09 November

New Blood for Musical Theatre; 30-31 October 2010

l-r: Jonathan Geyveu and Chloe Allen

Photograph: Namvula Rennie

 

Theatre Royal Stratford East and live music producers Serious, came together in the last weekend of October to deliver a further element of the Move On Up programme for artists working in African and Caribbean music. These artists, all with existing careers as performing musicians, were finding out about potential roles for them in musical theatre – as musical directors, composers and arrangers.

Theatre Royal Stratford East is committed to evolving new musicals which reflect the vibrant eclecticism of multicultural London and to creating a bridge into theatre for the composing talent across all genres that abounds in Britain. The artists involved in the workshops come from a range of musical backgrounds  including  jazz, reggae, RnB and hip-hop. 

The programme was run by  Theatre Royal Stratford East's Artistic Director Kerry Michael and Fred Carl and Robert Lee of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (which offers one of the few full-time graduate courses in Musical Theatre in the world) – who are Artistic Associates of the Theatre and members of its Musical Theatre Advisory Committee. They supported the budding musical directors to direct a company of five actors and three musicians, teaching them a new arrangement of a song and placing it dramatically within a script. Information was also provided on the several and various roles needed to create and rehearse a new musical.

Kerry Michael said, ‘This weekend was a great opportunity for us to meet and work with some of the new music-writing and music-directing talent we need to keep musical theatre a living, contemporary artform which brings diverse audiences to Theatre Royal Stratford East. We were delighted to have worked with Serious on this programme.’

 

l to r: Dawn Reid, Sean Green (seated), Adriano Adewale

Photograph: Namvula Rennie

The artists taking part were Adriano Adewale, Rahma Ali, Tor Cesay, Jonathan Geyveu, Jah Marnyah, Zara McFarlane, Muntu Valdo and Abram Wilson.

Thanks from all of them to Kerry, Robert and Fred and to the versatile, generous company who worked with them over the weekend:

Chloe Allen (actor), Sean Green (keyboards), Paul Hazel (actor), Leon Lopez (actor), Wayne Nunes (bass), Perry Melius (drums), Dawn Reid (director), Gemma Salter (actor), Shelley Williams (actor).

 

‘I left the weekend not really sure of what I had learnt, I guess because there was a lot of information to take on board.  However I can already see the results/changes on the way I am thinking things through with my band.

Many aspects which were discussed on the weekend can be applied not only for musical theatre, but across the musical activities involving live shows/performances and how to engineer/plan the admin and technical team.

It has contributed for me to understand and also to open horizons in terms of organizing the process of achieving results in particular situations. It also gave me an insight on how to really make sure you make use of all phases of preparing a show, making sure you use all possible resources to come up with a great final product.

Thank you so much for inviting me for such a wonderful project/event.’
Adriano Adewale

 

l to r: Tor Cesay, Sean Green, Shelley Williams, Leon Lopez, Paul Hazel, Gemma Salter

Photograph: Namvula Rennie

 

 

 

 

05 October

 

Our Move On Up-ers have been a busy lot since we last saw them at Dartington Hall in July, and we thought you might like to know what some of them have been up to:-

 

 

Charles Stuart…
…will be playing with The Fish Police in a show at the Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, 8th of October as part of the renowned club night, Beautiful Octopus Club, run for people with and without learning disabilities alike.

 

Muntu Valdo...
…has played Womad, Passing Clouds in Dalston, and a special gig with the seriously up and coming Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts at Kings Place; recorded music for the BBC programme Ballad of Africa airing on the world service 9th Oct; and worked on a project in development with Bumi Thomas and Otto Fisher, AND had a photoshoot for his album 'The One & the Many' due for release Feb 2011.


Andy Baron…
…played in Poland as an invited guest singer for Polish reggae band Maleo Reggae Rockers at Przystanek Woodstock in front of an audience of 300,000!; played the following weekend with his band Rebel Control at Festival On The Other Side, Montenegro - only the second foreign reggae band to have played in Montenegro; they have filmed the video for their new single Hold On To Love; and completed a mini tour of Margate, Portsmouth, Southampton, Oxford and London; and finally, on 26 Sept played at Run To The Beat, a half marathon right outside the O2 in London, also providing the countdown for the runners!

 
Beyonder…
….has played at Ronnie Scott’s; Passing Clouds with 12 Tone; and at One at Jazz Café as a guest of Omar Sosa & Marque Gilmore; and has been updating his blog  www.dcosmicdotcom.blogspot.com/ so before I repeat everything that is on there have a look!


Randolph Mathews…
…performed at  "VoceSolo", an exploration of voice and song at The Forge Arts Venue, has released a video for Silent Screams and will be going to South Africa with Ark later this month to work with choirs and school.
 

Zena Edwards…    
…will be leading in a free workshop along with Literature Advisor for the British Council, Karen Brodie offering tips on creating spoken word abroad and how UK artists can take advantage of international opportunities.

 

27 August

 

At midday on Saturday 24 July, 11 exhausted yet energised artists left the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of Dartington to head home to the East Midlands, London and the South East.  This was the first cohort of Move On Up, the bespoke professional development programme for artists working in Arican and Caribbean music, produced by Serious as part of Black Routes and funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Each of the confirmed selected artists was interviewed in advance of the residential about their careers and the skills they need to develop to achieve their aspirations, and this informed the programme for a week jam-packed with practical workshops and seminars, with speakers and panel members from across the music industry.

 

 

 

 

The week started with an illustrated talk  - A History of Black Music - from journalist Kevin Le Gendre and ended with the artists making a Dragon’s Den style pitch for financial support for projects they developed together at Dartington. In between there was a host of advice and information and inspiration from key industry figures such as Lorna Clarke (Network Manager for BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music)  and Mervyn Lyn (Vice President Strategic Partnerships for Sony Music UK).

Feedback from the participants indicated enjoyment of the programme, of the opportunity to take time out in such stimulating and beautiful surroundings to reflect on their careers and the choices before them, to meet a great range of speakers and facilitators and to encounter ten other artists to share and work with in the week and possibly in the future. Asked what they had found most valuable abut the week, artists’ responses included:

 

‘The real support. The friendship. The time to think, reflect and be honest.’

‘The contact, the understanding and the generosity of the panellists – their willingness to share their experience.’

'It has totally changed the way I look at myself and the industry which will affect the way I work.’

 

 

 

 

 

21 May

 

Eleven artists have now been selected for the first round of this annual programme from a long-list of 40 nominated by members of the Black Routes network, alongside producers, promoters, DJs and other industry professionals. This July, the group will undertake an intensive week of training in the beautiful and inspirational surroundings of Dartington Arts in Totnes, Devon. Each of the confirmed artists will be interviewed in advance about their careers and the skills they need to develop to achieve their aspirations, and this will evolve into a plan for a week of practical workshops and seminars, tailored specifically to the group.


Andy Baron                               (vocalist, Brighton)
Baby J                                      (producer, Derby)
Beyonder                                  (spoken word/multimedia artist, London)
Charles Stuart                           (vocalist, London)
Jah Marnyah                             (vocalist, Leicester)
Muntu Valdo                              (vocalist/guitarist, London)
Randolph Matthews                    (vocalist/percussion/guitarist, London)
Rahma Ali                                  (vocalist, West Sussex)
Tor Cesay                                  (rapper, London)
Zara McFarlane                           (vocalist, Essex)
Zena Edwards                             (vocalist/performance poet, London)

• Later this year, these artists and others will have the opportunity to participate in further training, specifically on working in music theatre as a musical director or composer/arranger.