The task of starting the ball rolling was left to me and The Messenger evolved has we went along. The whole idea behind the musical was that it could be presented as a service, a piece of theatre, a rock and roll concert or a mixture of all three. The first production used a rock band, rock lighting, pyrotechnics and used only a few theatrical devices. After its first, reasonably successful (and award winning) * production another, radically different touring production was mounted. This production used more sparsely orchestrated arrangements, very little lighting and a much more dramatic emphasis. It was presented in churches and church halls and took the form of a service at one church. It also entailed a few rewrites and a new song or two and this is the version presented here.

The dialogue and narrative are based virtually word for word on readings from the Bible, and the libretto has foot-notes to enable directors to choose the translation they prefer, we used mostly the Revised English Bible, the Dramatised Bible and the Good News Bible.

The Messenger is presented to be used either in its entirety or as individual songs to be used as the occasion arises. The MIDI files are mainly of vocals and keyboard though on a few songs I did get carried away with the arrangements a bit. The basic score can be embellished with guitars, drums, brass, percussion, etc., depending on what is available. I'm sure it would work with just an acoustic guitar and voices, experimentation is the order of the day.

A full score and a tape of the music is available and transposed scores of individual songs can be provided as can drum and additional keyboard parts. The original score was created on Notator and I can send you the Notator files on request.

I am indebted to a vast amount of people who helped in the evolution of The Messenger. My brother, Ken, for giving his honest opinions, encouragement and the odd tune or two, my family for putting up with the screams, my two musical directors John Stott and Thérèse Edkins, Mike Rigby who designed the sound for both productions, David Woosley who designed the logo, Eric Andrews who directed the tour and gave me so many ideas and the casts and crews who gave me even more ideas, support and unstinting hard work. Also many thanks to Roma Beaumont for putting up with me whilst I transferred the original files to MIDI and onto the web.

Geoff Edkins

*The Messenger won the Lancelin-Green Award for the most Adventurous and Original Production at the 1990 Cheshire Amateur Theatre Awards

Words & Music Copyright © Geoff Edkins 1990 & 1991

Logo Design Copyright © David Woosley 1990