MTH5COO6R~001 STU24102252 Professional Studies 2: Theatre Project Pitch

by

Naima Lilburn 24102252

Introduction

In this essay I will be writing about the creative process of our musical Woven. Using our research and development skills, as a group we pitched ideas and contributed equally throughout this creative process. Throughout this essay, I will be focusing on my journey as a lyricist. Reflecting on my role as a lyricist, noting my struggles, successes, recognising room for growth and change. Furthermore, I will focus on areas of weakness of our musical and potential steps we could take to continue developing our musical further. I will be noting on financial implications and advantages. Lastly, I will briefly talk about management and organisation of our creative team throughout the project.

Research

Before this module, I had already decided I wanted to be a lyricist throughout the project. I have never written music before, but it was something I wanted to explore and experiment with. Strategically, I thought that I could use this process to understand the scope of writing lyrics and utilise this skill in the future. Before lyric writing, I focused on researching Yorkshire in the 1800’s, this was a key factor during my process to ensure preciseness and accuracy in my writing. I Began looking at Yorkshire dialect and slang that was used in 1800’s to add to my lyrics. I wanted to show authenticity by incorporating this into my lyrics. However, I realised that using majority Yorkshire dialect would mean that rhythmically the lyrics would be difficult to sing. After some thought, I decided to only change a few lyrics to Yorkshire dialect, this way it will be easier for the ensemble to sing and learn. My thoughts were also to keep my lyrics relatively modern. This mirrored the sub-plot of our musical, the modernisation/development of the industrial machinery. Essentially, the end goal was for the audiences to feel immersed and transported back in time but still being able to follow and understand the lyrics. 

Furthermore, during the researching stage of my process, I spent most of my time looking at the Luddite strikes and the Industrial revolution affect’s on civilians. I read a book called Blood in the Machine and scanned through the section about Ned Ludd. I wanted to understand the luddite movement and their reasons for striking. The luddites were a group of mill workers, named after General Ned Ludd who was a mythical creature living in Sherwood Forest, supposedly leading the movement(Merchant,2023). Men were getting laid off their jobs due to the new machinery replacing them, this caused them to loose their jobs as farmers. The men were outraged and wanted to put a stop to this and formed the Luddite strike movement. Men who continued to work while others were striking were the strike breakers which the luddites called Blacklegs. Enoch Taylor was a hated figure among the Luddites and working class men, he was a blacksmith in Marsden and made cropping machines that replaced the jobs of 10 hand- croppers. During the strikes, the luddites destroyed these machines with a sledgehammer they nicknamed the ‘Enoch’, the Luddites used to shout ‘Enoch made them, and Enoch shall break them’, while destroying the machines(Marsdenhistory.co.uk, 2026).

I had no experience writing folk songs, so I needed to ensure I had a good understanding of the basic structure. To begin this part of the process I used a website that had a list of folk songs from different time periods. I had a look at war section and scanned through ‘The Liberty Song’, this gave me an idea of the style/ structure of folk songs (nelson, n.d.) I had also skimmed through a book in the library called The Music of the Yorkshire Dales, from this I had a better understanding the structure and style of folk music. After some deeper research, I discovered that broadside Ballads were a popular form of music in the Victorian Period. Broadside Ballads were a popular form of entertainment, they would have been an everyday part of mill workers lives. They were also a quick but effective way to spread news of politics, interesting stories or the latest news. Overall, this art form helped create a form of Victorian ‘Industrial Folk Music’ (BBC,2016) From this research I decided to write my strike song in the structure of a broadside ballad. This was because I wanted the strike song to be a call and response mixed with a lot of spoken sung lyrics. Furthermore, I wanted it to be a short but effective song to catch the attention of the audience, and to stay true to what a broadside ballad was used for in the Victorian era.  

Difficulties of Lyricism

The most difficult part of the process was dealing with my songs being scrapped due to constant plot changes. I knew this was part of the process but it added to the pressure, as our plot wasn’t finalised until a few weeks before the showing. Originally, I had written a solo for Peter in Scene 3. Essentially, it was a summary of his rough childhood, stepping in as the parent and how these things influenced his views and opinions around the Industrial Revolution. I had written the first verse and chorus, however, due to a disagreement between book -writers, it was decided that the song would be scrapped.

See Plot progression below:

Our early days basic story outline.
Draft 1
Draft 1 pg2
Draft 4
Draft 4 pg2

Here is a link to our final script/lyrics below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jaws7CR4syggVf1ZaolVY9jCHQGPejlqPBs-JS1A3ao/edit?usp=sharing

As well as ‘Be The Man’, there were a couple other songs I had written that got scrapped such as ‘Yorkshire Toast’, ‘Farmer’s Anthem’ and a duet between Frances and Peter. These were scrapped due to plot changes and character developments. However, I recycled some of my lyrics by keeping them and using them in the final two songs for the showing. Here are some more pictures of notes and early drafts of lyrics below. 

Gallery of my notes experimenting with the lyrics for my song ‘Be The Man’.

  

Using all my scrapped lyrics I re-used and recycled the lyrics. See Below.

WOVEN OPENINGour opening song of woven called ‘To Yorkshire’, this song is an example of how I managed to re-use my lyrics to create something better for the opening number.

Another struggle I faced during the process was working with the Composer of the show. During the early days of the process, we each needed something from the other to get a start on our jobs. Jono needed the lyrics before he could compose and I needed the composition. I knew this was a massive barrier, so I decided to challenge myself and get started on the lyrics despite this.  This was beneficial to me as an artist, Overcoming this barrier meant I no longer need composition as a crutch. I can now write lyrics under any circumstances, meaning in the future if I was hired as a lyricist it will increase my flexibility and manageability in the job. Despite this, I was faced with a few obstacles, my lyrics didn’t always rhythmically fit with Jono’s compositions. Meaning I had to re-write chunks of my lyrics in the room, making sure I stuck to my rhyme scheme and structure but also making sure that rhythmically, my lyrics fit into the composition.  I spent a few hours counting each syllable of my lyrics which caused this to be a very long process. I have slow processing due to a disability so this was challenging. However, with practice throughout this project I’ve gotten better at this skill. This part of the process has shown me just how much work goes into one song and the amount of patience and flexibility that is needed to be a good lyricist.  

Relationship of lyrics to story structure/character arcs

Understanding the story structure and character arc’s in relationship with my lyrics was an important part of the process. This was necessary so I could write accurately and in detail. To ensure this, I familiarised myself with the plot and regularly studied the characters. For the opening number, I wanted Frances and Peter to be introduced. Furthermore, I wanted the opening number to draw the audience in and entice them. The fun lyrics and catchy nature of the song was to mirror how a pub environment would be in the 1800’s. The pubs were mainly full of working-class men, as women were frowned upon if they were seen in a pub. Some men may have lost their jobs because of the new machinery and others may be reluctantly working in mills. My vision for the song was to help the men forget their troubles by drowning them out with alcohol. In a world of unfamiliarity, the one place they could forget everything and have a good time was the pub. I created a list of reasons why I thought Frances was pro-machinery and Peter against. This helped put myself in the characters shoes, so I could understand every thought they had about the machinery. With this knowledge I felt I had a deeper understanding of how the industrial revolution affected civilians.

Characters pro/against machinery reasoning.

When writing the strike song I wanted to use Peters anti-machinery reasoning as a lens to write my strike lyrics with. I wanted to emphasise the anger, desperation, unity and frustration that working class men would have felt. I showed these emotions through actioning. For example, words such as ‘Snap’, ‘Break’, ‘Paint’, ‘Bloodstains’, etc. see below.  

Riot (1)The final sheet music for my song ‘Riot’.

Management

For the most part our project was very organised, we had an admin for our group who was in charge of making rehearsal schedules and booking rooms for us to practice in. During performance week, I knew exactly what my schedule looked like each day, including what part of the show we were focusing on rehearsing in each time slot. As creatives, this allowed us to prepare and plan before each rehearsal. For example, if we had a band call, those playing instruments could arrive earlier to tune their instruments so we could make the most out of the rehearsal. On the Monday I had a music rehearsal, as the lyricist of the show, to prepare for the rehearsal, I had made sure I’d finished writing all of my lyrics and played some word games on my phone so that my Brain was switched on and prepared to think fast invade of any lyric changes I had to make during the music rehearsal. As a group we were great at collaborating and keeping an open mind during production week.

An example of our schedule.

Financing

As the lyricist of the production, I thought briefly about the financial side of creating this production professionally. I thought about cast sizing and keeping the cast numbers to a minimum. Our musical being a folk musical meant that a massive cast isn’t a necessity. We had a 7 actor ensemble, 2 of which doubled as main characters. This would save our production money because we don’t need to hire a massive cast. The UK minimum wage for ITC/Equity performers is £601 (ITC, 2024). With a small cast we could save money on paying our actors and instead use it to invest into the show. Furthermore, our show is an actor musician show, we had a small orchestra that consisted of 4 people, doubling as the live band in our pub scenes. This meant that as a production we could save money on the cost of hiring professional musicians as well as actors. On the other hand, money will need to stretch to hire instruments for rehearsals and the show dates. I found a website for musical instrument hire in Leeds, it would cost £20 per day or £75 per week. For example, If our show went on tour for 3 months and instrument hire cost £75 per week, we had a band of 5 people, then the total cost to hire 5 instruments for 3 months would be £4,500(Hygglo.com,2016). After our showing we received feedback from our peers-suggesting that we needed a sound system with microphones in the future. Most of our lyrics were inaudible, because the band was overpowering our voices. Knowing this information, if I were to change something, we should’ve spent more time as a group focusing on projection and resonance. However, this can only go so far. In my opinion microphones should be priority for the production in a professional setting. If the lyrics are inaudible this can potentially make it difficult for audiences to follow the plot.  

Conclusion

To conclude, I have learned the scope of writing lyrics, the trial and error, effort, and flexibility it takes to be a lyricist. Furthermore, I understand the depth and complexity it takes to create an entire production. Teamwork is a key factor in showbuisness, nothing could be achieved without it. I have increased my knowledge of how to overcome obstacles and issues that our production team have faced at each stage of this project. Finally, I have grown as an artist and experienced being a creative in a show, facing the challenges and pressure that comes with it. 

Bibliography