Q-NEWS.

Q NEW S.
NEW S IN BRIEF
The school musical is one of those occasions when all ages in the senior school
come together, in various guises, and put on a show.
The first performance of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
showed how important it is for this mix of talent to work as a team in order to
produce a cohesive result. The second performance was a triumph of such
teamwork.
In opera, the recitative is as important, if not more important, than the arias as
it tells the story and links the main tunes together. In Joseph, that is the role of
the narrators and Cara Murray, with Bethan McKeating, certainly carried out
that role perfectly, often having some very tricky phrases to sing.
Joseph, played by Theo Roberts, provided another linchpin around which the
rest of the cast could work. His voice is still developing and we were privy to
some of its potential in the many styles that he had to sing in the role. His
performance on Friday was confident and assured.
The remaining senior members of the cast provided a good example of how
to project your voice without relying totally on any amplification by microphone
technology, which is something that many young performers have grown up
with and then tend to rely on. Microphones can only do so much and the need
to ‘perform to the back of the hall’ still applies today in much the same way as
it did before amplification. Once performers become aware of this the technical
wizards can work their magic.
The technical support for the show was excellent. I took the opportunity to
spend some time watching them in action. The confidence, technical
knowledge, and manual dexterity of those pupils involved was an education in
itself. Observant members of the audience will have noticed the synchronised
light and sound reflecting the mood, and at times even the words, of the musical.
The music is, of course, very familiar and that can often make life doubly difficult
for the musicians, as everyone can spot a mistake! In this performance they
would have been struggling to find them. The band were very secure in their
playing and were another vital piece in this jigsaw, supporting the singers and
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was the first show I co-directed with
Jim Grogan and Margaret Adams in 1985. Previously I had been involved with costume
and set design but was happy to join the team. Since then I have done thirty musicals,
from The Mikado to Les Miserables. I am always amazed by the talent of the cast in a
wide variety of styles and genres.
Some have gone on to work in the professional theatre:
· Gavin Makinson (Gavin James, his professional name), was in Les
Miserables for three years and is due to open with Bryn Terfel and Emma
Thompson at the English National Opera in Sweeney Todd. He would have
come to the show if he had been free!
· Jonathan Slinger was in Pirates of Penzance and Half a Sixpence when at
school. Since then he has played Nelson in BBC 2's dramatisation and was with
the RSC as Hamlet and Macbeth previously.
· Tim Sutton is currently on the Shaftesbury stage playing the
piano for Beverely Knight as the Musical Director of
Memphis.
· Matt Wilson from the 1992 Joseph has been in Mr Selfridge
and the new series Poldark.
· TV newsreader, Krishnan Guru­Murthy and his sister Geeta
both played leads in Brigadoon, South Pacific, Grease
and Joseph.
Check out all these stories
and more by going to
www.qegsblackburn.com
I have worked with many musical directors over the years, most notably Geoff Hill; we
did fifteen shows together.
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