R&D Project in Manchester - Day 2

David here writing on Day 2 of our R&D project at Z-arts in Manchester which saw us heading to St John’s C of E school to work with their year 3 classes. It was really lovely to be able to share with them the songs and ideas that we had put together the previous day. There’s no better way than to see if something works than to perform it in front of a group of discerning children!

Luckily they loved the songs and concepts and dramaturg Renata Allen even got some of the children to block out the roles, with the other children singing their hearts out.

In the afternoon we returned to Z-arts and their beautiful grand piano and set about refining and reworking the material we had so far. Perhaps the most useful thing was having the time to discuss the structure of the piece and how the relationships of the characters fitted within that. By around four o’clock, everyone was feeling shattered, so we took a short break, and then headed back into the rehearsal room with the intention of just reviewing what we’d done so far. And then, quite unexpectedly, we ended up creating a song and a moment which felt like the very heart of the piece. It was almost like lifting up a rock and finding something wonderful and completely unexpected underneath!

We all parted at the end of the day feeling elated and excited about what we had achieved, and looking forward to seeing where this creative journey would take us the next day.