REALLY? A UKULELE MUSICAL?

Yes! Imagine a field with a marquee tent, bunting, and hundreds of ukulele players… wouldn’t it be a perfect setting for a musical? Then add the best lovers in all of Shakespeare (Beatrice and Benedick from Much About Nothing) the drama of competing in a song contest, and an ensemble of quirky characters. Finally, jazz it all up with the sonic variety of the soprano, baritone, piccolo, and bass ukuleles, plus the cajon, shakers, and vocal harmonies… Oh, and kazoos. You can’t have a ukulele festival without kazoos.

All together, Ukulele Days promises to be a joyful show with tons of heart and toe-tapping tunes.

Alongside the show, we’re excited to create opportunities for everyone to join in, with ukulele lessons, open mic nights, pop-up street performances and give-aways. The ukulele has such a spectacular community of players, and we want to invite more people to be part of the fun!

THE JOURNEY OF THE SHOW

Amy completed a first draft of the book, music, and lyrics at the end of 2022.

In February 2023, we tested out some early material in a scratch night at the VAULT Festival called Into the Works, produced by Music Box Theatre.

That May, we presented a 10-minute pitch of Ukulele Days at the prestigious BEAM Showcase of new musical theatre at Oxford Playhouse. (You can hear a couple of songs and some more info from the pitch in the video above.)

In September 2023, an R&D day at The Cockpit led to some exciting rewrites, thanks to the contributions of director Nicky Allpress, dramaturg Tricity Vogue, and actors Katie Arnstein and Jason Kajdi.

In November, we were part of the second season of Musical Bites, programmed by Mercury Musical Developments and The Other Palace. Our 40-minute cut of the show was attended by 50 people, some of whom brought their own ukuleles to play along with the opening number! 

Now, we're looking for venues and producers to help us develop a first production for to premiere in London and then head to Edinburgh Fringe in 2025. 

From 2026 onwards, we’d love to tour the show around the country, looking for places where we can connect with ukulele groups and inspire even more new players. (Let us know if you’d like us to bring the show to a theatre near you!)

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please consider making a donation to support the development of Ukulele Days. You can give any amount from £1 upwards - and don't forget to select a reward!

With the £2800 we've raised so far, we were able to run an R&D (research & development) workshop and cover (most of) the costs of rehearsing and presenting the show at Musical Bites last year.

In April & May 2024, Watford Palace Theatre is supporting us with studio space to continue developing the show. The aim is to develop the characters and make their love story as compelling, funny, and moving as Shakespeare’s original Beatrice and Benedick. (If ukuleles had been invented yet, we’re sure that Will would have put them in the show.)

The main costs of this R&D are the artist fees: 4 people paid at the industry standard rate of £126 per day. We'll also spend a little money on documenting the work with rough song recordings, photos & videos to help with future pitching and marketing of the show. Then there's some small costs to do with rehearsal space and transporting a cartload of instruments around London!

Anything you can give will make a huge difference to the project now, and in the longer term, it will help us to demonstrate to Arts Council England that there is an appetite for this show from potential audiences and supporters.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer Amy Clare Tasker is a theatre maker and songwriter. She taught herself to play the ukulele in 2019, and discovered a wonderland of music-lovers, community events, festivals, and creative expression. Amy is a co-director of Pinecone Performance Lab, where she writes, performs, directs, and embraces an all-around "theatre maker" ethos. Amy previously wrote and performed the show HOT (Helen of Troy), which premiered at The Cockpit in February 2020. Her other new musical The Queen is Mad, co-written with Tom James McGrath, premiered at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre in March 2024. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Book Music & Lyrics workshop, honing the craft of writing for musical theatre. Amy also works with The Cockpit on the Voila! Theatre Festival and the Theatre Maker artist development programme.

Director Nicky Allpress's recent credits include The Shape of Things (Park Theatre), The Walworth Farce, and Romeo & Juliet (Southwark Playhouse); Crackers! (Polka Theatre), My Fair Lady (The Hexagon, Reading); Market Boy (Union Theatre); Invisible Me (Bloomsbury Festival); Moment of Grace (Lockdown Film); Summon up the Blood (RSC Open Stages community project, director and adapter of Henry IV, V and VI). She is currently in preparation for he 60th anniversary tour of Oh What a Lovely War with six actor musicians. As Associate Director she worked on Dragons & Mythical Beasts (Regents Park and Tour); My Brilliant Friend (National Theatre); Summerland (film dir Jessica Swale); Finishing the Picture (Finborough Theatre).

Nicky works closely with writers in the development of new plays and musicals, creating a a new writing residency at the Swiss Church Covent Garden to help 16 writers host readings, workshops, and development rehearsals to further their new work. Nicky is about to start her third year in the Book Music & Lyrics workshop, under the auspices of Tim Sutton, Jason Carr and David James.

Dramaturg Tricity Vogue, AKA Heather Tyrrell, is a seasoned scriptwriter and lyricist, as well as a celebrated ukulele player and cabaret performer. Her most recent theatrical collaboration was as lyricist on Alma, a new original musical produced by Théatre de Namur, Belgium, created by director Fabrice Murgia and celebrated drag queen Peggy Lee Cooper.

Tricity spent a decade working in television (credits include My Family, Totally Frank, Holby City, Byker Grove and the Teletubbies) before she fell down a rabbit hole into London's cabaret scene. As an international cabaret performer and musician, Tricity Vogue has staged five hit Edinburgh Fringe shows, and played venues including London's Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Wiltons Music Hall with her All Girl Swing Band. Her “drag action musical” Heels of Glory, co-written with composer Richard Link, was awarded development funding from the Arts Council of England, and headlined the Pride in London Festival 2016 at Chelsea Theatre.

THE COMPANY

Pinecone Performance Lab is a London-based company obsessed with unexpected connections. Led by co-directors Amy Clare Tasker and Susie Italiano, we make theatre that seeks to understand how we relate to each other: audiences, artists, fellow humans, our culture, other ​cultures, the earth, the universe.

Our previous projects include Home is Where… a headphone verbatim performance inspired by stories of cross-cultural identity, developed 2016 - 2018 at Rich Mix, Camden People’s Theatre, The Cockpit, Theatre Deli & CLF Art Cafe. In early 2020, we premiered HOT (Helen of Troy) at The Cockpit, a 90s-inspired play with songs about beauty, power, and myth, featuring a teenage Amy and the voice of Helen of Troy. We also ran the London Devised Theatre Intensive in 2018 & 2019, a two-week Open Space workshop for theatre makers to explore, collaborate, and create their own work. www.pineconeperformance.com

GET IN TOUCH

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