IN ASSOCIATION WITH Salisbury Cathedral School From page to stage: T e making of a musical Canford School premiered a new musical last November, entirely written, directed and produced by
director of music Christopher Sparkhall and classics master Maurice Walters. ‘Stunning’ and ‘worthy of the West End’ were just some of the tributes received from the audiences. T is is their story…
O
N A miserably wet November afternoon in 2009 I sat down to a late lunch with Christopher Sparkhall, who was at that time working with me on Canford’s production of Jekyll and Hyde. We had spent our idle moments entertaining each
other by variously rewriting, rescoring and reinventing portions of that work and it was after a particularly productive bout of such activity that we broached the possibility of penning our own show. By the end of the meal, the concept of Ebenezer was born. Many believe that musical theatre is written as a three-stage process
– plot, dialogue, music – but the reality is that, for a successful show, all the elements must evolve together at the same time. Work on the story finished in January 2010 and much of that following term went into filling out the characters and positioning the dialogue, while at the same time developing the musical score. By Easter the draft manuscript was complete. This is always a
depressing time as it is the point at which the author is forced to acknowledge the obvious shortcomings in their own work! Grafting the prologue on to the existing story was probably the most difficult creative challenge I have ever faced, but by the time September came we had our complete libretto. The process of orchestrating any show is unpleasant. My poor
wife endured night after night of silent vigil as I sat, parenthesised by headphones, desperately trying to translate emotion into sound. Writing a song is only half the battle: there is a world of difference between a simple piano accompaniment and the capabilities of an ensemble 20-strong. It took a full year to complete the orchestrations.
Set design and lighting came next. The biggest problem with Ebenezer
was always going to be the sheer number of locations required to tell the story appropriately and we were fortunate to have an excellent team to blend the static set elements with the high definition projection required. All we needed now was a cast. Auditions are always both competitive
and contentious and the process in a large busy boarding school is always doubly complex with the need to find times which are convenient for staff and pupils. Ensuring each talented actor or actress is given a suitable role can be nightmarish – not to say sometimes impossible. Expect to agonise long into the night. Just before the half-term holiday we attempted a ‘stagger run’, which
was an enormously positive experience and highly recommended with just weeks to go until the opening night. Then there was the seemingly impossible task of clothing the 60-strong cast, most of whom required at least three different outfits. A single rogue shoe or bonnet can spoil an entire scene! In among this mad melée of frenetic activity, rehearsals continued;
dance moves were perfected; and every note was pushed securely into place. Two full company run-throughs with the band preceded an enormously complicated technical rehearsal on the completed set during which the crew brought together mechanised scenery, projection, sound and lighting with a full cast on stage. There is almost no margin for error at this late stage. Then, on November 30, Ebenezer was put to its final test as the audience arrived for its world premiere.
Maurice Walters, director of Ebenezer and classics master
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WILTSHIRE LIFE Schools Supplement March 2012
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