Front: Amelia Regnier, Kimberley Ryan, Maddison Collits, Jade McGovern. Back: Nigel Thomas, Tom Rivett, Lyn Townsend, Phil Redenbach, Anthony Leonard, Gail Smith, Ruth Barnes.
The world premiere of locally written musical, Cracks in the Mirror will be held at The Little Theatre in Parkes, on 22nd April, but plans are afoot to market this musical to theatre companies nationally.
It all began in January 2022, when Lyn Townsend, along with 20 other people around the world, undertook a short online musical song writing course with composers Pasek and Paul (The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hanson).
She engaged the services of Gail Smith to assist with music composition for the course song – the outcome, Cracks in the Mirror was an epic 11 minutes long!
Lyn dedicated herself to writing topical and relevant storylines into a script, while regularly meeting with Gail to continue working on more songs. Six months later, Lyn and Gail had written an entire musical.
A very capable local musician, Anthony Leonard, was called in to give feedback on the songs and eagerly agreed to join them on the journey, collaborating on musical arrangement.
Workshops were held in August last year with five ladies who willingly gave their time to test the script and songs and provide valuable feedback.
Auditions were held in December to secure the small but very talented cast of Maddison Collits, Jade McGovern, Kimberley Ryan, Amelia Regnier and Ruth Barnes and band members Phil Redenbach (lead guitar), Tom Rivett (Base guitar), Nigel Thomas (Drums/percussion), with Anthony and Gail both playing keyboard.
As Lyn and Gail own the music, there are no royalties to be paid. At their request, the Parkes Musical and Dramatic Society will donate $10 from every ticket sold, to the Eugowra GIVIT flood appeal.
Tickets for Cracks in the Mirror are on sale now at www.parkesmandd.com.au. Group reservation requests made by emailing parkesmandd2870@gmail.com.