War of the Worlds centres on college

The show, staged by multi-award-winning CCADS at Southsea’s Kings Theatre from June 9-11, features a ten-piece band, comprising four members of Chichester College staff, four ex-students and two current students.

In charge of musical direction is Chichester College popular music lecturer Daf Hughes.

“I have worked with CCADS for two years now,” Daf said. “We have done musicals before, Rent, Beauty And The Beast, but this one is slightly different.

“This is much more focused on the musical side of it. When it has been done before, it has been done as a concert version, but this is going to be a staged version.

“And it is the first time that an amateur company has been allowed to stage it. It is not available for public performance. It is not like we applied for the rights to it. It’s just that our director had an idea for a dramatised stage version of it and he applied directly to Jeff Wayne himself. Jeff Wayne said ‘Tell me about your ideas’ and then said ‘Fair enough, I will issue a special licence’. It is the first time any amateur company has done it and also the first time it has been done as a dramatised stage version, rather than a concert.”

For the band, it means a position in the pit rather than on the stage itself: “There are 40 actors and dancers that will create the action. It’s physical theatre, with action on the stage all the time.”

For the musicians, it’s a show which presents particular challenges: “It’s all about the sounds and the textures. At any stage in the score, there are ten or 11 different sounds or textures going on, and they are changing all the time. You have always got to have your eye on the textural changes that are happening in the music, and with this, so much of our time in rehearsal has been about finding the right sounds and the right textures. I am working with four guitars and three keyboards, and I have spent as much time trying to find the right sounds as getting the right notes.”

More details on www.ccads-theatre.co.uk. The production comes in celebration of the company’s 20th anniversary.