Introducing... Morgan Large, a backstage star...

@**lindabr16**

Ashleigh Gray plays Lorraine

A new site was added Glasgow -

http://www.atgtickets.com/I-Dreamed-a-Dream-Tickets/6/2423/#performance_tabs=tab_calendar

Interview with the Musical Producer
http://www.mediafire.com/?qiu5l56f1anty6v

Graysea Boyle Rooney Theatre Royal Newcastle

It is extremely exciting waiting for the new musical "I Dreamed A Dream". Susan Boyle's own\

inspirational story told by Elaine C. Smith and company. Thrilled to know that Ms. Boyle, herself, will make an appearance on opening night, March 23rd. How wonderful is that! A story of a lifetime! Against all odds, what courage and determination Ms. Boyle had when she walked out into the cold, rainy morning to take six buses to that audition for Britain Got Talent. And what an inspiration she has been to the millions of people around the world who have watched that unforgettable audition video. Fans across the world are anxiously waiting for this spectacular event.http://graysea-susanboyle.blogspot.com/p/idad-musical.html ---- To all the artists preparing and rehearsing for the new musical "I Dreamed A Dream", have fun, good luck and "break-a-leg".

https://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS344&q=Elaine+C.Smith+I+dreamed+a+Dream+Musical&oq=elai&aq=0p&aqi=p-p1g9&aql=&gs_sm=1&gs_upl=9535625l9540068l0l9543497l4l4l0l0l0l0l240l774l0.2.2l4l0

By Broadway World.com

Susan Boyle-Inspired Musical, I DREAMED A DREAM, Begins International Tour in 2012; Elaine C Smith Stars

by BWW News Desk

Global singing sensation Susan Boyle will see her inspirational life story take to the stage. Charting her meteoric rise from obscurity to international stardom, the musical, ‘I DREAMED A DREAM'© will tour internationally from 2012.

Susan Boyle resonated around the world when she stepped on to the Britain's Got Talent stage and tore up the rule book. She confounded the judges, the audience and over 300 million with access to YouTube who watched her dazzling performance of I Dreamed a Dream. Two albums later she has smashed multiple music records, sold over 14 million albums and continues to enchant the world with every chapter of her journey.

Susan will be played by Elaine C Smith, famed for her role in Rab C Nesbitt and a particular favourite of Susan. The show will be produced by Michael Harrison.

Michael Harrison said; "She is an inspiring woman and her story is an excellent one to tell - someone with a raw talent who surprises the world and overturns all the odds to make a new life for herself. It's got all the qualities of a fairytale, but with the added bonus of being absolutely true. I am looking forward to the tour very much."

Susan Boyle said; "I am happy that the musical is being produced, I never thought my life story would end up on the stage but a lot has happened in two years and it is a very exciting prospect. I hope everyone enjoys the show and I promise there will be a few surprises along the way."
‘I DREAMED A DREAM'© will open at Newcastle's Theatre Royal on Friday 23 March 2012 before going on tour. Tickets for the Newcastle run go on sale on 7th July and can be booked at the Theatre Royal, on 08448 11 21 21 or online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk.

IDAD Creative Team listed below:

The Show

Elaine C Smith

Creative Team

Tour Dates

Photo Gallery

Video Gallery

The Buzz

NEWCASTLE, Theatre Royal
Friday 23 March - Saturday 31 March 2012
Box Office: 08448 11 21 21
Book Now

DUBLIN, Grand Canal Theatre
Tuesday 24 - Saturday 28 April 2012
Box Office: 0844 847 2455

BIRMINGHAM, Hippodrome
Tuesday 29 May - Saturday 2 June 2012
Box Office: 0844 338 5000

ABERDEEN, His Majesty’s Theatre
Tuesday 3 - Saturday 7 April 2012
Box Office: 01224 641122

BRISTOL, Hippodrome
Tuesday 1 - Saturday 5 May 2012
Box Office: 0844 871 3012

INVERNESS, Eden Court
Monday 11 - Saturday 16 June 2012
Box Office: 01463 234 234

BRADFORD, Alhambra Theatre
Tuesday 10 - Saturday 14 April 2012
Box Office: 01274 432 000

SOUTHEND, Cliffs Pavilion
Tuesday 8 - Saturday 12 May 2012
Box Office: 01702 351135

MANCHESTER, Palace Theatre
Tuesday 19 - Saturday 23 June 2012
Box Office: 0844 871 3019

LIVERPOOL, Empire
Tuesday 17 - Saturday 21 April 2012
Box Office: 0844 871 3017

CARDIFF, New Theatre
Tuesday 22 - Saturday 26 May 2012
Box Office: 029 2087 8889

http://www.theatreroyal.co.uk/sites/default/files/TR_Seating_plan_Sept_2011.pdf

http://www.susanboylemusical.com/tour.h

I Dreamed A Dream Team:

MICHAEL HARRISON THE PRODUCER

Michael Harrison, producer of the musical, I Dreamed A Dream, is credited, along with Elaine C. Smith, with coming up with the idea of making a stage musical of Susan Boyle's life story. The role of producer is crucial so I've researched the man, and what a fascinating man he is. I'll write the highlights and provide links to sources at the end for those who'd like to know more.

Michael Harrison....

In 2001, age 22, he applied to the Theatre Investment Fund's new producer bursary scheme and landed the top award of pounds 15,000. He set up as an independent producer.

In June, 2007, 28 year old Michael Harrison was appointed Managing Director Qdos Entertainement, Pantomime Division by the Chairman. Welcoming him to the new role, Chairman Nick Thomas said, "Michael brings to this new position a wealth of creative talent and production skills that will see the Division develop and grow in the future. Michael and Qdos have enjoyed a fruitful relationship over the past few years and I am delighted that this new role will strengthen his association with the company."

Thomas' faith in Harrison has been justified. One of his productions was the first to pass the million dollar sales figure. 2011's Pantomime, Sleeping Beauty was the most successful in history, the seventh Theatre Royal pantomime written and produced by Newcastle-born West End producer Michael Harrison. THEATRE ROYAL NEWCASTLE QUOTE: Sales for Newcastle Theatre Royal's spectacular 2011 / 12 pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, have once again exceeded Box Office expectations making it the biggest and fastest selling pantomime in Theatre Royal history. END QUOTE

He also produces independantly with his own company, Michael Harrison Productions.

"I’ve worked on two pantos with Elaine C. Smith and produced three plays with her and we’ve never had a cross word. I’ve produced Elaine Paige’s last two concert tours." (from a Nov, 2010 interview)

Mr. Harrison's biggest production was likely 'Chess' (I Know Him So Well) which played in London's West End. He also took the play to Toronto, but his list of other produced plays is extensive.

Michael Harrison said: "Susan Boyle is an inspiring woman and her story is an excellent one to tell - someone with a raw talent who surprises the world and overturns all the odds to make a new life for herself.

“It's got all the qualities of a fairytale, but with the added bonus of being absolutely true. I am looking forward to the tour very much."

What is most evident in reading the few interviews with Mr. Harrison that I could find is his deep passion and complete love of theatre - one comes away thinking Susan Boyle's life story is in very good hands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3lAGJxgqk

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-e...anto-1.1065213

http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business...1140-22475085/

http://jctraj.blogspot.com/2011/02/t...l-mirvish.html

http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/...elharrison.htm

http://www.boxofficeaberdeen.com/new...=87&NewsID=922

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_n35530379/

_____________________________________

Edit to Add: While it is unlikely anyone attending the play will get to meet Mr. Harrison, it isn't impossible so you may like to know he was born with no right arm, so wears a prosthetic. He delights in people's shocked faces when they shake his hand for the first time, so fore warned is fore armed so to speak. lol Don't let your mouth drop open!

Elaine C. Smith Lead Actress IDAD

Ms Smith in Sleeping Beauty

Leading an outstanding cast and orchestra and taking on the lead role of Susan Boyle is Elaine C Smith, star of the hit West End stage play Calendar Girls, and who is best known for her portrayal of Mary Doll in Rab C Nesbitt on BBC Television. Ms Smith has an extensive listing of performances throughout a lengthy career and is likely Scotland's most famous actress.

Elaine says, “It’s obviously an amazing challenge as a performer to be asked and involved in a project as fantastic as this. There’s a lot of pressure to get it accurate and to honour Susan’s life story but to do it in a way that is funny, moving and magical and, as the writers, producers and performers, we’re doing our best to achieve that. We’ve been working towards this for the last 18 months but it’s now really exciting to see the whole thing come to fruition and to be working with Susan on such a wonderful event.”

Ms Smith has met Susan several times outside of work for the musical, including when Susan made a cameo appearance on Rab C. Nesbitt, and when Elaine presented Susan with her Scottish Variety Award in 2011. She also did the reading for the audio version of Susan's autobiography.

The following link is to Robert Burns songs sung by Ms Smith or written works read by her. None are available for listening 'in my area' but may be in yours:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburn...laine_c_smith/

How Ms Smith became the lead actress in this play: Her involvement came after a chance remark made by Boyle in a TV interview. She was asked who she’d like to play her in a film of her life and, being a long-time fan of Mary Doll in Rab C Nesbitt, she gave an answer that sent Smith’s website into overdrive. “I joked to Michael Harrison that we should do the stage show,” says Smith. “He laughed then phoned me back ten minutes later and said we should do it now.”

However well known Smith is, her fame is nothing on a SuBo scale and the level of attention generated by the story made her think carefully about the responsibility. “I never think it’s a shoo-in,” she says. “It’s got to be theatrical, it’s got to be relevant and it’s got to connect.”

It seems appropriate to suggest that this is the role of a lifetime for Elaine C. Smith.

For those interested, this article suggests Ms Smith earned 22,000 pounds per week for her appearance in the Sleeping Beauty production, making her Scotland's second highest earning panto star: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/home...der-money.html

http://www.westendtheatre.com/tag/elaine-c-smith/

http://www.elainecsmith.com/index.php/coming-soon.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elaine...86415954738968

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/pe...ream_1_1991113

Edit to Add: For a more detailed explanation from Ms Smith re how it all came about, read her blog post - she also mentions if and how much Susan and her team own of the show!

http://www.elainecsmith.com/index.ph...blog-subo.html

Alan McHugh Writer IDAD

Perhaps the first thing to note is that Mr. McHugh is actually credited as the co-writer with Elaine C. Smith, lead actress. As we know, Susan Boyle has 'collaborated' with the writers and has said the play is 'a realistic portrayal of my life'.

Second thing to note: I read it, but can't find the link again to provide a source, so you'll have to trust me on this part: Mr McHugh also acts, and he will have a part in the musical. Here's his photo, those who will be there can watch for him and let us know what part he plays.....

"As actor and writer he has done more, perhaps, than anyone to reinvigorate a Scottish panto tradition which many people thought had all but disappeared when Stanley Baxter hung up his frocks." Nov. 2009 article in Herald Scotland

It is encouraging again to know that Smith and McHugh have past experience working together. Another quote from the same article: " McHugh acknowledges that he has been “writing to order” for the new leading lady at HMT. “I’m putting in things that Elaine C wants, things that I wouldn’t normally put in a panto. However, I still think my main job is to find a way of incorporating these additions into the story."

Mr. McHugh is credited with writing several of the most recent (and most successful) Pantos plays which are so hugely popular in Scotland, among them: Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Pinocchio, Aladdin, Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates, Beauty and the Beast (promo vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXIiObxunU0

Also: Theatre work includes: Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Borderline); Tally’s Blood (Byre Theatre); Sunset Song (Prime Productions); A Passionate Woman (Perth Rep); Three Steps To Heaven (1st Base); The Jolly Beggars,
Bedfellows, The Silver Darlings (Wildcat Productions); The Grapes of Wrath (7:84/Dundee Rep); A Taste of Honey (The Arches); Jack and the Beanstalk (Qdos); Aladdin (Adam Smith Theatre).

Television work includes: Dear Green Place (EffinGee Productions); Jess the Border Collie (IWC Media); High Road (STV); Battlefield Britain Culloden (BBC2); Sea of Souls, River City, Rab C Nesbitt (BBC Scotland).

Film work includes: Small Moments (Oxygen Films) and Wild County (Gabriel Films).

Sources:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-e...ttons-1.933854

http://www.nationaltheatrescotland.c...sp?page=s185_4

http://www.glasgowcanal.co.uk/what's-on/aladdin

http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/...sgow%2529.html

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/re...-and-the-beast

Kennedy Aitchison Musical Director IDAD

Glaswegian Kennedy graduated from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and has been working for well over twenty years as a musical director, producer, orchestrator, and arranger in most musical genres. His theatre credits include West End and touring productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats and Saturday Night Fever. He was also assistant musical director on the Emmy award winning movie, Jesus Christ Superstar and toured extensively in the US, Canada and Europe as Musical Director of Riverdance. He has also played principal keyboard in major productions of Joseph, Evita and Sunset Boulevard.

Kennedy has been prolific in television as musical associate and Musical Director. and has performed with the RSNO, RPO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Dionne Warwick, Michael Bolton, John Barrowman, Randy Crawford, The Three Degrees, The Supremes, Shirley Bassey and The Drifters.

Most recently, he was the musical director for Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert (O2-Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.). For a complete, extensive list of works he has been involved with over the past 28 years, click this link:
http://www.kennedyaitchison.com/

What is notable on the above list is that his skills range widely, for he is credited in various ways depending on the job: Musical direction, composing/producing music for tv, film, theatre and CD, arranging/orchestrating, playing piano and all keyboards, conducting, musical supervision, contracting high quality musicians.

Like Producer Michael Harrison, Mr Aitchison has worked previously with Elaine C. Smith. The fact that all three have worked together in the past, and all three have experience working at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle can only be a very good thing for the production!

SOURCES:

http://www.betweenweathers.com/index...edy-aitchison/

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kennedy-aitchison/5/94b/1ab

http://www.kennedyaitchison.com/

March 17, 2012
Morgan ‏ @MorganLarge
Great run through of I Dreamed A Dream #idreamedadream today.... I think a few people are in for a surprise

He joined Sir Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts at 18 and left with a first-class degree in theatre and performance design. 'Paul used to have a drink in our bar; I actually jammed with him at graduation, so I get to say I was in a band with Paul McCartney,' he says.

Morgan has designed sets for Footloose and Gone With the Wind in the West End, Don Giovanni for Opera East productions and the UK tour of Never Forget, the Take That musical. He shares a house in South West London with an actress, a stage manager and another theatre designer.

Who are your theatre heroes?
I'm incredibly lucky, because I've got to work with most of them already. The theatre designer Christopher Oram is a close friend and incredible at what he does.

We did Othello, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, and Frost/Nixon at the Donmar together. Michael Grandage, who directed both, is an inspiration, and always gets the best out of his team.

How Fame was stage school?
There was dancing on tables, so quite a bit. I designed the set for Fame in the West End recently, so I drew on my own experience.

What do you enjoy most about designing?
The research phase is fascinating because you jump into a completely di erent world. I usually go straight out to buy books about the era to get into character.

Do you still get stage fright?
It's nerve-racking because you never know what the reviews will say, but come first night there's a welcome relief and, if I'm lucky, instant gratification.

Which is your favourite musical?
I like a new Broadway show called In The Heights, about the vibrant Manhattan neighbourhood Washington Heights. And Wicked and Sunset Boulevard.

Has anything ever gone horribly wrong?

There was one preview of Fame in the West End where a piece of the set came falling out of the sky. But no injuries yet.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/introducing-morgan-large-a-backstage-star-6706653.html

Tweet on March 17, 2012

Morgan ‏ @MorganLarge
Great run through of I Dreamed A Dream #idreamedadream today.... I think a few people are in for a surprise

Nick Winston‏@N1CKW1NSTON
Last day of rehearsals in Glasgow - been a great month! Looking forward to Newcastle next week and surprising a few people! #idreamedadream

Nick Winston ‏ @N1CKW1NSTON
Lovely night with Michael Harrison, @edcurtis @bcracknell @MorganLarge @jackjames and Richard Brooker.

Nick Winston is the choreographer for 'Dream' and a very in demand man, it is far from the only play on his plate this season:
http://www.nickwinston.co.uk/current.htm

Susan Boyle: Singer and Now Businesswoman

By Marie Sheahan Brown

Who can forget the YouTube masterpiece? She strode and sashayed onto the stage with golden stature and confidence. She sparred wittily with the three famous judges, wearied by their long day of auditions in Glasgow, Scotland. She didn’t look the part of a “professional singer,” although one might perceive that being “currently unemployed” at forty-seven left little extra for beauty-shop pampering. Was she, rather, a comedienne? Susan Boyle audition

Then she sang. The formerly skeptical audience stood enraptured, tears welling as she belted out “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Misérables with stunning clarity and passion.

More than five years after the seven-minute audition video aired on Britain’s Got Talent on April 11, 2009, and promptly hit worldwide news feeds, multitudes in America and beyond remember Susan Boyle. Since she first broke Amazon pre-sale records in September 2009, millions have bought her albums. Each year, a new carefully crafted album has been released in time for Christmas. Since 2009, five albums have garnered sixty-three gold and ninety-four platinum sales levels in forty-two countries. Her sixth album, Hope, will be released on October 21 in the United States.

Scottish and United Kingdom audiences thrilled to Miss Boyle’s first full-length concert tours in 2013 and 2014. Now she’s coming to America—home of an immediate and strong support base—starting in San Diego on October 8, and singing her way across the southern half of the United States at venues in twenty cities. A sweep through the northern states could likely follow in the future.

See http://www.susanboylemusic.com/us/events

Many have written about Susan Boyle’s difficult and graced life. Her 2010 autobiography, The Woman I Was Born to Be, is a good source. Now fifty-three, she carefully revealed late in 2013 that, after decades of mistaken assumptions, she had finally been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. The relief of self-knowledge strengthens and encourages her after a lifetime of dealing with debilitating anxiety and panic attacks, and some difficulty in handling emotions and relating comfortably to people.

“This is a point: People may have problems,” she states in a documentary, “but they’ve got other things as well. And they’ve got a lot more to offer.” (Gammon, Lottie, produced, filmed, and directed. “There’s Something About Susan.” Firecracker Films Ltd. for ITV, 45:37 minutes. 2013)

Fewer analyses have considered her role as a small businesswoman and philanthropist whose personal success has enhanced the lives and small businesses of countless others not only in her native Scotland but also in, for example, America.

Miss Boyle, easily mistaken for a stately five feet ten in the famous video, is, in fact, barely over five feet tall with soft, dainty hands and feet—a huggable China doll. So she does qualify as a smallbusinesswoman despite her multimillions in sales, which also benefit business giants like Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited; SYCOmusic (Simon Cowell); Simon & Schuster, Inc.; Amazon; and, more recently, concert tour bus companies. In significant other ways, she retains her focus on the little ones.

The woman who had “never been married, never been kissed” and remains a virgin has, since 2009, given birth with astonishing fecundity. Lewis Hyde well describes her kind of gift and fertility in his 1983 classic, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property: “I have hoped . . . to speak of the inner gift that we accept as the object of our labor, and the outer gift that has become a vehicle of culture. I am not concerned with gifts given in spite or fear, nor those gifts we accept out of servility or obligation; my concern is the gift we long for, the gift that, when it comes, speaks commandingly to the soul and irresistibly moves us.”

Mr. Hyde first explores traditional “gift economies,” in which citizens are considered wealthy not according to how much they acquire but how much they give. In fictional form, Jean M. Auel’s well-researched Earth’s Children series (The Clan of the Cave Bear and five sequels) describes the creativity and ingenuity that led people to survive, to form communities, and to work cooperatively for mutual benefit. Goods, services, storytelling and musical talents, art, and many other gifts were appreciated in deeper ways than they might be in a typical “market economy.”

According to reviewer JoAnn Schwartz, “Above all, Hyde is interested in examining the effect our current immersion in the market economy and the myth of the free market has both on our view of gifts and on our ability to give and receive them. The market economy is deliberately impersonal, but the whole purpose of the ‘gift economy’ is to establish and strengthen the relationships between us, to connect us one to the other. It is this element of relationship which leads Hyde to speak of gift exchange as ‘erotic’ commerce, opposing eros (the principle of attraction, union, involvement which binds together) to logos (reason and logic in general, the principle of differentiation in particular). A market economy is an emanation of logos.

“In a market economy,” Ms. Schwartz continues, “one can hoard one’s goods without losing wealth. Indeed, wealth is increased by hoarding—although we generally call it ‘saving.’ In contrast, in a gift economy, wealth is decreased by hoarding, for it is the circulation of the gift(s) within the community that leads to increase—increase in connections, increase in relationship strength. Through this book, Hyde helps us focus on the importance of gifts, their flow and movement, and the impact that the modern market place has had on the circulation of gifts.” (http://southerncrossreview.org/4/schwartz.html)

Susan Boyle does appreciate the financial security that she had never known, especially in the fearsome years after her mother died in 2007, when Miss Boyle kept her house cold so that she could afford the heating bill. Yet more important, Susan Boyle has said all along, “I sing to make people happy.” When she was a girl, the gift spoke “commandingly to the soul”—her soul. She honed, honed, honed the gift to perfection over decades of world obscurity. She sees with gratitude and humility the effects of this gift on people worldwide. When this gift is pointed out to her in personal conversation, she bows her head and lowers her eyes shyly. “Thank you.”

Miss Boyle’s fame and financial success have boosted tourism modestly in West Lothian, Scotland, with its pastoral more than spectacular scenery, a region that has suffered from bouts of economic depression and unemployment over the past few centuries. In February 2013, for example, following a centuries-old pattern, the main employer in the area—Halls of Broxburn meat processing plant—was closed by foreign owners, leaving 1,700 unemployed.

Lorraine Campbell co-owns and manages The Balbairdie—a nicely refurbished old hotel and pub in Bathgate, West Lothian. When the economy suffers, The Balbairdie feels it. Asked how she copes, Ms. Campbell replied, “You just keep going.” Happily, the local economy has improved some since 2013, according to Ms. Campbell in April 2014.

Miss Boyle has engaged experts like Andy Stephens, manager; Nicola Phillips, publicist; and Andrew Panton, creative and vocal director, to name a few. She has provided jobs for local personal assistants who handle correspondence, scheduling, wardrobe consultation, and myriad other details; gardeners; carpenters to renovate the council house she grew up and still lives in (her first big post-Britain’s Got Talent purchase); a housekeeper; women who fix her hair, do her nails, and apply her makeup for special public appearances and photo sessions; and others who tend to basic needs of a now-busy celebrity who still prefers to live in her home village, stop in at her favorite small shops and establishments, and take the bus.

Miss Boyle has also given seed money and sponsorship for creative business and charitable ventures in her local community and beyond. One start-up, Boyle’s Boutique, is an extended-family cottage industry that sells, among others, products featuring the new Boyle Tartan created for the family. Products may be ordered online.

Susan Boyle’s very capable personal assistant Sadie Boyle (no relation) says Miss Boyle gets about four hundred emails weekly, many requesting her generosity. This kind of response to another’s fame and fortune is not uncommon.

More unusual, and a clearer example of the fruits of the “gift economy,” is the generation of a worldwide community of Susan Boyle supporter-fans who have formed friendships, discovered or rekindled their own creative gifts, invested thousands of volunteer hours, spread financial generosity, and—to a small extent—started creative cottage enterprises for profit or merely to cover expenses.

Several unofficial Susan Boyle fansites live on the Internet. The first and largest, still flourishing, is www.susan-boyle.com. On April 11, 2009, Paul Wood, a London construction worker, watched Miss Boyle’s audition on TV and immediately put up a website. Starting within hours after the audition aired, people from many continents to whom Susan Boyle’s gift spoke “commandingly to the soul” were “irresistibly move[d]” to find out anything they could about her on the Internet. They frequently stumbled across Mr. Wood’s hastily launched site with its prolific discussion threads generating hundreds of written comments every day in the first two months of Miss Boyle’s fame.

To bring some order to the conversational chaos, Mr. Wood launched a companion Forum in June 2009 with more sophisticated software, accessed through the main website. Anyone could (and still can) join for free. The main rules are that one not be an Internet troll (a term and experience many had never heard of), that one behave reasonably civilly as outlined in posted guidelines, and that one not use the Forum itself for commercial purposes (more on that later).

Volunteer moderators and techies keep the discussions and online experience on an even keel. Online advertisements generated by Google AdSense and Amazon sales linked to the website (“SuBo Store”) help pay for the normal operational expenses.

In early 2010, Mr. Wood announced that he was going to auction off the website (some fifty thousand registered members) and its Forum (a few thousand registered members at the time). The worldwide member community could not bear the prospect of being taken over by some unknown commercial entity with other goals. So they decided to bid on the fansite themselves. A few members—by no means wealthy—each voluntarily loaned trusted fellow members a few thousand dollars to buy the fansite during the auction. The effort succeeded in July 2010.

Navigating through some tensions and hurt feelings (typical in any community anywhere), the worldwide Susan Boyle Fans International, Inc. (SBFII) community established itself as a non-profit corporation registered in Delaware, USA. SBFII elects a multinational volunteer board of directors; keeps meticulous financial records and files annual tax returns; maintains bylaws; and holds online annual meetings and elections engaging active members. Technically not a charity, SBFII uses AdSense and SuBo Store income to cover modest expenses and keep a healthy bank balance. Funds left over from voluntary collections (often for tasteful gifts for Miss Boyle for special occasions) are donated to a charity of Susan Boyle’s choice, frequently benefitting children in Scotland. By December 2011, SBFII repaid all interest-free loans given by members to buy the website; it remains debt free. No member gets paid for services to SBFII or personally benefits financially.

From the beginning, even silver-haired grandmothers proficient only with email learned to navigate the fansites in order to participate in a community of people who have experienced an inexplicable response to Susan Boyle—both her singing and her unique way of being—unlike their response to other favorite singers. Within months, members began gathering in person around the globe (often in restaurants, boosting local economies). They attended (and surreptitiously filmed and posted to the fansites for the enjoyment of those who could not attend) Miss Boyle’s performances in various cities (Britain’s Got Talent tour venues in the UK; Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, and more). Supporter-fans flocked to these events even though—until only 2013, when she first tried her own full-length concerts in Scotland—Miss Boyle was slated to sing just one, two, maybe three songs. These gatherings supported local hotels, B+Bs, restaurants, cab drivers, shops, and other travel-related businesses.

Miss Boyle and her team soon experienced that supporter-fans who came to these early events were older or at least more mature than stereotypical rowdies at, for example, Justin Bieber concerts. They saw that typical Susan Boyle supporter-fans are responsible, respectful, fun loving, generative. They include retired or active professionals—teachers, nurses, techies, writers, musicians, artists, farmers, truckers, businesspeople, social workers, radio hosts, professors, lawyers, homemakers, construction workers, postmasters, foresters.

To most gatherings (usually at restaurants) supporter-fans bring homemade memorabilia to share, including commemorative buttons and red scarves to identify themselves in various venues. The popularity of such items led SBFII to add another linked site, “Fan Creations,” linked in turn to the creators’ individual websites. Products include non-Susan-Boyle-related fan creations. Currently, three members offer SuBotique Hand Painted Apparel; Creative Images by tweek (Buttons, Mugs, etc.); and Susan Boyle Professional Singer chronicles gathered from news and other sources.

SBFII members often post creative ideas and images to discuss in writing with one another. Memorably, in 2009, a member from Texas, one from Iowa, and other volunteers, coordinated an international quilting bee. Supporter-fans from every continent, including Antarctica, created and mailed squares for a handmade quilt presented to Miss Boyle at a brunch following her debut solo appearance on the Todayshow on November 23—the day her first album, I Dreamed A Dream, was released in the United States and quickly broke world records in several categories.

Members can upload Susan-related videos that they have created; share poems that they’ve written; upload posters that they’ve designed digitally to document Miss Boyle’s career and accomplishments; upload news reports of supporter-fan activities, complete with photographs; post fine pencil drawings or paintings displaying talent the artists had only recently discovered; and offer a place where members can contribute their own essays. These essays, sometimes written in French or other non-English languages, often try to explain how the wee singer with the big voice; the shy woman who communicates profoundly—cor ad cor loquitur—through music others have written; the multimillionaire who stays in her small lifelong home and still takes the bus—the essentially inexplicable Susan Boyle—“irresistibly moves” them.

SBFII and other volunteers take responsibility to daily and positively post or re-post Susan Boyle news, photos, and encounters on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Their Internet involvement began immediately when Miss Boyle became famous—and once again experienced the bullying known since childhood, only this time inflicted by some members of the media and anonymous commentators. She writes in her autobiography, “What I didn’t know then, because I didn’t have a computer at the time, was that every time there was a mean comment about me in the press, a dozen messages of support would appear in response. On the Internet there was a growing community of fans. I had no idea how many people out there in the world felt moved to stick up for me, and I want to thank everybody for that.” (The Woman I Was Born to Be, pages 188–189)

Miss Boyle’s professional team also encourages creativity from fans. Starting with the first documentary of her life, Susan Boyle: I Dreamed A Dream, produced in 2009 by Talkback Thames, fans were invited via the official www.susanboylemusic.com site (picked up and promoted by volunteer sites) to send short videos of themselves saying “Hello, Susan!” with backdrops representing their locations. Several clips from around the world were chosen for the documentary. As a lead-up to Miss Boyle’s second album, The Gift, she held a worldwide “Susan’s Search” competition, inviting any amateur singer to upload a brief selfie singing “Silent Night.” The winner, Amber Stassi, a thirty-three-year-old paramedic from Brewerton, New York, sang “Do You Hear What I Hear?” with Miss Boyle on the album and at the 2010 outdoor Today show appearance in New York City.

In the 2013 and 2014 concert tours in Scotland and the United Kingdom, Miss Boyle and her team selected local choirs to serve as back-up choruses in every city, receiving standard financial compensation. Already individual choir members in the United States are tweeting: “Aaliyah Buchanan ‏@Itsuko_Sora I’m to pumped, i get to sing for Susan Boyle!!!!” and “Drew Mikuska ‏@DrewMikuska Hahahahaha I’m singing backup for Susan Boyle.”

Already in the twenty cities spanning the southern United States, supporter-fans from as far away as Australia and Scotland are buying tickets. They are organizing pre-concert dinner-camaraderie gatherings for supporter-fans, some of whom they have never met in person but know through their written posts on fansites. Restaurants, hotels, theaters, airlines, public transportation providers, cab drivers, and many small businesses will benefit. Susan Boyle, her team, and numerous music-related vendors will profit.

Yet in Susan Boyle’s “gift economy,” which she neither forecasted nor manipulated, money can facilitate but cannot possibly buy the greatest benefits to the community in which she finds herself to be the generator and principal member. In this higher economy, she is both blessed herself and a blessing to countless others.

As recently reported on her official website, Susan says about her upcoming United States concert tour: “This is a brilliant moment for me. The past five years have been incredible, and it just keeps getting better. I have spoken so often about wanting to tour America and be able to visit different cities for the first time—I’m so excited. This really will be fantastic, and I can’t wait for October. The US embraced and supported me from the beginning, and it really feels like a second home. So I can’t wait to get on the road and perform there.”

Source:Small Business Exchange Northeast