Desperate Households
Creative Summary

Client: Major Appliance Brand
Writer/Director: Michael Carrera

Objective: To attract, entertain and hold audience, communicate product information, and create strong word of mouth interest in the _____ Exhibit at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Trade Show.

Solution: A 12 minute, live theatrical presentation inspired by the hit ABC television series Desperate Housewives.

Challenge: To create characters and situations inspired by the humor, edge and wacky spirit of a series which has struck a chord with a global audience, yet subtly suggestive enough to be appropriate to the family-friendly, environmentally conscious appliance brand.

Concept: To take the audience on the entertaining journey of four not-so-ordinary housewives as their appliances transform their lives from desperation to inspiration by saving them time, money, energy—and in the process bring them creative passion, connection with family, enlightenment and true love.

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Characters:

Hope: Newly single mom moving to idyllic Sycamore Road to start life anew.
Prudence: The perfect housewife. Martha Stewart meets Mary Poppins.
Grace: Former corporate powerhouse now on the mommy track.
Faith: The beauty queen who’s deeper than you might think.
Mark: The ultimate contractor and ideal man.
Voiceover: A slyly seductive, omniscient female narrator.

Setting:
Sycamore Road: An idyllic community somewhere in the United States.

Summary:
Played “in the round” on 4 theatrically lit satellite stages within the exhibit by 4 beautiful and brilliant comic actresses on wireless mics, the tone of the show is set with an opening Voice Over in the style of “Desperate Housewives”. During the Introduction actresses enter and freeze in tableau on their respective stages as VO and video establishes character and setting. The last to enter is our heroine, Hope.

In a state of turmoil after learning that the cut-rate appliances her contractor convinced her to get are stuck on a boat somewhere, Hope’s new life on Sycamore Road is off to a very rocky start. As the show unfolds, she visits each of her friends in succession. They attempt to solve her problem by sharing the secret of how their lives have been transformed by the appliances installed by Super Contractor Mark. Each scene features a different appliance and communicates messaging about benefits and features. Each housewife’s secret seems to be rather racy, until revealed to be quite innocent and, indeed, empowering. Super Contractor Mark, who will be “played” by an audience member in the Finale, is set up as a secondary hero in each scene.

In Scene 1 Perfectionist Prudence raves that her range has given her so much free time and energy that the gourmet lunches she whips up for husband Roger have taken on a passionate ending. We very briefly think this might of an uncharacteristically carnal nature, until Pru whips out a microphone and reveals it to be her passion for karaoke—complete with a spectacular, American Idol-esque performance of “Natural Woman” sung to her Range.

Hope, shocked by this transformation, enters Scene 2 to find no-nonsense Grace involved in what appear to be shady business dealings. We soon learn that, thanks to her dishwasher, Grace has gone from exhausted mom to Girl Scout Troop Leader, not only putting her skills as a corporate powerhouse to work setting new sales records for Girl Scout cookies but, more importantly, spending quality time with her kids.

By now sensing a pattern, in Scene 3 Hope finds former beauty queen Faith in her “laundry spa”, where, through the wonders of her washer/dryer, she has been transformed from the queen of conspicuous consumption into an environmentally conscious, spiritually evolved, yoga master. Faith plays the entire scene moving from one outrageous yoga posture to another. Proof positive that you can have it all, Faith ends the scene by pulling a stylish wrap dress from the dryer, slipping on a pair of heels and letting her hair down—Yoga Girl to Cover Girl.

The Final Scene, all four inspired housewives happily partying in Hope’s kitchen filled with appliances, is capped by the revelation of Hope’s Big Secret. She has a date—and presumably future love and happiness—with Super Contractor Mark. The audience interactive hook of having Mark, who had been set up in glowing terms throughout the show, “played” by an audience member, worked phenomenally well to draw audiences and generate positive word of mouth for both the products and the show.

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