to help Jane reboot her career and her life, taking Jane back in time for some lessons in life and love. In the process, they run into a Russian immigrant and some orphans in the 1920's, a young couple at a USO dance hall during WWII, a famous preacher's wife in the 1960's, and a young tech genius in the 1980's. Having confronted her own fears and shortcomings, Jane is returned to the present to see if she has learned enough about life and love to reconnect with those who love her.
  • Reformation
    A full-length musical: A medieval monk’s struggle with God divides the Church, a nation, and the movement he never intended to create. Reformation is a full length, dramatic, historical musical about religion, politics, war and the media in medieval Germany, which can be performed with a single static set and a minimum cast of 16 with optional chorus.

    A bolt of lightning sends a law student on a...
    A full-length musical: A medieval monk’s struggle with God divides the Church, a nation, and the movement he never intended to create. Reformation is a full length, dramatic, historical musical about religion, politics, war and the media in medieval Germany, which can be performed with a single static set and a minimum cast of 16 with optional chorus.

    A bolt of lightning sends a law student on a quest to please an angry God in medieval Germany. Martin Luther becomes a monk, develops an obsession with confession, suffers a panic attack as he presides over his first mass as a priest, and gradually becomes convinced that the Church is spiritually bankrupt.

    In the early throes of the Renaissance, a new Roman Pope leads the Church to financial bankruptcy due to his extravagant lifestyle. The Pope’s thoughtless fundraising scheme incenses Luther, who becomes a folk hero as he publicly criticizes the Church.

    Alarmed and threatened, the feuding Pope and German Emperor unite to excommunicate Luther from the church and ban him from society. Luther’s followers, which include peasants, princes and religious leaders, form a new movement with Luther as an unwilling leader, but differences and divisions immediately begin to form. Luther’s refusal to compromise becomes an inflexibility that makes it impossible for him to mediate those divisions, and he is left again to struggle with God, this time for the control and survival of the Reformation.
  • Martin's Christmas Carol
    A 15-20 minute play with music: 16th Century religious reformer Martin Luther is rehearsing a children’s Christmas pageant that he has written, but difficulties arise as kids continuously pepper him with questions while his wife, Kate, offers unappreciated assistance. The resulting product is performed as the audience is invited to join in.

    This piece is perfect for church Christmas pageants and...
    A 15-20 minute play with music: 16th Century religious reformer Martin Luther is rehearsing a children’s Christmas pageant that he has written, but difficulties arise as kids continuously pepper him with questions while his wife, Kate, offers unappreciated assistance. The resulting product is performed as the audience is invited to join in.

    This piece is perfect for church Christmas pageants and can work with a small or large cast. The 20 minute musical can be lengthened by adding audience sing-along carols during the performance.
  • Fable Us! - book & lyrics by P. K. Silverson; music
    Find details at https://newplayexchange.org/plays/97852/fable-us.

    Hey Aesop! Your fables made you the most famous story teller in The Big Olive. After a lifetime as a sheep-herding slave, you just won your freedom courtesy of rich old King Croesus. What are you going to do now? Quest to find out what happened to the love of your life... stolen away when you were both so very young? Too bad you’ve...
    Find details at https://newplayexchange.org/plays/97852/fable-us.

    Hey Aesop! Your fables made you the most famous story teller in The Big Olive. After a lifetime as a sheep-herding slave, you just won your freedom courtesy of rich old King Croesus. What are you going to do now? Quest to find out what happened to the love of your life... stolen away when you were both so very young? Too bad you’ve made enemies of all the other royal advisers... not to mention the beautiful but wicked Oracle of Delphi herself! Since this is 600 B.C., maybe you can make up a story to save your neck before somebody throws you off a cliff! Or... perhaps... your reward is waiting for you in the afterlife. The gods only know!
  • SHELL SHOCKED - book & lyrics by P. K. Silverson; music
    Find details at https://newplayexchange.org/plays/169525/shell-shocked.

    There's a new twist on Aesop's ancient fable when the Tortoise pulls a switch on the Hare. This is a 10-Minute Musical adapted from the full length musical: Fable Us!
  • Goering's Trial
    Hermann Goering, second in command of the German Nazi armed forces under Adolph Hitler during World War II, is being tried by the United Nations for crimes against humanity. His lawyer is adequate but inexperienced. The prosecuting attorney's life and career are on hold as he pleads the case against Goering. Throughout the trial, Goering receives letters from his wife, recalling their time together with...
    Hermann Goering, second in command of the German Nazi armed forces under Adolph Hitler during World War II, is being tried by the United Nations for crimes against humanity. His lawyer is adequate but inexperienced. The prosecuting attorney's life and career are on hold as he pleads the case against Goering. Throughout the trial, Goering receives letters from his wife, recalling their time together with Germany's leader. Amidst echoes of the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington D.C., and the 2022 incursion by Russian forces in the Ukraine, we are left to ponder the definitions of loyalty, patriotism, obedience, heroism, cruelty and tragedy.