Working with Chichester University students @ The Nest

Time Productions were delighted to be invited to Chichester Festival Theatre’s studio space, The Nest, to work with University of Chichester music theatre students. Particular thanks to Meredith Braun, Senior Lecturer and creator of the new MA in Musical Theatre at Chichester. A text and song table-read of Time-bomb followed by a showing and Q&A provided valuable insights and prompted vigorous discussion of the highly topical themes in the show.

Working with new material

We worked with a script that was much developed over the summer, following London and BEAM, so this was the first time we’d heard it through. We’d written new material which developed the main characters of Maria and Jason. There are new scenes in which all characters appear, to give an opportunity for debate and full-cast singing. And there’s was a new song, “The Economic Impact”. We heard this at The Nest for the very first time (scroll down to watch it performed 👇).

A First for the MA in Musical Theatre

This was the first time Meredith Braun, course leader of the new MA in Musical Theatre, had brought an outside company to work with MA students on new writing.

Shaping the work-in-progress

The Chichester students worked hard on a full read-through of the script and some elements of the score in professional conditions in excellent new studio space at The Nest. They enjoyed the experience of working on work-in-progress, a live piece of work in the making, on which they were able to make an impact.

As a result of the day’s work the new group scenes are located in a pub. The dialogue is shorter and sharper; some new characters who had appeared in the summer were quietly killed off; a new song “Whose Law Is it” emerged from the Chichester discussions.

Free Maria?

The breadth and depth of the responses matched those of the NYMT cohort we worked with in April, however, the verdict at the end was different. All the previous group had decided, some with regret, to convict Maria. The Chichester students were unanimous in deciding that her message about the climate emergency was much more important than the disruption she caused.

Engagement Sessions

Time-bomb writer, Ian Grant, commented:

“This type of engagement works very well both for the students involved and for Time Productions. It enables me as the writer to hear the thoughts and language of Gen Z. The script is in a continuous process of refinement and is propelled by the engagement of students, for which we’re very grateful.”