Down the Rabbit Hole was a large-scale theatre project created for Calder High School in Mytholmroyd, where I taught music for many years. Following my involvement in rescoring Oliver! for student and staff musicians, I was invited by teacher and playwright Jez Gregg to compose an original score for his adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Jez envisaged a circus-cabaret world, with familiar musical styles viewed through a distorted and often surreal lens. The resulting score combined songs, incidental music, dance sequences, underscoring and theatrical sound effects, drawing on a remarkably eclectic ensemble of student and staff performers. The instrumentation ranged from brass, woodwind and strings to keyboards, guitars, percussion and drum kit, allowing for a colourful and highly varied musical palette.

The two-act production featured numerous original musical numbers, from jazz-inspired character themes and folk-influenced dances to large-scale through-composed scenes and vocal ensemble writing. Throughout, music played a central role in shaping the drama, with recurring motifs and reprises helping to unify the narrative.

Although many of the original parts were lost after the production, several full scores and piano parts survive, along with music from four principal scenes: Alice in Wonderland, The Pig and Pepper Polka, The Queen's Dance and The Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

This remains one of the most ambitious and rewarding projects of my career, bringing together my experience as both a composer and a music teacher in a production that demanded creativity, flexibility and a willingness to embrace the unexpected.