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Boys of summer stock
  
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By RUSTY GRAHAM
Ask Larry Dierker why he thinks he can write a successful musical, and you get a Larry Dierker answer.
“I can’t sing, I can’t play, and I’m hard of hearing,” he said. “Those are my qualifications.”
But Dierker has never let something like lack of experience stop him from trying something he wants to do.
The former Houston Astros pitcher, broadcaster and manager is co-writing “Old Stories,” a musical play being produced by a summer theater class at Houston Community College-Spring Branch.
Dierker pitched his first major league game on his 18th birthday, as a member of the Colt 45s in 1964, and never went down to the minor leagues. He was the Astros first 20-game winner in 1969, and after coming close twice, pitched a no-hitter against the Montreal Expos in 1976.
He broadcast his first game in 1979, having never been in a broadcast booth before.
And he took over managing duties for the Astros in 1997, leading the club to four pennants in five years, with no coaching or managing experience at any level. He earned NL Manager of the Year in 1998.
Dierker was successful at every milestone, and he thinks he’ll be successful now.
So does co-writer Aubrey Tucker, chair of the Fine Arts Department at HCC-Spring Branch.
“We have great hopes for the show,” said Tucker. “If we do our stuff right, this show can go places.”
“Old Stories” is the culmination of years of baseball, storytelling and songwriting for Dierker, who said the story comes from the oral tradition of storytelling.
“Tribes have always passed lore and mythology along,” said Dierker. “In the modern world, it’s analagous to Army buddies getting together, telling stories. They end up just rehashing the same old material.”
And therein lies the premise of the play. Some old scouts are together rehashing the year they won the pennant as players, 1949. The old guys are overheard by a group of younger players, who say they hope they win a pennant so they can tell stories when they are old guys.
Ultimately, Dierker says, “Old Stories” is a tale of redemption. The big hero — the home run hitter — gets married, drinks too much, his play suffers as does his relationships with his teammates and his wife, his wife leaves him.
But he hits bottom, calls his wife and she comes back and helps him realize that baseball is not the most important thing in life, while simultaneously helping him get his career back on track.
“The old stories could be about anything,” Dierker said. “They’re told by people who’ve been through something together.”
While Dierker is no musician, not by his measure nor anyone else’s, he’s been writing songs since he was a kid, making up words and changing lyrics to existing songs.
During his playing career, he’d make up his own songs on bus trips, usually “off-color, demeaning and raucous” songs he said he couldn’t imagine today’s “guarded” players singing along to.
That led to writing songs and melodies with a baseball motif, some of which he eventually sang for his mother, who has an interest in musical theater. She encouraged him — “pestered,” Dierker says — to write a musical.
Then about three years ago he began writing dialogue around the songs. He didn’t have a storyline, he said, but he had songs about baseball. But the story was “starting to get legs” of its own, and he realized that the songs weren’t going to fit the story.
“Songs have to do two things,” Dierker said. “They have to express the feeling of the character, and they have to move the storyline along.”
Because “Old Stories” was organic — “it just grew” — Dierker wrote mostly new songs for the musical, which will ultimately contain 18-20 songs.
“If I had it to do again, I’d think about the number of characters, the songs, the music, from the start,” he said.
The characters in “Old School” are amalgams of people Dierker met through the phases of his baseball career — playing, broadcasting and managing. He’s also learning that the succinctness he learned in broadcasting helps him write crisper dialogue, to not be so verbose and to let the actor express the emotion.
And he relies on co-writers Tucker and Paul English to finish out his music — Dierker writes lyrics and sings or hums the melody, and professional musicians Tucker and English polish the tunes.
Tucker started the Commercial Music Department at HCC 25 years ago and still serves as its chair. That’s after a long and distinguished career in music, touring the world with big bands and playing 10 years in Las Vegas with entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald.
A music educator and touring musician, English now teaches at Texas Tech. Dierker says he’s amazed at how good his songs sound with professional composition.
“Basic melodies are turned into orchestrations,” said Dierker.
The baseball parts are easy to write, says Dierker — no surprise given his long career. Female dialogue has given him trouble, he said, because he, well, has no experience being female.
He has his hand in the entire production, certainly as a writer but also as a baseball expert, helping director Michelle Robinson with the baseball scenery and imagery, making the parts become more real.
After the interview, Dierker leans against a wall in a hallway and talks with Tucker, who told him that maybe they should move a number to the middle of the show to facilitate a transition.
Dierker suggests pairing that piece with another song as a sort of duet, lightly singing each and showing how the two working together.
Tucker thinks but for a second.
“That’s good,” he says. “That’s a great idea.”
“I can’t sing, I can’t play, and I’m hard of hearing,” he said. “Those are my qualifications.”
But Dierker has never let something like lack of experience stop him from trying something he wants to do.
No experience required
The former Houston Astros pitcher, broadcaster and manager is co-writing “Old Stories,” a musical play being produced by a summer theater class at Houston Community College-Spring Branch.
Dierker pitched his first major league game on his 18th birthday, as a member of the Colt 45s in 1964, and never went down to the minor leagues. He was the Astros first 20-game winner in 1969, and after coming close twice, pitched a no-hitter against the Montreal Expos in 1976.
He broadcast his first game in 1979, having never been in a broadcast booth before.
And he took over managing duties for the Astros in 1997, leading the club to four pennants in five years, with no coaching or managing experience at any level. He earned NL Manager of the Year in 1998.
Dierker was successful at every milestone, and he thinks he’ll be successful now.
So does co-writer Aubrey Tucker, chair of the Fine Arts Department at HCC-Spring Branch.
“We have great hopes for the show,” said Tucker. “If we do our stuff right, this show can go places.”
“Old Stories” is the culmination of years of baseball, storytelling and songwriting for Dierker, who said the story comes from the oral tradition of storytelling.
“Tribes have always passed lore and mythology along,” said Dierker. “In the modern world, it’s analagous to Army buddies getting together, telling stories. They end up just rehashing the same old material.”
And therein lies the premise of the play. Some old scouts are together rehashing the year they won the pennant as players, 1949. The old guys are overheard by a group of younger players, who say they hope they win a pennant so they can tell stories when they are old guys.
Ultimately, Dierker says, “Old Stories” is a tale of redemption. The big hero — the home run hitter — gets married, drinks too much, his play suffers as does his relationships with his teammates and his wife, his wife leaves him.
But he hits bottom, calls his wife and she comes back and helps him realize that baseball is not the most important thing in life, while simultaneously helping him get his career back on track.
“The old stories could be about anything,” Dierker said. “They’re told by people who’ve been through something together.”
Humming along ...
While Dierker is no musician, not by his measure nor anyone else’s, he’s been writing songs since he was a kid, making up words and changing lyrics to existing songs.
During his playing career, he’d make up his own songs on bus trips, usually “off-color, demeaning and raucous” songs he said he couldn’t imagine today’s “guarded” players singing along to.
That led to writing songs and melodies with a baseball motif, some of which he eventually sang for his mother, who has an interest in musical theater. She encouraged him — “pestered,” Dierker says — to write a musical.
Then about three years ago he began writing dialogue around the songs. He didn’t have a storyline, he said, but he had songs about baseball. But the story was “starting to get legs” of its own, and he realized that the songs weren’t going to fit the story.
“Songs have to do two things,” Dierker said. “They have to express the feeling of the character, and they have to move the storyline along.”
Because “Old Stories” was organic — “it just grew” — Dierker wrote mostly new songs for the musical, which will ultimately contain 18-20 songs.
“If I had it to do again, I’d think about the number of characters, the songs, the music, from the start,” he said.
But experience helps
The characters in “Old School” are amalgams of people Dierker met through the phases of his baseball career — playing, broadcasting and managing. He’s also learning that the succinctness he learned in broadcasting helps him write crisper dialogue, to not be so verbose and to let the actor express the emotion.
And he relies on co-writers Tucker and Paul English to finish out his music — Dierker writes lyrics and sings or hums the melody, and professional musicians Tucker and English polish the tunes.
Tucker started the Commercial Music Department at HCC 25 years ago and still serves as its chair. That’s after a long and distinguished career in music, touring the world with big bands and playing 10 years in Las Vegas with entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald.
A music educator and touring musician, English now teaches at Texas Tech. Dierker says he’s amazed at how good his songs sound with professional composition.
“Basic melodies are turned into orchestrations,” said Dierker.
The baseball parts are easy to write, says Dierker — no surprise given his long career. Female dialogue has given him trouble, he said, because he, well, has no experience being female.
collaboration
He has his hand in the entire production, certainly as a writer but also as a baseball expert, helping director Michelle Robinson with the baseball scenery and imagery, making the parts become more real.
After the interview, Dierker leans against a wall in a hallway and talks with Tucker, who told him that maybe they should move a number to the middle of the show to facilitate a transition.
Dierker suggests pairing that piece with another song as a sort of duet, lightly singing each and showing how the two working together.
Tucker thinks but for a second.
“That’s good,” he says. “That’s a great idea.”
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