Full Cast and Crew

Hi, guys. Well - a few things have changed, and I now have the full cast and crew details to provide. As you can see this from the aount of people involved that this is a fairly large production (for a "workshop" production).

My thanks and best wishes to everyone on this long list!

Just William - The Musical.

A new musical based on Richmal Crompton's Just William stories performed at the George Wood Theatre, Goldsmiths College.

Book, Music and Lyrics by Nicholas Hutson
Additional Lyrics by Tim Saward
Creative Consultant: Leigh Stevenson
Stage Managers: Lauren Simpson-Green, Ioanna Sourmeli-Terzopoulou
Production Assistant: Lauren Simpson-Green
Associate Choreographer: Jack Everson
Musical Director: Matt Winkworth
Choreographed, Directed and Produced by Albin Balint

CAST

William Brown: Jack Everson
Mr John Brown / Douglas: Clive Dancey
Mrs Mary Brown: Naomi Symeou
Robert Brown: Christopher Rorke
Ethel Brown: Chloe Jefferies
Lady Marcombe: Rachel Mason
Sylvia Bexley / Ellen: Amie Clapson
Violet Elizabeth Bott: Katrina Gibson
Ginger / Policeman: Leigh Stevenson
Henry: Ido Gonen

Running time: approx 40 mins.

Just William comes 83rd in "Best Kids TV Shows Ever"

Just watching a TV show here, and it was nice to see a clip from the 1970s version of Just William made here in England starring a very young Bonnie Langford (above)

Rehearsal Footage

Here's a video for you to enjoy!



Did you enjoy it?

Rehearsal Update!

NB: This is really a stream of consciousness written over the 4 hour rehearsal period we had today. So, during it, my thoughts and points change and my oppose each other.

So here I am in the George Wood Theatre at Goldsmiths College sitting in my back row seat looking over rehearsals for a few scenes. It’s amazing to firstly see how wonderful all members of the cast are – they're really outstanding, and everyone is impressed with each other. So, hearing the lines come out of real actors is very rewarding for me, as it gives me the opportunity to see how they’ve been interpreted by each individual. I have a couple of suggestions that I may put forward, but I am not too sure as to how the cast and remainder of the crew will react to my tiny suggestions, because I haven’t been around at rehearsals recently (notice the lack of blogs – I’ve had an essay to do!).

Looking around the theatre, it’s pretty large for a 150 seat venue. The stage, in two parts (thrust and proscenium), is vast. A Thrust Stage is where the stage goes beyond the normal frame of the proscenium into the audience (rather like a large and wide runway or catwalk). We are making use of the two sections of stage by employing our theory of William’s life be a life in two classes, by having the “upper class” events happen at the back of the stage and William’s “ole barn” at the front of the stage. Genius!!

We’ve just had the 2^nd run through of a scene toward the end of the show, and Albin is now offering ideas of spacing, and asking the cast how they felt about the scene they just acted. Clearly I can see, from Albin’s direction process, how generous and thoughtful he is toward his cast, and I am glad I chose him to direct.

One bizarre thing I have noticed is that I will make notes about the way I think a line could be said, and it will turn out that that particular line in a later scene run through would be said the way I expressed in my notes, or that Albin has picked up on the same thing and offers the idea to the cast member(s) without my assistance. Albin really understands the story and characters!

This is the first time I’ve met Christopher Rorke, who is playing Robert Brown (William’s 19 year old brother). I have to say, I am thrilled with him! He is not only exactly how I envision the role (tall and handsome), but – from what I’ve seen – he acts the role very well. Also, I saw him practice his tap routine, which made me pretty happy!

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Well – we’re now into a new scene – and I just had to accompany the cast with a song called “The Criminal Kind” on the piano here in the theatre. Needless to say, I felt like a member of the criminal king as I should certainly be locked up for my performance of the piano accompaniment song. This may sound strange that the composer can't play the song, but I never really write for myself to play the music, as I am a composer - not a pianist. I write for someone who I know can play the piano - so I am happy that Matt will be at most rehearsals, but I can bash through most of the score! Regardless, the cast, of course sounded good – especially in the four part contrapuntal harmony. Horrah!

It’s also interesting watching the development of scenes (timing as regard actors entrances before talking, etc) so I can think about what underscore to work out with Matt (motifs, etc).

During the choral ending of this song we have all the characters displaying their desires and roaming around the stage – and, once again, Albin has staged it perfectly to how I envisioned it when I first sat down to write this bloody song. “It’s not piss easy”, is how the lovely Amie Clapson (Sylvia) described it, and I have to agree with her. This song is going to look brilliant – especially with the end tableau that is now being rehearsed. I still can’t play the song very well – and I am worried that my playing will be different Matt’s and that my speed may affect the speed at which the cast are working at.

Well – I can’t write this and rehearsal notes at the same time, so I am off! More later!

Music Development Meeting

Leigh Stevenson, Me and Matt Winkworth.

So - today we had the music meeting. Me, Albin (my director), Matt Winkworth (Musical director) and Leigh Stevenson (Assistant musical director) all sat down for 3 hours to discuss how the score takes place on stage.

Once again - this was a new experience for me. It was interesting to discuss ideas on how the singers would interpret the songs; where they would pause, how fast they may take it and also a manner of other factors that would, of course, affect the propulsion of each song. For example, we were looking at the "show stopper" number: "I'll Scream and Scream ('til I'm sick)" and, we came up with ideas to have the character (a lisping 6 year old) maybe make each time she has her phrase of "I'll scream", that she should make each one different (one time it could be threatening, another time it could be placid etc etc).

Of course there were the usual discussions about tempi, changing words and stresses etc. One thing, which the wonderful Leigh Stevenson pointed out, was to change a big choral ending from "...find theeeeeeee criminal kind", to "fiiiiiiiiiiind the criminal kind", because "the" is not a strong word to hold. See...I didn't know that?! So, I think it's marvelous to have these great people around to bounce ideas off and to, literally, see your words and music with fresh eyes, and help you with it.

We also discussed places where incidental music appeared, so we've all got to start looking at the scene changes and see what needs to happen. As the scene changes in this production are going to be visible to the audience (no trucks in this show, sadly - just manual labour!), the scene change music may need to reflect the characters on stage who are moving the set pieces. Naturally, due to this, this will have to wait until rehearsals. We also looked at adding more dialogue breaks into the songs to enhance the character (as opposed to simply the song's role - which is to enhance the action) and we've done this very well for one song...it looks like some cast members may have to recall their skipping rope skills! But - more on that later....

Finally, we had a rummage around in one of the prop rooms at Goldsmiths. I've never seen so much useless rubbish in my life (and I've been to gadget shops!). Such stand out items include dismembered arms, a German radio (with hell as one station setting!), feather dusters, boxes - lots of junk. But, I guess they've all had their uses in the past. These things just don't turn up in rooms on their own! There were a lot of bottles of water, some with mold - and some without - which was lovely. Of course, we also found some props that may prove useful. But - too early for that.

Vocal rehearsals start on Monday - see you then!

Cast meet and Readthrough

Before I start this section of the blog, I will provide you with the very talented cast that I shall be working with.

William Brown
Jack Everson

Mr John Brown/Douglas
Clive Dancey

Mrs Mary Brown
Naomi Symeou

Robert Brown
Christopher Rorke

Ethel Brown
Chloe Jefferies

Lady Marcombe
Rachel Mason

Sylvia Bexley
Amie Clapson

Violet Elizabeth Bott
Katrina Gibson

Ginger
Leigh Stevenson

Henry
Ido Gonen

Policeman
Robert Paul

After a fairly exhaustive audition process, my director and I chose our cast. Needless to say, I was thrilled with the choice the day we made them, but yesterday Albin and I sat down with the cast to a very informal introduction and quick read through. Needless to say, I was worried because I was due to try to play some of my music on the piano. Believe me when I say I am a composer, not a pianist - the music I write is a tad too difficult for my own talent - however, I received a warm round of applause for the mangled version of my overture.

Anyway, that embarrassment over, we introduced each other to each other, and then Albin talked about the production and I made a brief speech as regard my thoughts, then we showed off the production space and sat down for our read through.

This was a very interesting experience as I'd never heard the script being read through out loud, and I saw a couple of things that had to be changed - but, generally, I felt it went very well - with everyone reading incredibly well to suitable humorous effects - which, needless to say, made me very happy indeed. No singing was in this read through (purely because the cast don't know the tunes yet!) but the dialogue seemed to flow pretty well - which was rewarding. It went by quickly, though! Luckily, the musical HAS to be between 40 and 45 minutes long. So, I was thinking as the read through flew by, it will give the actors a real chance to flesh out the dialogue. Funny that...

I meet with my wonderful musical director Matt Winkworth tomorrow, to discuss the score...so, more on that tomorrow...

Just William - The Musical - An Introduction.

Hello! Welcome to my blog documenting the progress of the musical I am writing of "Just William".

This musical is being written as an examination piece for my MA in Musical Theatre at Goldsmith's College - which is part of the University of London.

Just William, for those of you who don't know, is a very famous British set of short stories written over 5 decades in the 20th Century - from the 1920s all the way to the late 1960's. The stories, written by authoress Richmal Crompton (below).

Each story usually focuses on William Brown (an 11 year old boy) and his best friends (Ginger, Henry and Douglas - commonly known as The Outlaws), and their efforts to help - or in some way - improve their, or someone else's lives. The stories also focus on the stupidity of grown-ups, the intelligence of William and his determination to help - usually thwarted by grown-ups!

However, when writing the musical, it occurred to my director (Albin Balint) and me that there is a strong theme of class within the stories - and the conflicts within class. I made the decision to only have musical numbers sung only by characters who are intruders to William's life. This was done for a few reasons. One being no 11 year old boy is one to sing - an 11 year old boy would rather release his emotional energy by dancing and moving. Secondly, William's stand-out moments (to me) are his energetic outbursts of eloquence - and they are not represented musically, just through speech. Also, William's style of speech is not really suitable for lyrical writing (William has his own way of dialect - "I aint done nothin' wrong, mother - it was Hubert Lane what did it!").

So - the point of this blog is to document the development progress of the production - from readthroughs, meetings, rehearsals and the final production.

Enjoy!