The past 6 weeks have been an exciting and busy time for me which culminated in a performance at the above venue......the Birmingham Symphony Hall. But I'm moving ahead of myself; it all began with a phone call from a past employer asking me to stage direct a production being put on by the local music services. A grant had been awarded by the arts council and a commission given for a musical to be written. My job was to recruit the actors and direct the play which incidently linked the entire performance of a 500 strong children's choir, three children's dance groups, an orchestra and group of 8 actors. The script was in serious need of editing so the choreographer and I spent a morning together rewriting and adapting the original script. Actors were recruited from the participating schools and I was able to obtain emploment for two of my ex-students.
Rehearsals were sparce and disjointed, but it all came together with
a full rehearsal last Friday. 
This was the first opportunity all the different departments would be seeing each other. Staff and students alike were so committed to the project and worked very well together. We then met again on Monday with the full company at the Symphony hall.
The amazing thing was the children were not at all daunted by the sheer size of this magnificant hall, they just took it all in their stride and carried on regardless. We spent a few hours rehearsing in the morning, had a dress rehearsal in the afternoon and performed the world premiere of The Voice Thief in the evening.
My little band of actors were a delightful group to work with and didn't take long to bond. One of the choir masters was recruited to play the villain. Jake was such an invaluable team member as he helped coach the actors who would also be singing.
What a previlege it was to be a part of this production; to be doing something I love and to be paid for it. God is good.
