One happy spin-off from the Breydon Crowther show was the choir who helped develop the music. The Breydon group began with an informal lunch where we offered a some local singers soup and sandwiches in return for a few hours of their time. The intention was just to let Chris and I hear the first couple of songs we’d produced but the day was such a success we decided to make it a regular part of the development process. As word got round we were approached by other singers. We ended up with a group of 15 drawn from several choirs including Akabella, Sonrisa and Big Sky. The standard was remarkably high.
There was a lovely moment when the professional cast arrived in the final week. The actors had been told they were working with a community choir and it was clear that for the most part they were expecting the singing to be a little rough and ready. Their faces at the choir’s first entry showed how wrong they’d been and gave us our first exciting glimpse of how an audience new to the material might respond.
One of the songs from the show has since been adopted by Akabella and Chris and I are now planning a song cycle so that we can continue working with the singers.
The Reach 