In spring of 2026 I had the opportunity to work on a new musical Scaramouche with music and lyrics by Kingsley Day and book by James Glossman, based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini. The story details the journey of a young frenchman (Andre-Louis) that escapes the wrathful hand of the Marquis by joining a traveling theater troupe and serving as their Scaramouche, the stock clown character in Italian Commedia Dell’Arte. After traveling through much success, the French Revolution upends his journey with the troupe and lands him as a fencing master to take revenge on the Marquis for killing his best friends’ life.
I served as the arranger and orchestrator for the score, and Kingsley and I decided on a small chamber orchestra style with piano, cello, and a flute/clarinet doubler. Samples of the score can be found here! I got to learn about balance of a score, what each instrument is capable of holding and how to create a full sound with limited instrumentation. Intersecting lines, thematic development, and different ways to hold harmony in open vs closed voicings all helped to create a more cohesive score. I did learn that having all 3 instruments playing while an un-mic’d singer was featured reduced the clarity of the vocals, so we had to balance acoustically rather than with mics and mixing.
This was the first time that I’ve stepped into a role as the full music director and it has taught me so much about what it means to be a leader. Preparation is key. Having ideas about the music before first rehearsal and having a detailed handle of the score made the vocal rehearsals move quickly. I also found how easy it is to incorporate a mistake, especially since this was a new work and there were no previous ideas of this piece. Things needed to be accurate day one and stay accurate throughout the rehearsal process.
As well, creating the infrastructure for rehearsal plans, scheduling, vocal tracking, and part splitting was more responsibility than I had taken on coming from an Associate position. Creating all these from scratch now allows me a template to use for future productions.
This cast was incredible to work with and very fun to shape the stylings of the show as we tended towards a Neo-Romantic style. I was very happy to have my mentor and friend, Aaron Kaplan, join me in the pit on Cello as well as overall cool guy Matt Beck on flute/clarinet. I’m forever grateful for everyone on rehearsal staff, cast, tech, and musicians to give their talents and experience to a new work.
We’re also in the process of creating a full cast album! Link to come soon and many thanks to Michael and Mona Heath for supporting the creation of this project.
Cast:
Andre-Louis - Ethan Smith
Aline - Laura Michele Erle
Gavrillac/Manager/Bertrand - Henry Odum
Climene - India Huy
Madame - Alicia Berneche
Phillipe - Conner Ripperger
Chapelier - Ed Rutherford
Pierrot - Rushil Byatnal
Marquis - Kent Joseph
Columbine - Shea Lee
Director - Beth Wolf
Stage Manager - Grace Mealey
Assistant Director - Rachel Post
