FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY

This October I'll be returning to Falmouth University to teach repertoire with the Musical Theatre students on the three-year BA(Hons) course. Alongside Naomi Schulke, we’ll be working on helping them find their individuality through the material and also cementing their song choices, so that they can be used for both industry auditions and public performances.

Having a solid repertoire of rehearsed material is vital in today's industry, as auditions can often be at very short notice. So, if an actor's song selections include a variety of styles from various decades, a lot of the pressure is taken out of those first-round auditions.

It was wonderful to be invited by Lewis Butler to teach at the University as a Visiting Tutor when I first moved down to Cornwall in 2024, and so returning to Falmouth for the 2025 autumn term will be an exciting addition to an already very busy year.

A MODEL GIRL

Back in 2007, I had the great pleasure of being the Musical Director and Orchestrator for A Model Girl at Greenwich Theatre. Written by Richard Alexander and Marek Rymaszewski, this musical had a five-year journey to the stage, beginning as a staged concert and undergoing numerous rewrites, before it finally opened with Emma Williams playing the lead part of Christine Keeler.

A Model Girl was based on the famous Profumo scandal from the 1960s and explored the events through the eyes of Christine Keeler, John Profumo, and Stephen Ward. One of the challenges of the musical was recreating the 1960s pop style in the new songs without them sounding pastiche, but the amazing cast and band that we had achieved this perfectly.

I wasn’t originally booked to be the orchestrator on the show, only the Musical Director, but a late availability clash for the original orchestrator meant that I was also asked to take on that additional role as well. We were still in rehearsals and were just two weeks away from opening night when I started orchestrating the score, so it was very tight to get everything finished… but we managed it.

Working on a new musical, with the rewrites and constant changes, is always exciting, and it was made even better thanks to the incredible creative team that were assembled. The four-week run was from Tuesday 30th January to Saturday 24th February, and stepping into the world of Christine Keeler really was the perfect way to start 2007.

The cast was made up of Emma Williams (Christine Keeler), James Clyde (Stephen Ward), Dale Rapley (Jack Profumo), Lorraine Bruce (Maureen) along with Jenii Hicks, Victoria Kruger, Lee Reynolds, Laura Selwood, Mark Oxtoby, Stuart Nurse, David Ricardo-Pearce, and Graham Bryan.

The creative team was Ruth Carney (Director), Paul Wills (Designer), Nichola Treherne (Choreographer), Oliver Fenwick (Lighting Director), Nick Lidster & Terry Jardine (Sound Design), Kay Magson (Casting Director), Stephen Brooker (Musical Supervisor), Steve Hill (Musical Director), Stephen McCarthy (Music Preparation) and Sylvia Addison (Orchestral Management).

CALLYWITH COLLEGE

This September I'll be teaching my first sessions at Callywith College with the acting students on the Performing & Production Arts course. The course is designed to prepare students for progression to degree-level study or entry into the performing arts industry.

While the core focus of the course is acting, I'll be running a Musical Theatre session with the students and then following this up with additional sessions for those wanting to specifically apply to Musical Theatre colleges.

Choosing audition material is one of the hardest decisions a student has to make, and so guiding them based on my ten years of taking auditions at Laine Theatre Arts will give them an added level of confidence. I'm looking forward to helping the students with the next part of their journey to becoming professional performers, and also beginning my relationship with Callywith College.