The Caterpillar and the Blackbird

Another two years have gone by since my last post – and I hear you all asking:  “Kate, what have you been doing that’s more important than keeping this blog up to date?”

Well, I’ve been doing loads. Since my last blog, I’ve written a few books – that sounds so casual, but it’s not. They take ages to write.

But also, my big news? I have written a children’s musical that is now a touring show!  How it happed is the strangest thing. But the best things usually do have strange origins.

I have known an amazing couple for a many years. We actually met at a book signing for Pegasus 1. They were West End stars – Tom Dwyer and Katy-jo Howman. Tom is also a wonderful and talented director and choreographer. Tom and Katy-jo met when they were performing together in Cats as Rumpleteazer and Mungojerry. Here they are on stage:  How cool is this photo! I wish I’d been living here in England when they were in their roles.

I am just so blessed to call them close friends!

Fast forward a few years and we were out to dinner one evening and just randomly talking. I mentioned the short stories that I’d written for the charity book “WOW 366”. This was where every story inside it had to be exactly 366 words long. No more, no less. I actually wrote two stories for that book. One of them was called ‘A Tasteless Tale’ about an unhappy caterpillar wanting to eat more than just boring leaves…

By the end of that dinner, the show: “The Caterpillar and the Blackbird” was born. Tom started to work immediately on dance design, music and choreography while I came home and pulled out the story and then I re-wrote it for the stage in rhyming couplets. I also added loads of characters.

A few months later we held auditions, and cast the show. The whole process was something that I’d never experience before and it was breathtaking to watch young dancers pick up on the routines that Tom choreographed. Their young dancer minds drank in the routines so quickly. For me, I could only watch in wonder and envy at their talent. To try to keep up with them proved to me that I should stick with writing!

It was a special pleasure to witness Tom working with the dancers and pulling the best out of them. He didn’t yell – he didn’t chastise. Instead he used humour and good will to get them to do their best – and it worked!

Then there was costume and set design. That was fun! There is so just much more involved in a show than I ever imagined. Tiny things and big things that come together to create pure magic.

Now, two years later, here it is – a real show that is loved by audiences wherever it plays!

If you’d like to see a promo of the show from our preview performance, just visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTDVeb76FlM&t=2s

And if you’d like to see the show for yourself, just visit our production company at www.narradance.com

Narradance – where narration and Dance come together to create magic!

But Tom and I didn’t stop with just the play. We also pulled it together in a picture book. Filled with colourful illustrations. I did have to change the text a bit. The rhyming couplets are the same as in the show, but I had to cut some of the narration to fit. But the pictures are so beautiful – done by R. Christopher – a very talented artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The book has just come out and will soon be available everywhere. For now, to get hold of a copy, please reach out to me on this website.

There are more picture from the musical show and the book on my website home page under the tab “Caterpillar”. So I hope you visit it and maybe let me know what you think.

So this has been my fun for the past two years. But it doesn’t end there.  There are more stories to be told, more shows to write. This is life everyone, a journey filled with as many adventures as you could ever want. You just have to reach for them.

It’s not always easy, but this is what brings us to life!

I’ll try not to be gone too long next time….