Claire has a degree in Literature with Drama and has always enjoyed creative writing. In fact, her English teacher at school always encouraged her quirky imagination. A care support worker to adults with learning disabilities (which actually inspired one of the characters in “From Within”) Claire has a huge passion for the theatre. In her free time, she performs in musicals and plays with various amateur theatre groups in Kent. This is the first musical script Claire has written and she cannot wait to see her story come to life on the stage!
Ricardo moved to the UK from Portugal at age 16 to pursue his dream of composing music for theatre and media. Having started his Musical Direction efforts helping out with a school production of Hairspray, he has since then been the MD of over a dozen productions, ranging from London cabarets to amateur and semi-professional musical theatre performances. Ricardo tries to balance his performance and composition careers as much as possible. He has always wanted to write a musical, ultimately combining his passion for composition and musical direction. Now that he has met Claire, he finally gets the chance to do so.
It all began in 2017, when Claire scribbled an idea on a post-it note while at work and put it in her back pocket: a musical that would celebrate diversity and be cast based on the talent of the actors, not their appearance – and inspired by Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Once she had written the book & lyrics, Claire then had the difficult task of finding a writing partner who could compose the music. And it wasn’t easy…
However, through a series of fortunate events, Claire was eventually connected with Ricardo and the creative dream team was complete. But soon after, they had another obstacle to face: Lockdown! And so, they worked on their musical via video chats. Which wasn’t ideal, but they made it work.
Claire and Ricardo are firm believers that the most important elements of a musical are a great story that will entice the audience and great characters they can relate to, alongside a wonderful score that brings it all together – and this is what they have with their new, enchanted (not to mention comical) musical.