First Draft Reading

On Friday we had an "in camera" first draft reading of the book (without songs) of our new show. The new musical is based on a well known novel and so I am not going to reveal the name of it on the blog yet. We had a great cast, including Alice Rowell, three RADA graduates: Mark Edel Hunt, Paris Arrowsmith and Lottie Latham, a new Arts Ed student Frances Knox and Richard Southgate who was in Spring Awakening. It was an electric evening, and Steve and I were pleased to see that the structure and work we have already put in is beginning to take shape. The characters and the humour really seemed to come through and produced a very entertaining evening. The energy and enthusiasm from the predominantly young cast was very exciting.

Steve and I are onto our next song and hope that soon we will have written enough songs to make a demo cd.

Artist Ilinca Cantacuzino captured the moment by sketching the actors while they were reading. This impromptu ink sketch will now be part of her Notebook Series. She brought round a copy of it for me yesterday which is now on my study wall.

In the photograph above are Paris Arrowsmith and Frances Knox reading from the new show.