Craig O'Donnelly Design

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Mandates, An Original Musical Poster Design

The Logo

I was privileged to create this logo and poster design for my stepdaughter Gretchen Freihon's original musical "Mandates". The story follows a young Mike Pence (yes THAT Mike Pence) though his life as he struggles to come to grips with the realization that he is gay. Yep!

The Poster

The play is extremely funny and the music is wonderful. There's even a happy ending; President Trump is impeached and Mike, now President Pence, comes out to the world and finds his true destiny. The play was slated to be performed at the Agoura High School's Black Box Theater, but the Principal of the school, Brian Mercer, banned the play from campus after discovering its inclusive, gay theme. This necessitated that the authors and their parents scramble to find a new venue in a week, this all while the authors were in their last week of High School before graduation.

The musical premiered last night at the Class Act Musical Theater in Woodland Hills to a sold-out crowd of 250 people. The play received not one, not two but three standing ovations for the cast and authors; Gretchen Freihon (creator and author), Jillian Heller (author and composer/performer) and Olivia Kepler (author and editor). Needless to say I am extremely proud of Gretchen, her co-authors, and the incredible cast and crew that wouldn't take no as an answer. Congratulations!