Aria Entertainment has today announced the full programme of work for the annual season. Nine shows have been announced as part of the third From Page To Stage season of new musicals. Readings include a new musical by Loserville writing duo Elliot Davies and James Bourne and also a new piece from Tim Sanders and Charles Miller, whose Return Of The Soldier received a full production last year at Jermyn Street Theatre after a reading in the season.
The Stationmaster, a brand new British musical with Music and Lyrics by Tim Connor and Book by Susannah Pearse, is to get a two-week run as part of the third annual From Page To Stage season, a season of new musical theatre at the Tristan Bates Theatre from Monday 26 October to Saturday 21 November.
Producer Katy Lipson of Aria Entertainment said: “We are delighted to confirm this year’s chosen work of 1 full scale musical, 3 readings and 4 showcases amongst others. The 2015 season has been selected from an open application process which saw 80 musicals submitted and presents a mixed programme of work at various stages of development. From Page To Stage serves as a platform for new writing with a focus on new British musicals and supports not only the writers, but our audiences too. We hope the season will continue to act as a strong vehicle for the development of new musicals here in the UK and help secure partners for the future of some of the works included.”
She added: “The Stationmaster is a wonderfully, dark, chamber piece with an interesting book to explore in the form of a musical. The musical language is unique and has a blend of tuneful melody and interesting harmony. The story of the piece instantly grabbed my attention when we were reading through our submissions, and I feel it is a great example of what a British writing team has to offer. I think it will represent the From Page To Stage brand well as our headline musical this year.”
Producer Kim Sheard joins the team this year as Associate Producer.
For more details about the full season of work visit:
www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk
@frompage2stage
FROM PAGE TO STAGE – LISTINGS
THE STATIONMASTER
Tuesday 3rd – Sunday 15th November
Tuesday – Friday at 7.30pm, Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Sunday at 2.30pm
Tickets – £18.00 / £16.00
The Stationmaster is a brand new British musical with Music and Lyrics by Tim Connor and Book by Susannah Pearse. Inspired by Horvath’s Judgment Day, translated by Christopher Hampton
It’s 1958 and we’re in the town of Kirby in the Lake District. Railway stationmaster Thomas Price is the pillar of the local community. Until a young woman arrives on the platform and distracts him from his duties. Thomas forgets to set a crucial signal and a tragic train crash occurs. The guilty pair decide to cover up their mistake. But as ghosts start to appear to them in the town, things begin to unravel…
Three musicals will be presented in the form of fully-staged, rehearsed readings
OUT THERE
Tuesday 27 to Thursday 29 October at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical from Elliot Davis and James Bourne, the writing team that brought you Loserville. Newman Carter, a world famous astronaut, mysteriously disappears in 1969. Forty years later, a troubled young man, turns up on his doorstep with a letter, which changes everything, for everyone… Out There is an original tale about fathers, grandfathers, families, love, loss, hope, learning to be a child, learning to be a parent and never, ever, giving up on your dreams. This show gives cast and audience alike the chance to go where no one has gone before, on the journey of a lifetime. The show is set in the deep south of the USA and follows the fortunes of runaway Logan Carter, how he saves the town of Hope, Texas, and rediscovers his family at the same time.
FIVE CHILDREN & IT
Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical with Book by Helen Watts, Music and Lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer.
Based on the original story by E. Nesbit. When exploring the land around their new country house, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and ‘The Lamb’ come across a rare and extremely grumpy Psammead. This magical ‘sand-fairy’ is able to grant any wish the children ask for, with the rule that at sunset their wish will turn to stone or disappear. The children are initially excited at having their wildest dreams come true but soon discover that making these wishes isn’t quite as easy as they thought. A summer of mayhem ensues, and the children find that they must pay the price and grant the Psammead a wish of his own…
PRINCESS PHYLLIDA’S FORTNIGHT
Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 November at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical with Book and Lyrics by Tim Sanders and Music by Charles Miller. Everyone thinks Phyllida lives inside a fairytale…except Phyllida. The pampered Bavarian princess is planning to escape the turrets and tiaras for a more simple life. Spurning a distinctly handsome prince, Phyllida absconds with her long-suffering tutor, Fritzing, under the name of Ethel Shultz. But the unlikely exiles settle in a God-fearing Somerset village, where the locals are ill-prepared for a German princess who can’t help acting like one! As Phyllida wreaks havoc, a certain jilted prince catches up with her. The runaway princess must now make a choice… Princess Phyllida’s Fortnight is a quirky delight – a ripping yarn of derring-do, heady romance and Latin grammar!
The season will open with a one-off performance and is completed by a set of showcase evenings that will present four pieces in development in one performance
MAP OF THE PAST
Monday 25 October at 7.30pm
Tickets: £16.00
Music and Lyrics by John Mitchell & John Beck, Book by Guy James.
Map of the Past tells the story of a small boy that finds a box of photographs in his grandparents’ loft. As he searches through the faded, sepia pictures he yearns to know more about the people and the stories behind the photographs. Based on the classic rock album by It Bites, Map Of The Past is a sung-through musical that promises a journey through love, loss and truth’s perhaps best left in the past…
FROM PAGE TO STAGE SHOWCASES
Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November at 7.30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm
Tickets: £15.00
These showcases will present 25-minute excerpts of four new musicals in development, performed by a repertory company of actors. Shows included are:
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
By Kirby and Beverly Ward
Based on the story by Oscar Wilde
With only a fortnight remaining before he is to wed his beloved Sybil, Lord Arthur Savile attends a party where a palm reader foretells a horrifying event in his future: he will commit murder. A stunned Arthur realizes a happy marriage is now impossible. Frightening mishaps the following morning make it clear that Arthur may, in fact, murder his darling Sybil if he doesn’t act quickly. With the help of his trusted manservant, Saunders, Arthur embarks upon the only conscientious course of action a devoted fiancé would take – to kill someone right away.
Cousins Grimm
By Michael Biello, Dan Martin, and Ted Sod
Jackie and Leon, The Cousins Grimm, are adapting some of their ancestors’ lesser known stories into a musical adding a queer sensibility to them. Their contemporary twists on the stories represent their combined subconscious and reflect their own personal lives. When the characters they are inventing decide they are not happy with the direction the musical is taking, they express themselves to the authors. Leon is disturbed by this phenomenon, but Jackie encourages Leon to accept it and go forward. Then Jacob Grimm appears to advise the writing team, when something very odd happens…
This is Also England
By Joseph Finlay and Raphael Smith
1957, West London. In a deeply conformist post-war society, immigrants from the West Indies, Eastern Europe, and Ireland struggle to fit in. Lloyd George Gambles, recently arrived from Antigua, urges his family to assimilate into all things English, but his younger daughter Miriam has other ideas. In the run down, overcrowded house they live in she meets Lazar, a reclusive and eccentric Hungarian Jew, who tries to hide away from the world. With Lazar’s help, Miriam confronts her father and their corrupt landlord, and in doing so learns that if you want a home you have to make it yourself.
Just a Man
By Johnny Whetstone, Mick Bass, and Guy James
The true-life story of Walter Tull, the first mixed-race British footballer in the top English division and the first mixed-race combat officer in the British Army. Battling racial discrimination that threatens to stop his career and chooses to play the ‘greater game’ when he joins the army at the outbreak of World War 1, rising to Second
Lieutenant, despite Military Law excluding ‘Mulattos’ from exercising command as officers.