A new and original musical by a third year UoC student is coming to the Stanwix Studio Theatre this month. Cornelia Kaufmann had a chat with writer and director Scott Tomkins.

Sue is a librarian and absolutely loves her job. The only thing she doesn’t like is the fact that every day is the same and her boss Beryl holds her back from what she wants to be.

This is the scene for the original musical By the Book, which will be performed at the Stanwix Studio Theatre on 18th and 19th December at 9pm.

“The old library is being upgraded and Sue is really excited about the change. However, her boss is a bit old-fashioned and against it. Never in her life has Sue stood up for herself or to her boss before and you just have to see what happens when she finally does,” writer and director Scott Tomkins, a third year Musical Theatre and Technical Theatre students explains.

“The musical is very quirky, very up-beat and funny. Some of the songs are taken from already-existing musicals, although they are not too well-known. One of the key songs, I’m a librarian, is by American singer Jonathan Rundman, who kindly gave me permission to use it for By the Book. Other songs the audience will get to hear I’ve written myself,” Scott says.

The cast, led by Alex Anstey as chief librarian Beryl and Jennifer Yeates as Sue, will encounter exaggerated versions of real-life students throughout the show. “The casting and rehearsing process was fun! There’s mature Creative Writing student Bob, portrayed by Ben Edgecombe, who’s been doing the course for eight years now; and Adrian, a student who has lost a book and now has to go on a mission to find it again, who is played by Martin Carlton,” Scott laughs.

However, the musical also shows that good things can come from a bad situation and it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom. By the Book is partly based on the library situation at the University of Cumbria’s Brampton Road campus, which was closed and converted into teaching space over the summer. Watch an interview.with Scott, in which he talks about influences and inspirations that led him to write By the Book .

Tickets are available at the Stanwix Theatre Box Office, by phone on (01228) 400356 or email stanwixtickets@googlemail.com. They cost £ 4 for adults, concessionary tickets are available for £2 and members pay £1.