My 10 minute musical experience by Matthew Apsitis

It all started when I heard Angharad being interviewed on Radio Wales. I wanted to do something interactive musically so I gave her a ring.

To be truthful I’ve never really explored musicals or considered them as a vehicle for what I write. One of the first exercises we did was to take a random object and try to portray what noise it would make. This, as a songwriter/composer I found interesting because I’m always exploring new ways of creating. Next we asked a series of questions about an imaginary character in order to ‘ flesh them out ‘. We were encouraged to employ a ‘ stream of consciousness ‘ approach, i.e. write down everything that came to mind and ‘ weed out ‘ the bits that didn’t work.

I was teamed up with writer Ciaran Fitzgerald. With a little guidance we started to form a story. In the last week we were allocated actors and were given advice by screen writer Peter Cox. This was an unknown environment for me. I found the actors very helpful and down to earth. They seemed to know, from experience what would work live. The hour we had with Peter was invaluable.

Come the performance, the emphasis was on the creative process as opposed to giving a polished performance. It seemed to go well for everyone. It was lovely to be part of a friendly team where there were no ego’s! I look forward to continuing work with Ciaran and Leeway Productions.

CY
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