Come Dance With Me development
Phase One of the development of COME DANCE WITH ME
We initially wrote COME DANCE WITH ME as MISSING PIECES around 2010.
Although the piece was set in Darlington it also had a universality of themes about aspiration, dreams and the frustrations of the daily grind in the crucible of death, recession, greed, and War which all added pressure on the characters ability to realise them.
It was a work in development and we assembled a stellar cast of North East actors for a reading at Lauderdale House in Highgate.
Shaun Prendergast commented that it was: “longer than the second world war!”
He was right - but it became clear from early on that we had an abundance of stories and an epic tale to tell that would resonate with ordinary people.
We certainly did not lack in length and depth!
The play was born of telling KAREN LYNNE’s family story with added dramatic licence.
A family who struggled out of the recession into the second world war trying to survive against all the odds. They did so with humour and grace. They all had dreams - but not everyone was destined to succeed.
This family tale focused mostly on a tale of two sisters who want more out of life than survival: one wants to make money in an entrepreneurial way and the other would prefer to win ballroom competitions and become a professional dancer.
The two sisters could not be more different. The family were all strong personalities.
Phase Two
The next stage was a privately funded staged reading in Newcastle at Live! Theatre.
We read the newly honed script with the cream of actors from the North East and indicated dance sequences with clips of the best of the best dancers: Astaire and Rogers, Charisse, Eleanor Powell.
Again useful feedback and we realised that we would now have to stage it as a workshop including the all important dance sequences. That was quite a tall order as the dancing had to be exceptionally good.
Phase Three
By enormous hard work we managed to get an Arts Council Grant to stage a workshop with scripts in hands but more staged and with exceptional dance sequences.
We also managed to get an interview with the late great legend that was PEGGY SPENCER.
A part of our story involved as a part of the dreams of the characters fantasy dance sequences, as well as snapshots of Ballroom competitions.
Peggy and her husband were actually there and had a fearsome reputation in the world of Ballroom Competitions.
Peggy told us of her early years both as competitor and also how they made money to survive by teaching ballroom. She revealed the mechanism that someone from a working class background needed to accumulate money doing what they loved to do.
She told wonderful stories of being a large part of COME DANCING, in the early years of television, with her terrifyingly good Formation Dance Team, and how she became President of the ISTD which set the standards for Ballroom.
COME DANCING started circa 1949! It fitted well with our narrative set around the Second World War and beyond.
She also told us an incredible tale of being called up by Paul McCartney and asked to choreograph a dream sequence in MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR with The Beatles.
Also how she was approached when COME DANCING was revived as STRICTLY COME DANCING to be Head Judge - she declined!
We reworked the script and went in search of a choreographer who could deliver on the daunting task of recreating both period accurate Ballroom sequences and recreating Hollywood’s finest Astaire and Rogers style routines.
The kind of routines that our characters would have viewed to escape the daily grind in the cinema of the time.
Phase Four
When we were hunting for rehearsal venues for our workshop we asked around in various Dance Studios and the consensus was to get RICHARD MARCEL.
RICHARD, by serendipity, was trained by Peggy Spencer and he was working behind the scenes on STRICTLY.
He had also worked with Madonna, Kylie, Britney and even Olivia Colman working extensively in film and TV.
He was also in the Guinness Book of World Records as the master of most styles of dance.
There was, and is, so much more that he has done that over qualified him for the job. That plus he was keen to do it!
You can find out more about his extraordinary talent here:
https://www.richardmarcel.com/
We began another rehearsal period. More time to rehearse this time and a choreographer who said he could deliver 10% of the mass of choreography needed in the time available. As it turns out the cast were fast learners and we were able to deliver far more than anticipated.
We utilised fabulous mentors to help us shape the production - notably Peter John Cooper and Carole Todd.
Graham directed and Karen played her own Nana as we delivered a public workshop - which was well received.
Phase Five
Ah … the difficulties of getting funding for arts projects - even though just last year alone the Arts generated £126bn for the UK economy, making them the UK’s fifth largest industry.
And yet:
2010:
Arts Council cut by 30%
Culture funding cut by 50%
UK Film Council closed
2022:
London arts funding cut by £56m
2025:
DMCS budget cut by 15%
Still the arts undervalued and over politicised and for the mass of practitioners the enormous difficulty in finding work and funding - due to the blinkered attitudes of successive Governments … who don’t know something that should have more investment, not less, because it can be profitable and of National value and prestige - and has enormous value beyond its creative output. Making places a destination for example and all the other places that thrive because of that … but enough of the ranting!
It took a while but we eventually got an arts council grant to do a small tryout tour and you can read all about it and the talent that we attracted on this webpage:
https://www.missingpiecestheatreshow.co.uk/come-dance-with-me/
It was well received and we planned a National Tour … but Covid came along.
After Covid we developed A QUESTION OF ERROL FLYNN which was a small cast and because it was a terrific play - there is more on that in another part of the blog. You can also see Sir Stepen Fry talk about it here:
https://www.missingpiecestheatreshow.co.uk/errol-flynn-play-question-errol-flynn/
We intended to tour COME DANCE WITH ME in 2025 … and follow it with a tour of A QUESTION OF ERROL FLYNN - but with funding cuts and venues no longer offering the safety net of guarantees or splits which were great incentives for them and us. Alas venues felt that only hiring and restricting the nights available was their survival strategy - which made touring without subsidy or a lot of money behind us untenable.
Phase Six
Back to the beginning - we realised that we had a big story to tell in an innovative way and TV beckoned. Although both Karen and I had, seprately and together, written many plays - we had not written for TV. However we knew what we wanted to do just not the grammar. After a search to find the right person JULIE BLACKIE veteran of every kind of TV writing generously offered to help and taught us the how but also helped us structurally. Various other heroes helped us shape our offer especially POLDARK script editing veteran expertise from BILLY COOK and great help from JODIE BROWN busy on RIVALS but who also worked on THE CROWN.
So we have a bunch of collaborators including the incredible MARY HUNT costume genius and advisers from EPIC TELEVISION in JON DAVENPORT, A J THURSBY, special FX genius STUART BRINDLE and set designer EILEEN ALLDOUS. Generous people in the TV industry who advised along the way: old friend ALISON BARNETT at KUDOS, Finance experts like ROD BROWN and Entrepreneurs like DAVE MILLS. STEVE MURPHY for epic help and contact making.
Heroes all!
With the help of SeedLegals we eventually got Advanced Assurance from HMRC to offer SEIS tax incentives for investors - please see elsewhere in the blog on that.
So we are ready for the next phase - sell the pilot and the other 5 episodes - if this family friendly imaginative project catches fire as anticipated we already know where the story goes - and it is very very exciting!
Want to get involved? Contact us for a pitch deck or talk to us …
Graham and Karen