{"id":10455,"date":"2021-03-04T10:35:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T10:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=10455"},"modified":"2021-03-04T11:25:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T11:25:22","slug":"the-plays-the-thing-former-music-scholar-play-featured-on-bbc-radio-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2021\/03\/04\/the-plays-the-thing-former-music-scholar-play-featured-on-bbc-radio-york\/","title":{"rendered":"The play’s the thing: former Music Scholar play featured on BBC Radio York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to former Music Scholar and graduate from the School of History, Livy Potter<\/strong>, whose wonderfully intimate, confessional and moving play, Beautiful Man,<\/em> aired on BBC Radio York last night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can listen to the play on BBC Sounds here<\/strong><\/a> (scroll to the 18mins 33 seconds mark).<\/p>\n

Here, she reflects on the ideas explored in the play, and the influence of Frankie Valli…<\/p>\n

\n
\"Olivia
Mezzo’s forte: Olivia Potter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I created Beautiful Man<\/em> for myself, if I\u2019m being totally honest – the actor in me is always demanding parts to play\u2026 I wrote it during the summer last year when the weather was glorious and restrictions were half-lifted but life was still very strange. I was in a weird, whimsical, creatively curious state of mind at the time (which you\u2019ll probably be able to glean from listening to the piece).<\/p>\n

At its core, Beautiful Man<\/em> is about carrying on even when the world is falling apart, which I think is something all of us can relate to at the moment. It\u2019s about the small moments that shape relationships, and the hole that opens up when we lose the people we love.<\/p>\n

\"\"I had been playing around with the character of Hatty in my head for a while, but the structure of the monologue really came together after I listened to Frankie Valli\u2019s \u2018Can\u2019t Take my Eyes Off You<\/em>\u2019 on the radio. I suddenly thought, \u2018This song is how I can frame the narrative, how I can make it all come together\u2019. It\u2019s really exciting when this happens – it\u2019s like finding the missing piece a jigsaw you\u2019ve been searching for, to use an obvious metaphor. Music has always been a great creative catalyst for me. I can\u2019t write without having music playing along in the background, and love weaving it into my writing whenever I can.<\/p>\n