So back in May I was meant to direct Merrily We Roll Along for the @CSSDLondon MA Musical Theatre students. But of course it got cancelled. This left a year of students having never completed their one big public musical.

It seemed for months that the year would just be cancelled but gradually I became aware that due to the hard work of the course leader Paul Barker the year would be able to come back. However they would only be able to be in groups of six.

This meant that a year of 22 needed to be divided up into groups of 5 and 6 and that they could never rehearse in the same room. Moreover we knew the shows couldn't have an actual audience so would need to be able to be legally filmed.

The issue there is that amateur productions of most canonical musicals (including Merrily We Roll Along) can't be filmed. There would be no point going to the work of putting these productions together if no one could ever see them.

So I floated a mad idea. What if we did new UK musicals. Instead of one big show rehearsed in pieces what if we did four separate productions for each of the four groups. I suggested two productions of two new musicals. A five hander and a six hander.

After going through lists of writers and musicals I landed upon two incredible new shows.

The Limit by @JackRBWilliams and @ffreyasmith is a rock musical about the forgotten maths genius Sophie Germain

Catch Me by @ARDBreitbarth and @ChrisCzornyj is a beautiful meditation on grief and loss about a group processing the death of their friend

Both writing teams agreed. I then pitched a few curve balls. What if a team of two directors co directed both shows across those four rooms? What if they shared a common design and the same lighting rig. That way four productions would cost the same as one had in previous years

The sense of all four rooms collectively owning one design and aesthetic and one overarching vision felt important even as the two shows differed so wildly.

In addition we knew that all the projects would have to be staged with two metres social distance throughout and no touching or sharing of any props. This felt much possible with new work than with existing work.

I knew immediately that the co director who could make this happen and who would mad enough to try this was @Ellie_Coote and I knew that @MattPowellicus would be the perfect assistant director. Thankfully they said yes.

Then @libby_todd designed a set that not only marked distance in a subtle way but also gave us epic scale and intimidate domesticity. A set that required no props or furniture and evoked lecture theatres, churches, homes town squares with effortless expressionistic beauty

We devised a cyclical rehearsal schedule that meant @Ellie_Coote and I spent the first two morning sessions together in two different show rooms and then the whole afternoon on our own in the one of the other two rooms. So we each spent every day in three different rooms

Sometimes you were forging ahead on one of the two shows. Sometimes you were using what you learnt in one room to make something with the other cast. Ellie and I took turns in generating new material and developing that of each other.

It was a radical experiment in bring present in the room you're in. You arrive and you work with the people in front of you. Moreover because the casts who shared a show could never see one another the productions began to diverge with different staging and choices in each room

Our rehearsal schedule looked like this

There was a musical director on each show: David Merriman for Catch Me and @louisagreenmuso for The Limit. And they each split their time between two rooms. The schedule meant that we had an MD for half of our staging rehearsals and not for the other half

But it also meant when rooms were without directors they could have music cleanup and learning sessions. Meanwhile stage managers left rooms to clean their staging and lines as autonomous units and @MattPowellicus followed Ellie and I around cleaning our work.

We were not at all sure this would work. But thankfully the course and @CSSDLondon decided to try. And I'm here to tell you that it did work!

The innovative schedule also meant we had pre made gaps where voice work or costume fittings could be placed.

Four rooms, four different casts, two new musicals

I should say that new musicals have a tough time getting fully staged in this country. It was an extraordinary thing watching these students get to create roles and sing songs they'd never heard sung before. Not only that, but the writers could come to rehearsals and watch!

Drama schools normally have too many students for the new musicals being written but this system changed that. It was also thrilling to watch these new chamber musicals on a stage of a size that befits their quality rather than watching them squeezed into tiny rooms.

A huge shout out to our epic stage management team who kept it all running like a beautiful and elegant machine. Thanks to Lizzie Chapman, Josh York, Judith Volk and Alice Wood. And our exceptional production manager Shaz McGee

Here is the final model box of @libby_todd's design

We then knew we needed a lighting designer who could figure out how to design a single rig that could distinctly light two entire musicals. But also who could accommodate the fact that each show was staged differently. Of course we needed @Sam_Waddington

In addition @lukeswaffield and @AutographLondon were busy pioneering a covid safe way of fitting microphones and designing sound and a team of six students from central worked across all the shows and two student mixers mixed their first mainstage musicals

Real musicians joined us for socially distanced sitz probes. And we all cried. Not just to hear music. But to hear new music for the first time with a band. The joy of hearing new musicals for the first time in 2020 cannot be underestimated.

Then we went into tech. We teched four productions of two musicals in three days. And I cannot tell you how good it was to be back in tech

I cannot complement these students enough. In impossible new circumstances they crafted four individual and distinct productions of complex new work. Work for which there wasn't a cast recording or a video to watch. The writers also got to watch two approaches to the same script.

Moreover instead of some students getting the leads while others get to hang around in the ensemble. EVERYONE got a role, an arc and at least one full solo. Instead of an old show not fit for purpose they got shows that they could be integral to.

It was weird after all this not to have an audience. But the writers of both shows got to watch in person with the creative team. We all wept feeling so lucky to watch two show days of live theatre. But we also know that theatre doesn't just exists in rooms.

All four productions have been filmed with many cameras. The sound has been recorded in elaborate multi track and they will be mixed and edited to a shine. And we will be streaming them on 7th, 8th, 14th and 15th November

It goes without saying that this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I didn't dare to dream that two new UK musicals could be fully staged in 2020. Moreover I truly believe these new musicals would never have been staged this way if it weren't for the pandemic

I said to the students that in our current universe almost everything is worse because of covid. But this, this is better.

To see new musicals embraced and treated with care and confidence. To see career musical theatre writers centered and admired for their talents and work.

Last year I directed into the woods at Central for the same course. This year we staged two new musicals twice for the same exact price.

Surely this can be a wake up call to the fact that new musicals can in fact work and should in fact be on more stages. Surely it's proof that innovation and disruption will lead to better things.

I love Merrily We Roll Along. But the world didn't need yet another production of that. There are a lot of shows we don't need to see again. And isn't it wonderful to instead see shows that have never been seen before

So on a rainy Friday here's a huge thank you to everyone who made this happen and a further reminder that we can and should be making new work in new ways rather than settling back into old ways and bad habits

For anyone who wants a sneak peak of what socially distant staging looks like here is a timelapse of the dress rehearsal of The Limit from @Sam_Waddington

And here is a timelapse of a dress rehearsal of Catch Me