The Characters

Here are the characters and the folks who play them:

Ivy Wire

Ivy is 10 years old, and she has just had the saddest year of her life. Her most prized possession is her guitar, which she inherited from her father. Since his death 6 months earlier, she has devoted all of her energy into practicing on her guitar, singing, and writing songs. She has the gift of music, and it is healing her soul.

Despite the fact that she is fatherless, her house is about to be foreclosed on by the local bank, and she’s about to lose a shoe, she has felt strangely full of life since she woke up on this lovely day, the first day of her summer vacation. With almost mystic calmness and drawing from a well of bravery she didn’t even know she had, she sets off on the strangest adventure of her life.

This unassuming heroine, this unlikely seat of her pants adventurer, is played by 11 year-old Grace London. Grace is a powerhouse and a Zilker Elementary talent show stealer.

Celia Wire

Celia is Ivy’s mother. Since her husband died, she has been subsisting on doing laundry and mending for folks, and selling what extra eggs, produce and goat milk she gets from her humble yard farm. It is not enough. The house she’s lived in her whole life, which was built from the ground up by her daddy, is about to be taken away by the local bank. She has done everything she can, and has delayed and delayed the inevitable, but it’s beginning to seem that she and Ivy will soon be kicked out of her rightful home, all because of that no account pretty talking card playing guitar strumming lying through his teeth sweet song singing dead husband of hers.

Celia is played by K. McCarty, ex-Glass Eye and noted “Dead Dog’s Eyeball” chanteuse.

Cosmo “Slim” Wire

Cosmo is Ivy’s daddy. He is dead and in Hell and working as Satan’s stablehand. He’s always been a charmer, a smooth talker and a lady’s man. When he met Celia, he thought his wandering days were done, but after Ivy was born, the depression started, and there were no jobs anywhere. Horse wranglers were a dime a dozen in Texas, and though he was a gifted singer and performer, the dance hall lifestyle always brought him closer to the card games, which were his most tragic weakness. He left home for a few stretches of time looking for work, but he rarely sent more than a pittance back, and when he returned he was always worse for wear.

He got a good job working construction on the Marshall Ford dam in ‘37. It was wretched, dangerous work, and it took him away from home for a week at a time. Ironically, the best job he ever got also put him in touch with some high stakes games with some low life men, which is what led him to his ultimate demise. His debts piled up, and unbeknownst to Celia, he stole away the deed to the house, went down to the local bank, put a lien on the property, and borrowed the money to pay off his debts. Ivy and Celia had no idea that the battered wicker suitcase he took with him on that fateful day was full of cash. They never saw him again. His body was found that night by the railroad tracks downtown.

Cosmo is played by that cowboy country crooner from Tokio, Texas, James Hand.

Mr. Kirby

Mister Kirby is the overworked Chief Admissions Officer of the Eternal Incarceration System. He has 3 heads. He can type, give dictation, and do calculations at the same time.

Mr. Kirby is played by Will Sheff of Okkervil River.

The Big Boss

The Big Boss is the Lord of the Underworld Himself. He is lonely and cruel. He sees himself as sensitive and misunderstood. He’s fascinated by Ivy, because she is a singer/songwriter like him, but he is anxious to prove that he is more delicate and artistic than a little girl.

The Big Boss is played by the Star of the Underground, none other than Daniel Johnston.

Everything

Everything is a Supreme Deity. He has been napping, so He’s a little groggy.

Everything is played by the Barry White of the lofi litrock scene, Mr. Bill Callahan, the artist formerly known as “Smog.”

Org / Ringo

Org is a bat winged demon who catches Ivy and saves her from falling into the lake of lava. He is from Texas as well. In life, he had been a cowboy named Ringo. He befriends Ivy when she gives him a peach, and he guides her through the underworld.

Org is played by Scott Marcus, ex-Glass Eye drummer and the man of a thousand voices.