The Upstage Interview: Christopher Moore and Gabrielle Soskin on To Be

To Be To The World First

Upstage Host Eric Sukhu spoke with Artistic Director Gabrielle Soskin & Director Christopher Moore about Persephone Productions presentation of To Be. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE: Tell us about To Be, I understand it’s a new musical.

GABRIELLE: I was thrilled when Christopher Moore presented me with this script. He asked if I thought Persephone should produce something like this. I read it. I listened to the music. And I said let’s go for it.

It’s a world première. The 3 young men who composed this musical are really admirable. It’s a big and brave undertaking to put together a full length musical with a score, books and lyrics the way they’ve done. It’s also enchanting because Trevor Barrette who wrote the book and lyrics has linked extracts of gems of Shakespearian text as though the heightened language expresses the passion of a love affair between two young men.

Ford's Focus: Gabrielle Soskin

Gabrielle Soskin in The Loves of Shakespeare's Women 

(Photo courtesy of Persephone Productions)

Risky Woman

Working with the actors, giving notes, blocking, etc. felt right but she let the stirrings lie dormant until 1996...

by Barbara Ford

Gabrielle Soskin was born in a little cottage on a farm in Bedfordshire in the East of England region. Once WWII was over her family, who had evacuated London during the worst of the air raids, moved back to the war-ravaged city.  Coming from an educated Russian Jewish family, the Soskins were passionate theatre-goers. Throughout high school Gabrielle participated in many plays, the bulk of which were the Bard’s. 

From an early age, Soskin knew she wanted to work in the performing arts, but growing up in an era when women were groomed for marriage and motherhood regardless of their higher educations, her ambitions were not taken very seriously by her family, despite the fact that Soskin’s own mother was a drama teacher. Nonetheless, Soskin attended the renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, founded by Sir Laurence Olivier, where the likes of Miranda Richardson, Jeremy Irons and Patrick Stewart trained.