There once was a man named General Genghis Kahn Schmitz who scared children out of their wits. Not much is know about this man other than that fact that he was a domineering general with a love of butter bread (so long as its eaten butter side up), and his unwavering hatred for those who like to eat their bread butter side down. I would like to think that Schmitz was a nice person deep, deep down, however the harshness of reality turned him into a cruel man and ultimately led to his own downfall, but of course that’s all speculation. What we know to be true was that Schmitz was a man of conviction. So much so that he was willing to go to war over what he believed in, even if it was something as simple as the correct way to eat your bread ( if you look further into the story this is both an allegory for the foolish reasons people choose to go to war, such as over ideology, and a metaphor for society forces conformity, but again, that’s a whole different blog post). As I was saying Schmitz chose to go to war over his beliefs, and founded a military academy where he would train young boys to fight for the right to eat their bread butter side up. One of the many children he enlisted in his academy was named Jojo, and Jojo was a thinker, which was very much frowned upon in their society. His thoughts became so wild and uncontrollable that Jojo’s parents thought the military was their only hope. One day, During the Battle of Butter, Jojo decides to abandon the war effort, realizing the battle is meaningless, and as he tries to escape the battle field he is caught in a mine field and is presumed dead. Jojo’s death shakes the general and no one knows what happened to afterwards, but some same the two sides are still Battling over their butter to this day.
This is the retelling of one of the many wonderful stories that appear in the Musical: Seussical the musical. I performed this role in high school so I thought it fitting to retell the story. I really enjoyed reliving the experience once again.
