Forget A Levels. Let's write a musical!

Devon teens' 14-song covid show

You know how it is. You're about to sit your A Levels after two years of study and angst. You fancy a summer of surf, sand and whatever else teenagers do to pass the time. Then the world goes into crisis and exams, and all other bets, are off.

Three Devon boys, refugees from Colyton Grammar School, thought the obvious. "Let's do the show right here!"

Lyricist Edward Heath (on the tractor), composer Harry Long (feigning cool) and producer Dom Harrower (on guitar) have written and record a full musical based on experiences of teenager going through sixth form. Fourteen songs, in a show called 'Individuals - the Musical - with a coronavirus twist at the end. 

Edward says: "It's a realistic love story with a covid twist that gives an insight into being a 16 to 18 year old today. We wanted the musical to be relevant. This also gave us the opportunity to share, through music, how people our age felt when our exams were cancelled and how the news impacted students in varying ways."

The teenagers have roped in friends to record the whole musical at Dom's home studio, where the whole thing was mixed and produced. The original cast recording! Except, as yet, there's no original full cast production. So the students need help.

First a spoiler alert. Here's the synopsis. The story follows two main characters, a girl called Maisie (played by Sophie Black), who's joined a new school for sixth form and a boy called Luke (played by Harry) who's been at the school since year seven. Throughout the musical both characters meet with challenges faced by sixth form and college students across the UK, from bullying, to relationships, to depression. 

The first act starts with Maisie and Luke's first meeting. Maisie is integrated into a group of girls who are seen as extremely popular on the social scale. They are quick to warn her off Luke who they don't deem an appropriate match since he is not seen as 'cool' enough.  After a rollercoaster of events and emotions, they both end up in relationships with other people.

The second act opens with a song sung by a group of ladish boys bragging about their summer. Later, at their lowest ebb, the two main characters end up re-discovering their connection. However, sadly the story does not end with the two of them coming together in a whirlwind romance. Instead, before their relationship has even really begun. Covid-19 hits, causing the school to shut and forcing Luke and Maisie apart.

Edward Heath, appropriately named after a famous musician-cum-prime minister, says: "If you are interested in helping us tell our story, have any ideas about where we can take our project, think you can help us take it further or simply want to know more about what we've done, please email: edheath2002@gmail.com.

"All three of us were fortunate enough to get the grades we needed to go to university from the first set of results being released. Harry and Dom both got 4 A*s, I achieved 3 A*s and an A. We obviously never got to take our A-levels which for us was somewhat frustrating but we also felt good about our mocks and had worked for them. We tackle the responses of different types of students to A levels being cancelled in the final song of the musical.

"The government U- turn helped a lot of our friends get to university but grades overall went up 40 per cent which devalues our results which is obviously far from ideal."

The song Study Period is from the show Individuals - the musical.