(Our thoughts & feelings following on from the Concert in October – in five, easily digested chunks.)
 
The rehearsals went extremely well, and the cast were fully committed to the project. The whole team - front and backstage gelled from the start and this added to the overall success of the concert. It was very enjoyable for everyone.  One person who perhaps got a tremendous amount from the whole thing was the young actor who played the boy, Walter.  He worked as hard as anyone and his confidence and self-assurance in acting and interacting with the group visibly increased. He was looked after and supported by everyone.
 
The choice of St Mary’s church for the concert was excellent and added to the authenticity of the storyline. As the concert theme was set in the same church it was inevitable that this would be an apt place to perform it. With its spacious pews it was also a safe venue amidst covid. The main issue here was the lack of rehearsal time; just two days. However, it was down to the hard work of the musical director and the commitment of the cast that produced a remarkable concert in such a short time. The director joined the rehearsals late, but he was still successful in bringing the show to fruition on time.
The hard work applied to the music and lyrics was evident. Songs ranged from serious and sad to engaging and funny. A lot was demanded from the actors because some lyrics are very fast. A good decision was made to perform ‘from the book’ and it worked well.
The Musical arrangements were superb as was the enthusiasm and application by the musical director to the whole concert. He brought the best out in all the performers and musicians. Integrating the music/songs, the narration and the odd pieces of dialogue together was quite an undertaking. The writer of the book and the music/lyricists were in constant discussion to ensure that continuity was kept on track when the two areas were woven together. This was time consuming but necessary to ensure clarity and lack of confusion. The script went backwards and forwards on a constant basis and the writing team also met on zoom on a regular basis to thrash out problematic areas. And this latter point was quite significant as during the Covid lock downs the whole team on occasion were prevented from meeting in person, so they all became quite adept at using internet applications to complete the project.

Over sixty people watched out live stream on Wednesday 9th and on Thursday 10th over 20 people joined us for the British Sign Language version of the video.
Then many of the audience joined in a live Q&A session with some of the actors and creatives to discuss the making of the video in "pandemic times" and to consider how the story is developing. In fact we "sold" 30 free tickets for the Q&A via the Ticket Source website!
Many thanks to Caron Lyons (pcmcreative) for "stage managing" these events; to Emily Gray (MMD) for chairing the Q&A and to Jane Kelsall (BSLI) for her work signing the video and for her live signing on the night.

November 7th

Harry had to change the key of “To Be A Journeyman” because young Sam’s voice is changing. He is 12 and has played in Bugsy Malone but is obviously growing up fast!


The MIDI files he had created for Paul Nash at St Mary’s and All Saints (Crooked/twisted Spire church) didn’t want to play-I think that was because of the silences in front of the input ‘data’. Harry thought they were just for notation purposes. Sam was worried about hanging on to the microphone for too long when they were asked to post it to David for his ‘finale’ rendition. Director Andrew reassured him to hold onto the microphone as long as he needed-not to rush.

Mary has come up with an idea for costumes for the ‘girls’ while Andrew is struggling with the men’s attire.

So far I have received files from two of the ladies in Dronfield Choir. We are hoping many more will make the effort before our Monday deadline. We asked a third choir but the leader has been very ill and unable to rally the ‘troops’.

​Peter has managed to borrow a Zoom recorder (not the online version) so we can visit The Crooked Spire tomorrow when the tenor bell will be rung for Remembrance Sunday. We hope to use the recording for Beth’s Lament in our musical. Peter has also been busily recording sounds of tools such as chisels, saws and even an adze (a medieval axe) to use for the ‘film’.

 Welcome to our first eNewsletter.

The Crooked Spire (showcase), first shown at Buxton Festival Fringe July 2020, is currently playing at Brighton Fringe Festival online until 8th November.

The really exciting news is that we have been awarded an Arts Council England grant to develop The Crooked Spire Musical through its second stage and then into a full length musical.
 
Andrew Miller has been appointed as Director and Harry Style - Musical Director. They are assembling the company and rehearsals will soon be followed by filming. Stage Two, as we’re calling it, will tell the main part of the story and will be shown online on 9th December 2020
 
One of our actors, Clara Coslett, is performing in The Limit by Freya Smith and Jack Williams LIVE ONLINE from the Royal Central School Music Theatre on 15th November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhOxLFHwqeY&feature=youtu.be

​

Best wishes,
Martin Coslett, Peter Gray and Mary Hennessy
 
 
www.ashgateheritagearts.co.uk and on Facebook and Twitter
email: productionoffice@ashgateheritagearts.co.uk

Well yesterday was a bit panicky because Harry (musical Director) had done mp3 files for the choirs and sent to Paul at St Mary’s - The Crooked Spire Choir. Paul had then asked for MIDI files which Harry duly created and sent out. I then sent these last week to the Dronfield Choir and Rob without checking them. One of the sopranos emailed me yesterday saying she was having trouble with the MIDI file for her part.

It turned out that they had the required number of silent bars before their part. This is fine if using in a notation package to view the score. If you try and play it however the ‘wheel of death’ comes on. I think it is the silent bars that cause this problem although I haven’t confirmed that. The mp3’s have now been sent and a deadline of 9th November so hopefully I’ll get some ‘choir files’ for the finale of Stage 2 – Wonderful (the windlass song)

Today Peter and I were debating about microphones. Depending on what the actors record on we need a particular Rode mic ME (or ME L for ‘lightning’ connection)
Kevin -the sound mastering engineer -recommended we get a mic for their singing.

Planning to firstly send one out to Chris Blades for his Robert song – This House Will Keep a Welcome. It will arrive next Wednesday. (£4.95 delivery) Hope that is soon enough.
£29 delivery if we want it there sooner.

Also, paid $125 for our original showcase to have a place in the New Zealand Fringe (online) next February and March today.

Martin Coslett

Yes, these are unique times!

Ferguson's Gang is our project to take on tour the remarkable tale of those five intrepid fund-raisers in the early days of the National Trust.

The Crooked Spire is our project to develop a Fourteenth-century Medieval Murder Mystery Musical set in the aftermath of the Black Death.

Contact us
   productionoffice@ashgateheritagearts.co.uk
for details.