Pledge your support for community musical

A new community musical, which Transition Towns’ founder Rob Hopkins has referred to as the 'West Side Story of rooftop gardeners’, is set to become a huge hit with schools, amateur dramatic societies and Transition groups.

Transition Town: The Musical – the brainchild of Matt Harvey, writer and host of Radio 4’s Wondermentalist; award-winning composer Tomas Hewitt Jones; and arts and energy programme manager Chloe Uden – sets out to explore questions and issues presented by oil dependency, sustainable energy and climate change in a friendly, uplifting and inspiring way.

Transition Town: The Musical, which is being written for any group that wants to engage their wider community in the challenging questions facing people across the world, is inviting interest and support to help fund and create the musical.  The project has already released a video that explains what makes the project so different and exciting.

Rob Hopkins, founder and figurehead of the Transition Towns movement, which began in Totnes, said: “When Matt first mentioned the idea of Transition Town: The Musical, I couldn't help laughing,” said Rob. 

“There was something silly about it, but at the same time something rather wonderful.  Doing ‘Transition’ has many of the elements of great musicals: drama, moments of high tension, highs of great choral unity, moments when it all locks in beautifully and it feels more exhilarating than anything else, and the fact that it needs a whole cast, not just one or two heroes.

"This is something designed to be performed by communities, and I really hope it becomes the 'Billy Elliot' for community activists, the 'We Will Rock You' for community energy, and the 'West Side Story' of rooftop gardeners. The world needs this musical. Please support it!"

The musical is being produced by Regen SW, a not for profit organisation working to revolutionise the way we generate, supply and use energy, and it aims to secure £10,000 in crowdfunding by early February 2015 to commence the estimated 18-month project.

Chloe Uden explained: “We want to bring as many people into this project as possible, so crowdfunding was an obvious choice. Over the past 10 years of working in the sustainable energy sector, I’ve seen how the arts can provide a space to deal with the emotional and human side of the story.”

Those wishing to find out more or pledge their support for the project can visit Transition Towns: The Musical’s Kickstarter page or contact Chloe cuden@regensw.co.uk