Scratched Out @ Riverside Studios
“How could I get my friends to come to the theatre?” The question 24-year-old Richard Hale aka DJ Halo has been asking himself for the last five years.
“It took me a while, but the easiest answer was to make a musical based on our lives and experiences,” he says with a beaming smile.
It’s no wonder he’s in fine spirits – the first full-scale production of Scratched Out, The Urban Musical, opens this week at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.
Yet catching Richard in a good mood is hardly unusual.
Slam poetry sensation Dean Atta – who has written the lyrics to Richard’s musical – said it was this fearless positivity that roped him into the project in the first place.
The story is based on six aspiring musicians, their dreams, and not getting distracted by the hard-knock life.
“He (Richard) is not the type of guy to play it cool,” Dean, says. “He had literally decided that I was going to write the musical before I did!”
It was after a rendition of Dean’s poem Revolution at a gig in Knightsbridge nearly two years ago that Richard knew he’d found his man.
At the time Richard was studying a masters in musical theatre at Mountview Academy, Wood Green. Scratched Out was born as a humble dissertation project.
“It began because I love theatre and musicals so much (Blood Brothers and Billy Elliot, for example) I just wanted to figure out how to share that buzz with my friends who wouldn’t naturally go see shows like that,” Richard says.
And as soon as Dean had matched his words to Richard’s beats, the dream was in full swing.
Casting was held at the Lyric Theatre, where Dean heads the youth writers development scheme, Lyrics @ Lyric.
The first run – a small scale production during the Lyric’s Youth Takeover Week in July 2008 – completely sold out.
Thanks to the success, funding from H&F Council; Thames Community and Awards for All poured in to make the present day run at the Riverside possible.
The key to the show’s success? “There’s nothing cheesy about it,” Dean says. “Typical issues such as guns, drugs, exclusion do feature, but it’s all as real as it gets. You could take the songs out the show and drop them straight on the radio.”
Sharna Longville aka Sloozie, 20, is one such musician who was chosen to keep it real. Never having acted before, the grime singer ended up auditioning for the role of Naomi thanks to a last minute push from her cousin.
She remembers listening to the other potential ‘Naomi’s’ swap CV stats before the audition and thinking ‘I never got As and Bs, I never went to uni, I’m not cut out for this…’
But Dean was so impressed by her lyrics that not only did she land the part, but went on to contribute to the development of the entire piece.
“I’d like to think I’m pretty good, but… she’s just so honest and emotional,” Dean laughs.
Seeing such accomplished performances from members of the cast who had never acted before was the highlight of the journey for Dean.
The influence the experience has had on Sharna leaves no doubt as to why.
“I used to be so scared to be myself,” she says. “Now, after being forced to pretend to be someone else, I know that it’s ok to change. It’s made me grow up and realise I can be positive, face an audience and speak openly.”
Her new-found communication skills have also helped Sharna when coaching football training sessions near the small estate where she lives in Mitcham.
“My mum’s very proud, I’m the only gal in a group of boys but I know how to hold my own,” she says.
But if the music or acting career did take off, would the estates get left behind?
“It’s been hard for my parents and I do feel like I need to achieve something bigger than this,” she says. “But, at the same time, by growing up in the struggle I’m used to the knocks. Maybe if I’d grown up all nice and then trouble were to hit – I don’t know if I’d be able to deal with it.”
For Dean, the most important thing is for schools to be exposed to the show. “This is for young people, by young people,” he says. “I’m at schools doing workshops all the time, listening to what the kids tell me and how they react to what I write.”
On the cusp of taking PGCE training to become a qualified teacher, Dean’s got adapting the national curriculum in sight. To see what all the fuss is about, better catch Scratched Out sooner rather than later.
- Scratched Out is at the Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith on April 17-18 and 27-30. £12/6. 7.30pm. Call 020 8237 1111. See www.riversidestudios.co.uk
- Fundraiser Gala with performance, auction, dinner, drinks and after-show music by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Daley and Sloozie is Saturday April 18. £25. Proceeds go to African-Caribbean Leukemia Trust.