The One & Only

Jen Claire Cameron is an unusual, teen aged girl. Not just because she is precocious with a soulful outlook on life, but also because she was born with one eye in the middle of her face.

Born in secrecy and sheltered by a rural upbringing, Jen Claire’s existence comes to light when an opportunistic optometrist is called to the family cabin to treat a cataract that suddenly appears when Jen Claire is 15. The eye doctor leaks word of her existence to the press and pandemonium ensues.

After moving to the big city of Homer, Indiana – Jen Claire starts school and begins to become socialized. After some growing pains she makes friends with a group of misfits: Tien, a deaf boy; Random, a girl with ADHD; Silene, a girl who lost her ability to walk after learning of her parent’s death; Iris, an actress and a lesbian; and Isaac, a born leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Adding complication to Jen Claire’s life is the arrival of three people each with their own agenda: Agent Mcyntyr from Homeland Security wants to take Jen Claire to her superiors because the government suspects she may not be of this world; High Priestess Helen, a religious leader who believes Jen Claire to be Polyphenus reincarnated; and Professor Ulysses, who suspects that as a mutant, Jen Clare may hold some genetic secrets that could further his stem cell research.

Jen Claire just wants to live a normal life, and not be alone – but she has a hard time accepting affection, trusting people and gaining acceptance for the person she is, and not what she looks like. Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder? Find out in “The One & Only” by Ray Buffer and Robert Gross – a sung thru musical/opera using some characters as created by composer, Robert Gross in his comic strip of the same name and placed in a story that is loosely based on Homer’s “The Odyssey” and Euripides’ “Polyphenus”.

Songs include: “I Don’t Know Where I’m Going”; “I Am No One”, “Cyclops Girl”, “Queen of Speed”, “Fifteen and in Love”, “Take What You Need”, “Sun Like a Beach Ball”; “This is How I Roll”, “Safe House”, “Floccinaucinihilipilification”, “Happiness Is”, “Do You Just Tolerate a Rainbow?”, “Eye of the People”, “The One & Only”, “Isaac’s Jobs”, “Fear”, “This Instant of Time”.

“The One & Only” will receive a staged reading performance at Warner Grand Theatre at 478 West 6th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 on July 1, 2010. Free to the public, seats are available on a first come first serve basis.