CHRISTMAS AT THE IRIS

Six BML writers will have entries in the Iris Theatre competition of new Christmas songs at St Pauls Church, Covent Garden, on Friday, 6 December. LUKE BATEMAN (working with lyricist Mary Evans) will be represented with 'Christmas Swapping'. KATE INGBER and YUVAL HAVKIN have written 'Christmas at My Mum's House', and RAPHEL SMITH and JOSEPH FINLAY have written 'A Christmas Caution'. S.E. HOOKS is contributing 'Joseph's Lullaby'. We'll look forward to a wonderful evening.

A musical splash!

Team DreamArts will be taking part in the Westminster Big Splash on Sunday 3 November!

Members, staff (including BML writer GRAHAM WHITLOCK) and Trustees will swimming 100 lengths to raise money for DreamArts’ Weekend Company, which will loose all of its £12,500 of funding from Westminster City Council Arts Unit in April next year after the Council decided to axe funding for the arts.    

What we do

DreamArts’ weekend company gives 100 children and young people living in some of the UK’s most severely deprived areas the chance to express themselves, develop their teamwork and communication skills, and learn from top creative professionals.  The majority of members are from families on benefits and have English as a second language.  They live with the West End on their doorstep but it is usually a world away; however, through DreamArts they get to display their achievements every year on a West End stage, and you can see some of the results below.  

How to sponsor!

Every pound will make a difference.  To donate online go to https://www.charitycheckout.co.uk/1070614/donate and you can choose the 5^th option (I would like to make a single donation).  If you are a UK taxpayer also please tick the second to last option (Yes I am a UK taxpayer) and we can claim an extra 25% of Gift Aid on your donation.

'RAVEN BOY' SEEKS FINAL INVESTORS

BML Composer/ Lyricist DARREN CLARK has been developing a new show, 'Raven Boy', about a boy who was raised by the ravens of the Tower of London during the Blitz, for the past three years with Arts Council Funding, and with Jackson's Lane Theatre as a co-producer. There will be a final preview performance next month, and most of the funding is in place for a tour in the spring of 2014. They still need a final £2000 to make this project happen. If you'd be interested in investing, or know someone who would, and want to see a bit more about it and hear some of the music, please look at the website:

http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-boy-tour-preparation

TWENTYFOUR SEVEN

DreamArts' new musical, an adaptation of Shane Meadows' film 'Twentyfour Seven' (Book and lyrics by BML member GRAHAM WHITLOCK, Music by Wayne Roberts) will be presented Tuesday, 3 September through Friday, 6 September, at the CSSD Embassy Theatre. For tickets, go to www.wegottickets.com/DreamArts. DreamArts always does excellent work, so do come along.

New projects for FLEUR MELLOR

BML choreographer FLEUR MELLOR is working on the new production of 'The Crocodile', an opera by Llewelyn A.P. Myrddin, as part of the next Tete a Tete season, to be presented on 15/ 16 August at Riverside Studios. For info, see: http://www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/the-crocodile/

She is also working on the Uhuru Summer Ball Gala (www.awarenessthroughdance.org/gala), which will be Saturday, 31 August, at Rich Mix, to support the dancers who recently climbed Mt. Killimanjaro for charity. All money from the event will go to the charity and to build a new school.

COMMISSION FOR DAVID

DAVID JAMES, Facilitator for the Librettist Workshop, has been commissioned by Joseph Weinberger Ltd to write a new, original jukebox musical, BANDEMONIUM. He plans to get a first draft written over the summer BML break.

David has also just finished dramaturging a workshop of a new musical in development, THE BOGGITS, book by Martin Riley (non-BML member), music and lyrics by FELIX CROSS, for NITRO, that had a rehearsed reading at The Albany in Deptford on 17 July. The cast included ADEY GRUMMET, also from BML.

JULY GIGS

YUVAL HAVKIN will be performing original songs (including some from BML) at a World Music/ Jazz event on Tuesday, 30 July. Entry is a fiver. See:

https://www.facebook.com/events/657845880910932/

DARREN CLARK has a song in a cabaret of new musical theatre writing on Wednesday 31st July. £7 in advance or £7.50 on the door. See:

 

http://www.scenicroutetheatre.co.uk/#/cabaret-submissions/4572506642

 

DARREN will be singing it himself, and JOSEPH FINLAY, also from the BML, will be playing for him. 

 

Emily Rose at the Fringe

EMILY ROSE SIMON (BML Composer) is taking two shows to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer.

On the 27th of July, she'll be trying them out at the Balham Fringe at the Bedford, London, SW12 9HD  ('Confessions of a Rabbi's Daughter, a one woman musical at 16:45, and 'Synagogue Slut' a cabaret show at 22:05); and also doing 'Confessions' on the 28th in York at the York New Musical Festival.

She'll be performing these shows in Edinburgh from 3-24 August, every day except Mondays.

'Confessions' will be at Mood at 13:20, and 'Synagogue Slut' will be at Fingers Piano Bar at 19:50.

Sponsorship from The Garrick Charitable Trust

BML has been awarded a grant from The Garrick Charitable Trust toward paying for the Librettists Workshop for the autumn term. It all starts with strong storytelling, and we're very grateful for their support for this.

LUKE AND MICHAEL GET A NEW GIG

BML team MICHAEL CONLEY (book and lyrics) and LUKE BATEMAN (music) have been commissioned to write the next Christmas show for the Jermyn Street Theatre, 'The Little Beasts (What Happens to Naughty Children)', which will play from 26 November through 19 December, 2013. Luke is also the theatre's resident composer.

'The Grumpiest Boy in the World'

Join Paper Balloon for a rehearsed reading of this hilarious piece of new writing by international award-winning playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, with original songs by DARREN CLARK (BML composer/ lyricist). Join Zachary Briddling, (allegedly the most normal person that there has ever been) on his journey to discover his own unique gifts.

Catch the piece in its final stage of development before full production and premiere this autumn. We'd love to hear your views, whether theatre professionals, parents, children or people who've never seen any theatre before!

Shows 29th June at 2pm and 4.30pm as part of the RADA Festival 2013. Further details and tickets here http://www.rada.ac.uk/whats-on/rada-festival

TimeWave Festival

BML librettist Katherine Hayes is one of the innovators on this project.  You can either stream it or attend.

Timewave Festival 2013 at Innovation warehouse London.Farringdon on the 19th through to 22nd June involving a new digital platform technology - Vidyo.
This technology enables artists to stream acting talent live from Los Angeles to interact with London actors on set in Innovation Warehouse. A co-production between UK LA and New York - Carpe Diesal is a comedy in 4 parts about LA Copywriters creating a campaign to sell jeans and hiring London models to be in their campaign.
Carpe Diesal, a LoNyLa collaboration between Dylan Southard (Los Angeles), David Simpatico (New York) and Katherine Hayes (London)
With Toyin Ayedun-Alase (London), Elizabeth Greer (Los Angeles), Max Lesser(Los Angeles), Jesse Gassongo - Alexander (London), Nick Korsah (London), Katherine Templar (London), and JB Waterman (Los Angeles)

TimeWave Festival 2013 http://timewavefestival.com/events.html

New Commissions for Tamsin

BML Lyricist TAMSIN COLLISON has two commissioned projects in the upcoming Tete a Tete season in August. 'DART'S LOVE' (with composer Kerry Andrew) is Tete a Tete's main commission for the season. 'CAT-ASTROPHE' (with composer John Webb) will be a 'Lite Bite'. Check Tete a Tete's website (http://www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/) for dates and ticket details. Congratulations!

'Amen Corner' group outing

TIM SUTTON (Facilitator) is Musical Director for the National Theatre's production on James Baldwin's 'The Amen Corner', which opens next week.  He arranged for members of all four workshops to attend yesterday's dress rehearsal. Besides being a rich theatrical event, it was a great chance for workshop members to meet and get to know each other.

Tim Sutton Wins Stiles & Drewe Award

Congratulations to BML Facilitator TIM SUTTON who won the Stiles and Drewe 'Best New Song' Prize yesterday at the Garrick Theatre for 'That Once-in-a-Lifetime Feeling'. Also in competition was BML Composer/ Lyricist DARREN CLARK's 'The Only Prince Around', which was sung by Turlough Convery, who went on the win the Stephen Sondheim Society 'Student Performer of the Year' competition at the same event.

Orchestrations from Jen Green

Composer JENNIFER GREEN has done some of the arrangements and orchestrations for 'Friday Night is Music Night: Dambusters 70 Years On', which will be broadcast on BBC radio on Friday, 17 May (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sd1cr). Also, 'Titanic: Minute by Minute', for which she also did arrangements, won a bronze in the 'Best Feature or Documentary' category at the Sony Awards last night. 

'Passport to Pimlico'

GRAHAM WHITLOCK (librettist and lyricist) and ALAN BERLYN have gotten an ACE GfA grant to fund a promenade performance of their new musical 'Passport to Pimlico', through the actual streets of Pimlico on 13 and 14 July. Before that, there will be a showcase at the St. James Cabaret on 21 May.

Grant From the Noel Coward Foundation

We're very grateful for new support from the Noel Coward Foundation, which will partially fund the facilitators for the spring term of the 1st year group. Looking forward to adding their logo and a link to our site!

Nicky Haslam is new BML Patron

Writer, interior designer and cabaret artist NICKY HASLAM as agreed to be a new Patron for BML, joining Broadway veterans Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. His own first CD, 'Midnight Matinee', which also features Cilla Black, Brian Ferry, Bob Geldorf and Helena Bonham Carter, will be released next month. His recognition and support of the importance of what we're doing is deeply gratifying, and we look forward to his involvement with BML.

3 Audition places left

Applications for the new First Year Composer/ Lyricist have been coming in strongly, but we still have 3 places left for the interview/ auditions on Saturday, 9 Mar, so we're extending the closing date for applications until end of day on Monday, 4 Mar. We want the talent pool as broad as possible.

Carl Miller at the RNT

Many congratulations to BML writer Carl Miller, whose adaptation of 'Emil and the Detectives' will be the Christmas family show at the Royal National Theatre's Olivier auditorium next winter.

First year auditions

Interview/ auditions for the 2013 first year composer/ lyricist group will be Saturday, 9 March. Each audition will last around 20 minutes. Exact times and place to be announced.

Session dates for 2013

As stated in the last post, the spring term for the sessions begin on 25 or 26 Mar, depending on the workshop.

To expand, the spring term will run through 15/ 16 July (16 sessions with no session on Easter Monday or Tuesday), and the autumn term runs for 16 sessions from 2/3 Sept through 16/ 17 December.

Spring term start date

Applications are coming in. The spring term will begin Monday, 25 March (2d/3rd year composers and lyricists from 3:30 - 5:30, 1st year composers and lyricists from 6-8) and Tuesday, 26 March (librettists from 6-8).

'Lee Miller' at RADA

‘SIX PICTURES OF LEE MILLER’ by JASON CARR and Ed Kemp (no-BML member) will get its London premiere at RADA, Feb. 7th-16^th, directed by Ed. 

"Muse, model, surrealist and war photographer, Lee Miller witnessed at first hand the best and worst of the twentieth century. Man Ray was her lover, Picasso her friend, she danced with Chaplin and bathed in Hitler’s tub. Her work includes Vogue fashion spreads and the first images of Dachau. But after the war she put away her camera and became a society hostess and cookery writer in Sussex." 

Lee will be played by Jessie Buckley, who played Anne in Trevor's production of A Little Night Music. 

http://www.rada.ac.uk/whats-on/rada-productions?

More bookwriters!

Applications for the  2013 first year composer/ lyricist workshop are coming in strongly, but we need more librettists! Without a strong book, even the strongest, most inspired score is up the creek without a paddle -- or an audience! If you think of anyone who might be interested or who might benefit, please urge them to apply.

New Arts Council Support

We found out yesterday that we've been successful with our latest Arts Council GfA grant application, to add the ongoing musical theatre choreography workshop to our programme -- the first of its kind anywhere in the world - and we intend to have this up and running very soon. It will be run along the same lines as the writing workshops, with various choreographers developing a project assignment in weekly sessions for feedback from the group and from facilitator Andrew Wright.

It's also a further step in our commitment to build a more collaborative community, so that book writers, composers and lyricists and now choreographers can practice working together more interactively to create strong new British musical theatre.

We're gone viral

Thanks to the work of  ED BELL and MICHAEL CONLEY, BML is now on Facebook and Twitter. Please check us out!

http://www.facebook.com/BMLWorkshop

www.twitter.com/BMLWorkshopLDN

BML accepting applications

We are accepting applications for the new first year composer/ lyricist workshop ad the librettist workshop, through 21 February. Check the guidelines for applying elsewhere in the BML site for procedure. It will be great to hear new voices.

'Crazy for You'

BML choreographer GRANT MURPHY created the choreography for 'Crazy for You', currently playing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Get a long if you ca. Grant is also dance captain on 'Shrek'.

Choreography workshop update

An application to ACE has been submitted to fund our planned ongoing musical theatre choreography workshop, and we are actively developing what we hope to accomplish for emerging practitioners i this field. If you know of anyone who might be interested in developing their craft skills in this area, please have them contact David ASAP.

December news

The DreamArts production of 'Battle of the Fairy Tales' (book and lyrics by GRAHAM WHITLOCK, music by Wayne Roberts (non-BML member) had five performances between 13-16 Dec, playing to well over 800 primary school pupils.

TAMSIN COLLISON (BML lyricist) performed with Scott Stroman's jazz-based choir, Eclectic Voices, at St. Paul's Church on 22 Dec.