Fun With Anagrams

We all need play time and the internet provides a wealth of opportunity. I was thinking the other day that if I wanted to be ghost writer and produce works under a false name what would I chose. I started thinking about what I could do if I used an anagram and so started to fool around with anagram makers on the net. Come to think of it, if you are a ghost writer and you use an anagram of your own name, is that OK or do you have to chose a name that people will NEVER recognise you by? Thoughts on a postcard or comment note.

Some possible anagram ghost names include:

JOHN X. D. HAERG (my personal favourite)

EUAN X. DROGH

HUGH E. X. ADORN

HUGO J. N. X READ


Hmmm the X proves difficult.

But why stop there when they can provide me with a list of anagrams for Xander Hough? Here are some highlights...

A HERD HUNG OX

A DUG HEX HORN

DANGER HUH OX

DRAGON EX HUH

DRAG HEX UH NO

HARD EX HUG NO

HAG NERD UH OX

HAH GOD EX URN

HOAX NERD HUG

Widening the search to Xander James Hough brings up some more interesting ones perhaps

A JEHAD SEX HUG MORN

JEHAD MAX GONE RUSH

JEHAD MAX OGRE SHUN

JEHAD SAX GERM UH NO

HOAXED JAG HEM RUNS

HEARD JAM SEX HUG ON

HEARD SAX EN JOG HUM

JADE SHAG EX UH NORM

A JEHAD SEX MUG HORN

SHAMAN JUDGE HER OX

A search for Andrew Lloyd Webber turned up

BAD BEER WORLDLY NEW

BAD BELLY REDREW NOW

BAD NOBLE LEWDER WRY

ABLE BRED DRY NEW OWL

Duchess of Malfi produced....

A DUCHESS FILM OF

A MEDIC HUFF LOSS

A CUED MIFF SLOSH

A CODFISH FLUMES

A DISCO ELM HUFFS

A CLOD HE MUFF SIS

A CHEF DIS OF SLUM

A CHIEF FOLDS SUM

ACIDS MOLES HUFF

CLAD USE OFFS HIM

SCALD FUME OF HIS

FACE MID OF SLUSH

FACE SOLD IF HUMS

FECAL DO FUSS HIM

FECAL SUDS OF HIM

SOLACE DIMS HUFF

SOLACES DUFF HIM

CHAFF SUED LIMOS

FASCISM FOLD HUE

MUSICAL SHED OFF

AD ECHO FILM FUSS

DEAF MUCH FOSSIL

FLASHED SCUM OF I

MAID SCUFFS HOLE


Anagrams are fun!

A History of Theatre Lovin'

On the Whatsonstage.com forum we have recently been sharing our stories about how we got into theatre. I thought I would repost my story and add a little for anyone who might be interested.

There is quite a tradition of theatre attendance and amateur dramatics in my family, particularly on my mother's side. My great aunt, Una was an ellocution teacher and my other great aunt, Joan was a dance teacher. There was a very clear love of theatre from that side of the family. On my dad's side of the family tastes were more for music than theatre. My great uncle, who tragically drowned in the Thames as a lighterman at 21 was a flautist who became a very goodpiccolo player in London, performing in local pubs. I can't help but think there is some genetic link or fate at work now that has led me to specialise in the flute family and play the piccolo as well. (When my Grandfather, a keen supporter of my musical efforts, died I bought my current piccolo, one of the most advanced and expensive piccolos around - a handmade August Hammig model to honour his memory. I'm sure he would have liked that.)

Several key family members on my mother's side studied Drama at university in Manchester, became jobbing actors for a while before moving into more corporate circles. From an early age my family believed in taking me to live performances and like many other people I guess, this included a pantomime. My aunt tells a story of when I went to a pantomime and sat on her lap completely enthralled by Jack & the Beanstalk while my sister and cousin reassured each other than they weren't scared of the giant. I don't remember those first experiences of course, but I do remember going to see pantomimes at the Darlington Civic Theatre each year when I was between 8 and 13 years old with a local church group (my parents were very into the church community in Teesdale where we lived). While I've moved away from the North East and pantomimes, I still look back at those experiences as giving me a love for performing arts.

Ballet was a particular love in my family as well as orchestral music, so I was taken to lots of ballets by my grandmother particularly the Birmingham Royal Ballet tours which went to Newcastle Theatre Royal and the Sunderland Empire. I always thought those productions had real class and great production values. It was so great to see a full orchestra as well and I am sure seeing those works developed my love for classical - or rather Romantic music and instilled some of my most favourite scores such as Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and Romeo & Juliet by Prokofiev. Again these are experiences I really look back on with fondness. The North East really was an excellent opportunity to see the arts. My mum and dad often took my sister and I to performances by the Northern Sinfonia and this too gave me a love of live performance.

The only education I didn't get in equal measure as an audience member was in drama during those formative years and maybe this is why I've moved to musical theatre. There was (is) a great amateur group in Barnard Castle where we lived called the Castle Players - not least because they do open air performances of Shakespeare in the grounds of the Castle and Bowes Museum. There were also school plays, going to see my sister in a local group of players and visits to see the RSC touring with plays in venues as strange as the Spennymoor Leisure Centre. Can you imagine the Royal Shakespeare Company performing in a massive sports hall? Well it work with massive amount of set dressing and a full integrated seating bank and specially constructed stage!!

I first got into musical theatre (although I didn't know it at the time) when my Dad bought a copy of the original concept recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. I remember quite vividly my Dad explaining what a rock-opera was, even though my Dad was not particularly musical and had no training. My parents often talked of the musicals they had seen in what I think was the late 60s such as the original productions of Evita and Godspell.

My real love of musicals started to develop when my sister got a CD of JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT for her birthday or Christmas. I really loved it and this inspired me to seek out loads of other musicals, particularly those by Andrew Lloyd Webber. When we could, my family would go and see shows when they toured to the North East. Throughout secondary school I became involved in the annual musicals and my growing interest in music fed into my love of musical theatre. I'd begun learning the flute, sang in the school choir and played in the school wind band and orchestras which were really booming at the time.

When I was 11 I saw my first West End musical which was The Phantom of the Opera. Even though we were sat in the Balcony and couldn't see much, it still had a very powerful effect on me. I actually mumbled under my breath during the title song sequence "I want to make this happen. I want to be a part of it" or something to that effect. The irony was out of the two shows on that trip I went to see, I enjoyed Phantom more despite not really wanting to see it at the time!! From that moment on I became really into musicals although my interest was firmly balanced between enjoyment as an audience member and someone who understood the behind-the-scenes action. My interest developed from just enjoying cast recordings to reading everything about a show and how it was produced.

It was strange but when I got into 6th Form things went very quiet. All throughout school I had been praised for my compositions, even winning a local tournament for songs from DRACULA. I had a lot of interest from composers, producers and amateur theatre groups about my work. At the time Sibeliusmusic.com had just begun and so suddenly original music was exploding onto the web- this was before MySpace and having your own website was something that was really cool rather than something anyone could do as it is now. It was also a great step because for the first time, you could post playable sheet music - you didn't need demo tracks to display your work as an instrumental composer.

Anyway, after this initial interest things when quiet. It was probably my own fault that I didn't push ahead, but then I wasn't receiving any encouragement. The music department at school had completely changed with the addition of my new A-level teacher Mr. Ferrari. He was one of those teacher who was very enthusiastic, but only enthusiastic about the things he wanted to be enthusiastic about. He didn't consider Musical Theatre a real music genre and knew nothing about it. He really loved jazz and when the only other girl in the class and her brother were so into jazz, he focused solely on them. The school orchestra and wind band were shut down in favour of jazz groups which headlined these two star pupils.

Struggling under the weight of taking 6 subjects at A-level (most people do 3) and being pretty upset about the changes in the music department, I have to say I lost energy and focus which resulted in Mr. Ferrari seeing me as a bit of a hopeless option. He routinely down graded my work and when I pushed him to push me to get things right, he accepted second best (taking a B instead of the A for which I was capable) and cost me a place at Cambridge University just because he couldn't be bothered to give me the guidance I needed. Things worked out on that front so I'm not too bitter, but I think it truly knocked my confidence - probably the worst thing a teacher can ever do.

Thinking back he really was an apalling teacher and did nothing to inspire either of us in the class. He pushed Amy my class mate to attend his second rate university to study music like he had when really what she wanted to do was a performance based qualification at a music college. Taking his advice cost her a year of her life as she bailed out of the university and reapplied toa music college. He would also try and broaden our horizons by ramming his musical tastes down our throat. He would routinely take us in his car to Leeds to see dress rehearsals of operas. Sounds a nice thing to do, but these operas were some of the most inaccessible works. If I wanted to get someone into opera I would take them to something by Puccini or Mozart, but he decided that Gloriana by Britten would be much more inspiring. It wasn't and those 3 hour boring experiences made me hate opera for many years. It is only recently I have forced myself to go down the proper route of going to more popular works to get into the genre. Even so these experience did help me to appreciate live performance in some ways and kept the love of theatre and those aspirations alive somewhat. Maybe in hating that time of my life (musically) made me more determined to porsue my dreams and not what he thought I should.

When I went to university so close to the West End I really expanded my knowledge. With student discount and student loans I was pretty much able to boast that I had seen every musical on the West End at least once. During university I also produced a lot of musical theatre with the campus musical theatre society and this really fed my interest in the non-creative side of the industry, even though I heavily participated in the artistic side as well having composed and arranged music from my secondary school days. We did Jesus Christ Superstar, Elegies for Angels, Punks & Raging Queens and in my last year, West Side Story. All provided experiences which made me want to pull my hair out but in the end I was very proud of what the group and I had achieved. Working on a 1940's jazz setting of A Midsummer Night's Dream really got me into swing and jazz music and I eventually proved you don't have to be a music student to musically direct (rather like trying to tell people the world wasn't flat for the first time I imagine)!! It became aparent then that if I wanted to advance my work as an MD or in any other fashion musically I would have to learn to play the piano so that's not firmly on my list of things to do.

When I graduated from Royal Holloway, I was determined to porsue a career in theatre and so got my present job at a theatre in Essex after a 6 month spell working for a failing insurance firm. Maybe it sounds sad, but every day I would listen to cast recordings on my Mp3 player as a way of 'keeping the dream alive'. Coming close to some low level jobs or being point blank rejected having not accumulated experience made me feel a bit rubbish and I needed a reminder that (hopefully) it wasn't permanent.

I now hope to move into producing while keeping up my extra-curricular interest in playing and writing music and producing.... so that's my story and I make no apology that Andrew Lloyd Webber is basically the reason I got into musical theatre (my tastes have become more broad since then but I still think his shows kick ass).

A Friday Funny

I love this joke that I read in some trashy magazine this week...

A man goes to the theatre to see a play. During the play, two middle aged ladies on the row in front of him start chatting rather loudly. After about 10 minutes the man thinks he simply has to complain because they are so disruptive and so taps one of the women on the shoulder and says "I'm sorry but I can't hear a thing".

The woman scowls at him and replies, "I should think not. This is a private conversation!"

Genuis.

I hate rude audience behaviour.

The Duchess of Malfi

Announcing my new project

The Duchess of Malfi

A New Musical Based on John Webster's Masterpiece

In fact, this has been in the pipeline for quite some time but I thought as I hadn't written much on my blog for a while that I would make it official. I first came into contact with the original source material while I was studying A-Level English Literature alongside Marlowe's Dr Faustus and almost instantly fell in love with it, partly due to our wonderful teacher Cassie Flint (who is also an accomplished poet who I've also talked about on here).

THE STORY

The Duchess of Malfi is the story of how two brothers consumed by lust, jealousy and corruption plot to destroy their sister, the Duchess, by punishing her for marrying in secret below her station. The Duchess, hounded by her siblings who wield serious political and social power, has to choose between her role as a ruler and as a wife and mother. She chooses to honour the commitment she made to her kingdom and her brothers capture her. They eventually execute her but her death, results in a shockwave that echoes through the kingdom that threatens to destroy everyone.

THE THEMES

The thing that really inspires me about writing a musical adaptation of the play is that I think quite a few of the issues and themes speak to me and more importantly, speak to other people today. As a writer I found out through doing DRACULA that I am primarily concerned with exploring human endeavours - that is the length to which people will go for each other. The Duchess of Malfi is a little more complex than that; there are several examples of the original premise, but also the premise in reverse. The Duchess goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her family and her children from harm, but at the same time she is willing to die as a ruler. Conversely, the brothers are hell-bent on making her suffer and making her pay. In the same way that the Duchess endeavours to protect her family, the brothers attempt to harm her. I find this duality of conflicting purposes really quite fascinating. Perhaps the most important question that the play raises is "Who am I?" which the Duchess continually asks of her executioners. It is a question which is obviously important to us all but in the play, the Duchess searches for her position in the greater scheme of things, not least because there are fatal conflicts in her various roles. Is she a lover? Is she a mother? Is she a ruler? Does she follow her heart? Does she follow her destiny? Does she renounce her position? Does she stand her ground? I think a lot of people feel like that these days, particularly women who struggle with finding their sense of self when trying to balance a career and a home life as well as all the expectations that various people place on them. I hope to explore these conflicts in my musical adaptation and Who Am I is going to be the title of a song that is so kick ass it is not true! It may or may not close Act I. I haven't decided.

REASONS FOR CHOSING THE DUCHESS OF MALFI

There are several reasons why I chose this source for a musical.

1. It's hopelessly dramatic- even more so than Shakespeare's works. Webster combines a lot of dramatic techniques and the play includes everything from screaming matches to swordfights, seduction to murder, private meetings, spying... you name it - this play has it. Naturally it lends itself to the musical theatre idiom with these traits.

2. The Duchess of Malfi (the play) was originally based on a true story. That makes it all the more powerful and frightening.

3. It has never been done before. Having braved the perils of open source once before and chosen something that has been done to death I am pleased to find something that is so good, but has never been attempted as a musical or indeed a film. Having said that, I fully expect someone to announce plans for a film and a musical in the near future the scuppering my plans well and truly yet again!

4. It doesn't hold the same "can't touch this" aura that Shakespeare seems to have. Not that I'd want to adapt a Shakespeare play, but those who have, invariably fail (unless we're taking West Side Story which I think is an exception rather than a rule). I put this down to people thinking that you just cannot musicalise Shakespeare because it is too good already and the stories are ingrained so much in public consciousness.

5. Critics over the years have pointed out a few flaws in the plot of the original play and some inconsistencies. When writing a musical you always want to bring something new to the original source material. Whereas with Dracula, my aim was to provide a faithful adaptation, with the Duchess of Malfi there is an opportunity to tighten up the book to eliminate these problems of the original play and to bring the relevant issues forward. I also have some great ideas for linking some of the narrative strands back into the main plot. There are several scenes which serve as light relief in the original play which could also provide fleshing to the main story arc.

6. One of the things I love to see in any dramatic work is real character development. The Duchess shows amazing character development. It depends on your treatment, but the historical context would seem to indicate that the Duchess (who is a widow at the start of the play) married very young - possibly around 15 years old, and having had a loving relationship with her husband who dies, was probably still relatively young when she came to power. Although some directors have staged the play with the Duchess as an almost middle-aged woman, I see the Duchess as approximately 22 years old - not much more than a child. This adds to the immense pressure she is placed under by her older brothers who are hungry for her power and in some cases, much more. By the time the Duchess is executed she has learned (the hard way) what it really means to be a ruler, a mother and a woman. To reach this pinnacle shows a stunning developmental arc which should provide a thrilling theatrical experience, a real sense of tragedy and of course a challenge for the eponymous heroine.

7. The musical can be small in scale. The play has 5 or 6 main characters and a few additional ones. It could easily be expanded for a company that wanted a larger ensemble but my main goal for this show is to make it easy to produce in the hope that someone will take a chance with it. We have a possible production lined up in 2008 with CurtainRaiser in Valetta, Malta (what a brilliant setting for the show!!). The play has also been praised for creating a claustrophobic atmosphere because most of the action takes place either in the public court or private rooms. It doesn't particularly rely on the location to provide a dramatic context, although this is something I really want to add.

MUSIC & ORCHESTRATIONS

I'm planning for the sound of the music to be a little more pop-based than DRACULA; easy on the ears, relying on the orchestrations to blend the music into the action and of course, closely linked to the dramatic quality. I am also going to be including references to the dance forms and traditions of the period to add flavour and the various locations which include a chapel and crypt will provide an opportunity for some impressive choral writing (although don't expect it to be modal!).

The Duchess of Malfi is set in the principality of Amalfi (a beautiful coastal region in Italy) in the 1600s but I am not too concerned with creating a historically accurate work when it comes to the orchestrations. In the preliminary sketches I have made I am most importantly looking at a small band size of about 8 and the textural landscape will be heavily dominated by plucked string instruments (harp, acoustic guitar, mandolin although most likely synthesised) along with strings and some brass. A flavour of the period will be achieved with recorders and the location of coastal Italy will engendered with lots of percussion (ocean drum anyone?) and a marimba and a xylophone (again synthesised). An electric violin or cello is screaming at me, but I have no idea why! I could run with that and see what happens. Instinct on these kinds of things is fascinating.

LYRICS & BOOK

I'm planning for the show to be a book musical but with more sung dialogue (for some reason I don't like to use the word recitative for musical theatre) than my previous work.

I am hoping that Margaret Pritchard (co-author of DRACULA) will come on board to do the show again because she underplays things well and finds unique angles for songs that could be terribly cliché in other hands, but this may take a lot of persuasion and/or large quantities of chocolate and alcohol. I may also have to obliterate an entire class of school children (but their suffering would be worth it). There are other people I have in mind to approach if that doesn't work out.

PROGRESS SO FAR

I have a work in progress synopsis and have written the music for 5 songs as well as some other sketches. Expect some great melodies.

INSPIRATION

The leading role, vocally is being written with two actresses as muses. Namely my all time favourite West End leading lady Julie Alanah Brighten who was amazing as Florinda in La Cava among other things. Julie Alanah played a young heroine in that show and can really embody a woman in emotional torment and can act the entire spectrum from frightened innocent child to evil, bitchy seductress. The Duchess of Malfi needs to be able to convey all these elements. Her bell-like voice has always been an inspiration to my writing, but more so for this project. She'd be my first call if I was involved in casting a West End production.

The other actress I keep in mind when writing the music for this show is Shoshana Bean (pictured left). I am crazy about her talent at the moment (have I talked about her enough on here yet?). WICKED veteran as Elphaba, this woman has an amazing vocal range and great belt. Although her acting is not as strong as Julie Alanah Brighten's, the power and conviction behind her voice has earned her quite a fan following. I want The Duchess of Malfi to be a real tour de force and to really showcase the actress playing the Duchess, so when writing the music I try to think about providing a vehicle for someone who has a voice like Shoshana Bean and what an audience would love to hear her sing.

EXCITED?

You bet.