Bal Maiden Musical

Aim

We are staging an original musical in Falmouth - Bal Maiden - in November 2023, involving young people and the community. We need your help!

Bal maidens!

Bal Maiden is a new and original musical following a young woman from a Cornish mine.  It has been written by Lucetta Radcliffe with amateur performers of all abilities in mind. There are 30 musical numbers! This will be fun for everyone!

We need your help with funding to produce the best possible experience, to hire rehearsal space, provide good technical equipment (lighting, sound, projection). So far everything has been on a voluntary basis. Our time has been free but there are things we need to run the show. If feel you can support us that would be wonderful - if not please buy a ticket and come and see the show!

These are just a few examples of what your donation could help us with:

£5 would hire a costume!

£10 buys a spalling hammer prop!

£20 would hire a radio mic and contributes to the technical kit

£40 buys one night's rehearsal space (2 hours).

£100 would contribute to the hire of the lighting console and sound desk

Tickets are on sale here.

Cobb, Riddle & Spall Music Theatre Community Interest Company

To bring this exciting new musical to the stage a brand new theatre company has been set up. 

The name Cobb Riddle and Spall comes from the work of the Bal Maidens at Cornwall's mines. Cobbing, riddling and spalling are the three stages of breaking rocks into smaller and smaller pieces for extraction of the valuable metals.

The company has been set up with the dual aims of:

- actively involving people in community musical theatre activities to help them access career pathways and life opportunities in the performing arts, and develop and showcase talent.

- helping people in Cornwall learn about and better understand their culture and heritage connections with the Cornish diaspora and related communities around the world, fostering improved international relations and harmony.

The directors are volunteers from the local community who are keen to support the aims of the Community Interest Company (CIC).

These are our faces:

Fran                  Alison                              Mark

Members of the community will be provided with opportunities to participate in musical theatre productions as e.g. performers, artists, creators, composers, directors, producers, set designers, stage managers, technicians, promoters and/ or documentarists.

Meet Lucetta 

Lucetta is a professional singer, musician and composer with an eclectic range of influences and skills; she plays the flute, piano, and accordion. She lives and works in Falmouth. She has long experience of enabling young people to participate in musical challenges. She has led several community choirs with adults. She regularly gigs with fellow musicians around the South West. The Miners' Song and The Mor Song from the musical are regularly performed by the River Notes, Lucetta's community choir based in Falmouth. The choir took these songs to Italy in 2019, and were part of a performance of Cornish songs of the sea and land.

Why was Bal Maiden written?

Lucetta conceived the idea years ago when she went on a family trip to Geevor mine and having previously known very little about mining in Cornwall she became fascinated! Another trip to Botallack fired her imagination when she and her children watched tin ore (cassiterite) being heated up and turned into tin, like magic! She heard the expression: 'cry of tin' for the first time. Tin is quite malleable and it crackles or 'cries' as you bend it.

The Miners' song was the first song Lucetta wrote for the musical and was for her son's Year 3 Primary school class which was learning about mining in Cornwall. The Bal Maiden song was inspired by Cornish band Dalla and their arrangement of the Cornish traditional Bal Maiden Chant. The Mor Song was written for a music theatre project for children at Mabe Primary School.

There were two elements that Lucetta loved most about the Bal Maidens. Firstly, they sang together when they worked, and she imagines that this helped them get through their very long, tough and hard working days. Secondly, they loved to dress up on their days off. From what Lucetta has read about these wonderful women, it sounds like they had a lot of fun along the way.

Meet Olivia the stage director!

The production is happening!

The cast is ready and rehearsing - 26 actors and 21 musicians!

The dates of the performances are booked - 16th, 17th and 18th November 2023, at Princess Pavilion in Falmouth. Save the date!

Rehearsals are in full swing.

Below: the chorus and the read through

This project successfully funded on 12th May 2023