Sales pitch pays off as Dominic composes magical madrigal score for York Theatre Royal community play Sovereign

Sovereign composer Dominic Sales with musical director Madeleine Hudson at a rehearsal for the York Theatre Royal community play. Picture: Simon Boyle

THE York Theatre Royal Choir may be pretty much out of view to the side of the King’s Manor courtyard in this summer’s community play, but its contribution is central to the impact of Sovereign.

Come rain or more rain, the choir performs Dominic Sales’s compositions under the musical directorship of Madeleine Hudson, who has held that post since the choir’s formal formation in 2016.

Dominic, who played his part in setting up the choir, has past experience of Theatre Royal community plays, having provided the music for In Fog And Falling Snow at the National Railway Museum in July 2015.

“From what I remember, the opening was amazing with this steam train arriving in the style of Zadok The Priest. I was ripping off Handel completely!” he says.

“But normally I tend to forget what I’ve written as soon as I’ve written it. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but probably yes, as it stops me from writing the same thing again!”

The community choir grew out of the 2015 production. “We set up a choir just for that show and originally it wasn’t going to continue afterwards, but they so loved working with Maddie [Madeleine Hudson] – this Irish lady who I’d worked with before – that they wanted to continue.

“I’d suggested Maddie should be the musical director, and they really had their moment in that show in the second half in the tent. It was the biggest cast I’ve ever worked with. Ginormous! Just waiting for 250 people to get on stage takes long enough!”

Emerging from a couple of years of “doing a little online stuff for small companies” under the pandemic cloud, Dominic wrote speculatively to Juliet Forster at the Theatre Royal, where he had provided the score for her 2014 production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and had first made his musical mark in Leeds company Tutti Frutti’s touring shows.

Dominic Sales, left, working with York Theatre Royal choir members during rehearsals for Sovereign. Picture: Simon Boyle

“I had no idea Juliet now had the role of creative director,” he says, but his Sales pitch could not have been more productive. “She said ‘yes’ to me doing this show, delightfully without giving me any brief, other than details of the setting and the synopsis.”

Co-directed by Juliet, John R Wilkinson and Mingyu Lin, Sovereign is a Tudor-set thriller, adapted by prolific York playwright Mike Kenny from CJ Sansom’s novel, with Henry VIII’s visit to King’s Manor at the story’s core.

“Vocal music was the most popular music of the time – Baroque music – and so I’ve written a score for a choir with room for 36 voices per performance in the courtyard,” says Dominic.

“Recorder features too as it was also very popular in Tudor times, and we’re delighted to have an international recorder player, Carmen Troncoso, who’s a PhD student in the Early Music department at the University of York, playing in the show.”

Dominic has taken his inspiration from madrigals. “I was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral in my schooldays, when I was made to sing in a madrigal group on Saturday mornings with Mr Thompson in a shed in a field that was called the music department,” he recalls.

“Being a chorister was a great thing to do, but having to sing madrigals every Saturday morning was the downside!”

 Nevertheless, madrigals make for a magical sound at King’s Manor, where the 63 choir members share out the performances. “The choir is taking the weight of the score, underscoring the dialogue, so it’s quiet and atmospheric with a few moments where they get to let rip,” says Dominic. “As with most of my scores, I’ve written music to get talked over.

“The choir has 44 musical cues, singing material that’s quite dark because it’s a pretty dark and sombre story. The way I tend to approach writing the music is to gain a general overview of the characters and the story and then sketch out the songs. So you have the play’s thematic material to then create the sound world for it.

Dominic Sales and Madeleine Hudson: Renewing a York Theatre Royal partnership forged at In Fog And Falling Snow. Picture: Simon Boyle

“It’s quite functional what I do, the most artistic element being that creativity and then being functional in making it fit in with each cue.”

Dominic, who studied composition and performance at the University of Huddersfield, is a “percussionist by trade”. “My tutor was Chris Bradley, principal percussionist for Opera North, and I then played triangle for Opera North. Someone’s got to do it!” he says. “My mum came to watch me performing at Sadler’s Wells, which was great, but she could only see my hands!”

Since 2015, he has taken the drum seat for the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, recording and touring the world with the dapper combo. “Before that I had ‘depped’ for the drummer that had the job before me. He left, and I felt very lucky to get the gig as it was a dream come true. It’s enormous fun,” he says.

He has played drums and percussion for numerous symphony orchestras and for West End shows too, latterly Anything Goes at the Barbican. “My favourite was An American In Paris, no big names in the show, but it was the wonderful Broadway production of the Gershwin musical,” says Dominic.

“The West End is great but you’re doing the same thing night after night, and you have to get your head round that if you’re doing it for a year, when it comes down to muscle memory. I tend to do shows with larger bands – there were 18 in the pit for Anything Goes- whereas a lot of modern shows have smaller bands.”

Composer (for 30 years), percussionist for bands, orchestras and stage shows, and record label founder to boot, Dominic has one more string to his bow: he teaches at the London College of Music. Not that he is one to bang his own drum for such polymath skills.

York Theatre Royal and the University of York present Sovereign at King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, until July 30. Tickets update: Sold out.

Did you know?

DOMINIC Sales is the founder and director of Jellymould Jazz, a boutique record label with worldwide distribution at the forefront of the British jazz scene.

York Theatre Royal and BBC Radio York team up for Good Friday and Easter Sunday instalments of York Radio Mystery Plays

Director Juliet Forster, top left, and the cast for The Resurrection at a rehearsal on Zoom

BBC Radio York will broadcast two more instalments of the York Radio Mystery Plays in collaboration with York Theatre Royal.

While the Theatre Royal has been closed in Lockdown 3, actors and creatives have been working behind the scenes to record The Crucifixion for Good Friday and The Resurrection for Easter Sunday.

The plays have been adapted by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and writer husband Kelvin Goodspeed from excerpts from the York Mystery Plays, dating back to the 1300s, for recording by a combination of community and professional actors. 

These latest recordings follow on from the audio versions of Adam And Eve, The Flood Part 1, The Flood Part 2 and Moses And Pharaoh, broadcast on BBC Radio York last June.

“I’m delighted to have returned to the York Radio Mystery Plays series this Easter,” says Juliet. “The York Mystery Plays are part of the DNA of this city. They belong to the people of York and have brought people together to create, perform, watch, laugh and cry since the 14th century.

“The longevity of these potent plays clearly demonstrates how vital the collective act of storytelling is and has always been to human beings, and how much we need to explore and reflect together on our experiences and understanding of the world.”

The sourcing of the scripts, recruitment of actors and provision of music has been conducted by the Theatre Royal. In keeping with the social-distancing rules, the production required the actors to rehearse remotely on Zoom, then record their lines on a smart phone from home, whereupon the recordings were sent to BBC Radio York for mixing and collating into finished crafted instalments.

Acting assistant editor Allan Watkiss says: “We’re excited to be working with York Theatre Royal once again to keep the centuries-old tradition of the Mystery Plays alive during the pandemic.”

York Radio Mystery Plays director Juliet Forster

The York Mystery Radio Plays project is part of the Theatre Royal’s Collective Acts, a programme of creative community engagement taking place while the building is closed under Coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Joining director Juliet in the production team are Edwin Gray, composition, foley and sound design, and Madeleine Hudson, Theatre Royal Choir musical director, songs.

The cast for The Crucifixion is: Andrew Isherwood, as John; Daniel Poyser, 1st Soldier; Toby Gordon, 2nd Soldier; Adam Kane, 3rd Soldier; Ged Murray, 4th Soldier; Stephanie Wood, Mary, mother of Jesus; Joe Osborne, Pilate; Jared More, Jesus; Elizabeth Elsworth, Mary Cleophas; Maria Gray, 1st Thief on the cross, and Kelvin Goodspeed, 2nd Thief on the cross.

Poyser, Gordon, Kane, Murray, Wood, Osborne, More and Elsworth reprise their roles in The Resurrection, performing alongside Sarah Woodmansey as Angel, Dora Rubinstein as Mary Magdalene and Maggie Smales as Caiaphas.

“Like we did before, we’ve gone for a mix of professionals and community actors, but everyone is new for this production as we’ve moved from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and I wanted to reflect that by using new voices,” says Juliet.

BBC Radio York will air The Crucifixion on Good Friday, April 2, at 6.30am and 1.30pm; The Resurrection on Easter Sunday, April 4, 6.30am and 9.30am. They will be available too on BBC Sounds at bbc.co.uk/radioyork

Actor credits:

Elizabeth Elsworth performed in the York Mystery Plays 2012 and the Wagons Festivals in 2014 and 2018. She appeared in York Theatre Royal’s community productionsBlood + Chocolate, In Fog and Falling Snow and Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes, as well as several productions for York Shakespeare Project and York Settlement Community Players.

Toby Gordon as Lucifer in the 2016 York Minster Mystery Plays, when he memorably switched to playing Jesus during the last week of the run

Toby Gordon appeared in the York Mystery Plays 2012 as Workman, in the 2016 York Minster Mystery Plays as Lucifer and in Two Planks & A Passion as Edward Young. Other credits include Antigone (Barbican, London) and The Great Gatsby(Guild of Misrule).

Maria Gray trained at East 15 Drama School (BA Acting) and Flic Circus School in Turin, Italy. She works as an actor, voice-over artist and movement director. Credits include Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre); The Machine Stops (York Theatre Royal/Pilot Theatre); The Beggars Opera(York Theatre Royal) and The Girl Next Door (Teatro Regio). Shewas movement director for A Midsummer Night’sDream and Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre) and Elves And The Shoe Makers (York Theatre Royal).

Andrew Isherwood has been performing on York stages since the York Mystery Plays in 2012, taking on leading roles in classical and musical productions for Pick Me Up Theatre, the York Shakespeare Project and at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre. He regards playing Max Bialystock in The Producers as his career highlight so far.

Jared More trained at the Newcastle Theatre Royal, graduating from the Project A actor training programme in 2019. He is a creative associate of York company Riding Lights, where his credits include Roughshod Deliver, The Selfish Giant and The Kaleidoscope Tour, as well as writing and editing on various projects.

Ged Murray’s first role in the Mystery Plays was as Joseph in the 1992 production at York Theatre Royal. He has since been in the cast in 1996, 2000 (again as Joseph), 2012 and 2016, along with being involved in the Wagon Plays since their resurrection in 1994. He last appeared in the Plays in December 2019 as Shepherd One in the Mystery Plays Supporters Trust’s Nativity. His wider acting roles range from Shylock in York Shakespeare Project’s The Merchant Of Venice to the Dame in village pantomimes. 

Exchange of views: Paul Joe Osborne’s Sergeant-Major Reg Drummond and Rory Mulvihill’s Acting Captain Teri Dennis in Privates On Parade in March 2019 . Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Paul Joe Osborne featured in the 2012 York Mystery Plays 2012 but that time at the other end of the Bible, starring as Noah in the Potters Cast. He has played assorted characters at York Theatre Royal Studio in The Seagull, Twelfth Night, Breathing Corpses and Waiting For Godot and Sgt Drummond in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Privates On Parade at Theatre @41 Monkgate. He has also explored TV and film opportunities too in Peaky Blinders, Coronation Street, Ghost Stories and the York comedy horror Chestersberg.

Daniel Poyser trained at Arden School of Theatre.  He has played multiple roles for the National Theatre, as well as appearing in The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre, London); The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Island and The Three Musketeers (Young Vic, London); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Les Blancs (Royal Exchange, Manchester); An Enemy Of The People (Sheffield Crucible); Blue/Orange(nominated for MEN Best Actor Award), The Merchant of Venice and The BFG (Bolton Octagon), and Strangers On A Train, Arms And The Man and Blue/Orange (Theatre by the Lake, Cumbria). He has myriad television and radio credits too.

Dora Rubinstein trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Credits include A Page A Day (Northern Stage), Cinderella (Cast, Doncaster), Digital Ghost Hunt (York Theatre Royal), Peter Pan and Aladdin (The Dukes, Lancaster), The Wizard Of Oz (Leicester Square Theatre), Romeo And Juliet and Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company) and The Ballad Of Robin Hood (Southwark Playhouse). She performs and teaches circus skills, such as contortion and acrobatics, and is developing an interactive circus/theatre show for families in partnership with Dance City, Newcastle. 

Maggie Smales is a York theatre maker with both directing and acting credits. She has directed The Stepmother; an all-female Henry V; Blue Stockings and When The Rain Stops Falling. Among her acting roles: York Mystery Plays, A Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, Follies, Legacy, Twilight Robbery and Tom’s Midnight Garden.

Stephanie Wood trained at the Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art and worked professionally for several years, most notably appearing in the cult TV show Knightmare as Elita the Cavern Elf.She has been involved in many of York Theatre Royal’s community shows and was last seen as Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull, whose run in the Theatre Royal Studio concluded shortly before the first lockdown.

Sarah Woodmansey is training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, on the contemporary performance practices course. She has acted in York Theatre Royal productions of In Fog And Falling Snow, Dick Whittington (And His Meerkat), The Beggar’s Opera and Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes.