I couldn't find much on Betsy Kelso, but apparently the show was
loosely based on fact:
"Armadillo Acres, the premier trailer park in Starke, Florida - a real
place, by the by, and it is said that book writer and director Betsy
Kelso drew some of her characters from the still-lifes there."
http://www.playbill.com/features/article/94995.html
Betsy Kelso went to high school in Woodbridge, Connecticut. I haven't
seen anything that connects her to Starke, Florida in real life.
Apparently the idea for "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" came
not from Betsy Kelso, but from David Nehls, who wrote the songs:
"The show is the first major collaboration between Kelso and Nehls,
who met while performing in The Rocky Horror Show in Europe. 'David
came up with the germ of the idea. And then he spread the disease to
me,' Kelso jokes. David had written a number of songs set in a trailer
park, inspired by his memories of the kind trailer park residents to
whom he'd delivered newspapers as a boy; and he asked Kelso to
collaborate with him on a musical in that setting."
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/rialto/past/2005/09_14_05.html
In theater terminology, "book" refers to the spoken dialogue and stage
directions of a musical. The term does not necessarily imply the
existence of a published book such as a novel. |