Paul Spicer writes a Guest Blog for West End Frame ahead of Onstage Acts, a summer course in new and contemporary musical theatre taking place in London this summer. Curated by Julie Atherton and Paul Spicer, the course is an opportunity to re-focus, and to learn more about performance in this particular strand of the industry from those at the top of their game.
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| Paul Spicer |
New and contemporary musical theatre has given me many of my major career breaks as an actor and later, as a producer. If my contribution to theatre were ever to be defined by a certain genre, it would be this.
Having said that, I do have a deep love for the classics. Carousel is probably hands down my favourite musical (on the ‘I find it almost impossible to pick holes’ scale) but the epic-ness of the behemoth musical has so far eluded the path I have taken. 13 years in the musical theatre business and my passion has been a quest for finding, performing and supporting new and contemporary musical theatre (and because that’s such a massive phrase to type it’ll herein be referred to as ‘NACMT’).
For NACMT I have done my bit. It’s just over 10 years since I co-founded the Notes from New York concert series with the aim of introducing London to NACMT from America. That remit shifted when we presented Not(es) from New York, showcasing material by British composers, and again with an all-female line up for Notes in Heels and then again when we presented the seasonal instalment, Christmas in New York. During our time we featured music by Andrew Lippa, Adam Guettel, Jonathan Larson, Grant Olding, Georgia Stitt and William Finn, often premiering new material and sometimes the actual composers themselves.
