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!