Chichester students show their skills with Minerva double bill

They are offering a double bill, with students on the musical theatre (music) course offering The Theory of Relativity before students on the musical theatre (cabaret) course offer Moby Dick! The Musical, each piece around 70 minutes long. As Meredith Braun, programme leader musical theatre (music) and senior lecturer at the University of Chichester Conservatoire, says, it will be an evening of contrasts from the university’s two newest musical theatre courses. You can expect something poignant perhaps with tears in the first half before something hilarious in the second. The Minerva performances are from February 9-11.

“The Theory of Relativity (2016) is a joyous, moving and unconventional look at our surprisingly interconnected lives, presented through a collection of songs, scenes and monologues. We are introduced to a compelling array of characters experiencing the joys and heartbreaks, the liaisons and losses, the inevitability and the wonder of human connection.

“In Moby Dick! The Musical, we see the resourceful girls of St Godley’s School come up with a plan to keep the school afloat by staging a fundraiser, featuring their headmistress in the coveted role of Captain Ahab.”

The cabaret course are promising a giant, over-the-top retelling of the classic novel with a catchy, witty score that will keep audiences laughing.

For Meredith and everyone involved on and off the stage, it makes a huge difference that the two shows are going to be in the Minerva: “I think it is the first time in a long time, maybe ten or 15 years, that we've been at the CFT and we've managed to get the Minerva which is huge for us. The experience is great and we're really beginning to feel that the experience is building up for them in terms of working in a professional theatre and working with West End people and just understanding the production values and all the expectations that come with it. I firmly believe that they'll be able to do it. They are really really loving it. I firmly believe that if you have the highest expectations, they will meet them. And it will be so great for them. They are creating the show but they are also having a fantastic learning experience at the same time, and what a great thing to be able to put on their CVs.”

Musical theatre (music) is a course that Meredith has devised herself and she has got around 120 students across the three years. This current production is being put on by the final year students. Curiously, though, they are not being assessed on it: “I thought about it but there are pros and cons. They were guaranteed a place in the show if they wanted to do it but I suppose it just depends with the assessment on the role that you're playing. It can be very hard to mark somebody if they are ensemble or if they are principal but actually sometimes it is great just to let them fly and just go for it and just to do the production for the production’s sake.”

Tickets from the CFT.