R&D Project in Manchester - Day 1

Creative Director David Gibb shares his thoughts on the beginning of our R&D project, to explore adapting ‘Luna Loves Library Day’ by Joseph Coelho and Fiona Lumbers into a musical stage show.

So today we embarked on day 1 of a 2 week R&D project to explore adapting ‘Luna Loves Library Day’. We’ve partnered with some brilliant organisations including Z-arts, Big Imaginations, Wonder arts and The Story Museum.

Day 1 saw myself, Joseph Coehlo (author of the book), and dramaturg Renata Allen heading to St Chrysostom’s School to run some workshops with their year 1s. Joseph shared the book with the pupils, and then I played some of the snippets of songs he had been working on. We were all really impressed with the ideas of feedback the students had to offer.

Then, in the afternoon, we headed back to Z-arts where we started to further develop the ideas and thoughts that had emerged in the morning. At the end of the day, we had a clear structure for the piece, not to mention three songs written and ready to go. A very productive first day and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has in store!