To open its 2024 season, Checkpoint Theatre returns to school with a musical composed and written by its associate artist, weish.

Described as an “unconventional musical”, I spoke to Playwright-Composer weish and Director Huzir Sulaiman to find out more about the production.

What inspired you to create Secondary: The Musical?

weish: The short answer is: Huzir Sulaiman. He came to me with the idea in late 2020, and since then he and the Checkpoint team have spent three years working with me to develop and refine the piece over several table reads and feedback sessions.

The piece draws heavily from my experience as a literature teacher in public schools. I learnt some difficult lessons about class and inequality, and the unseen struggles of less privileged students in the underbelly of our meritocratic ideals.

As my dramaturg, Huzir has always reminded me to balance light and dark, and in moments where I burrowed myself too far into my own head to see clearly, he encouraged me to put my cerebral and conceptual brain on hold in favour of listening to my instincts and emotions. In doing so I realised there was a lot of joy, hope, and humour in the world I was trying to represent.

In that light, I hope the work isn’t primarily received as an indictment of society, but more a celebration: of real people and their enduring humanity, in all their flaws and idiosyncrasies.

Checkpoint Theatre has worked with weish on several occasions. How did this project come about?

Huzir Sulaiman: weish’s engagement with Checkpoint Theatre has been deepening and growing over the last 12 years, from project to project, while her powers as a writer and musician have been similarly maturing into something quite astonishing, marrying lightness and joy with technical sophistication. I encouraged weish to write a full-length musical quite simply because she is a brilliant artist with a lot of important questions that she wants to investigate in her work, and she has the ability to do that in dialogue, lyrics and music. She combines those skills with both compassion and intellectual rigour—a vital combination when thinking about the education system!

You described the show as an unconventional musical. How would you describe the music in the show?

weish: In response to our trailer someone had joked, “Ah, the weish chord”! That really tickled me. But if it was any indication that there is something signature to my sound in the ears of others, I am glad. The show is a mix of spoken scenes—naturalistic and otherwise—and 15 original songs. I have had the pleasure of working with Ian Lee and Daniel Alex Chia from independent music label PK Records as my arrangers and producers, and they’ve breathed new life into the music in ways that balance my own sensibilities. The music is quite alternative and unconventional to the musical theatre style, but still accessible, and very lyric-driven. Genres range from folk to hip-hop to electronic, but what I hope ties them together is a rawness of emotion and sincerity. And, perhaps, a “weish chord”…

Photo: Daryl Eng / Courtesy of Checkpoint Theatre

What drew you to direct this show?

Huzir Sulaiman: It’s my privilege and responsibility to oversee the development of much of Checkpoint Theatre’s new work. Before formally becoming her director, I worked with weish for three years as the dramaturg for Secondary: The Musical, giving my feedback on her drafts—many fragmentary songs and scenes at first, then eventually 11 full drafts. I would discuss my thoughts and suggested revisions, also collating and curating the feedback that the Checkpoint team and actors would have after every read.

Music has always played a huge part in my life. Telling stories and expressing thoughts and feelings through not just spoken text but also song, the way it’s done in Secondary: The Musical, resonates with me as both an artist and on a deeply personal level. And weish and I have a fairly similar sense of humour, so I think that helps me enter into the world of the characters. I was fortunate that weish agreed for me to direct this work, and I consider it a great gift. weish is also musical director for the show, overseeing the singing and musical arrangements, and it’s great to see her at work.

While music elements have been featured in various Checkpoint Theatre’s productions, this is the first proper musical produced by the company. What were some of the difficulties in working on this original musical?

Huzir Sulaiman: Our first-ever musical was actually City Night Songs in 2012—in fact, that was the very production that kicked off weish’s and Checkpoint Theatre’s long happy years of collaboration. She was one of my assistant directors then. There are certainly new challenges when you work on a large production, in terms of integrating and balancing all the elements of performance—singing, choreography, acting, and all the processes involved in dramaturgy, design, rehearsal, and production.

Were there any interesting discoveries during the rehearsal process?

weish: The sheer amount of talent in the room has been overwhelming. Our cast is stellar, and I have been very moved by how invested they are in the work—from bringing their own ideas to the table, to sharing deeply personal anecdotes that resonate with the play, or sending me midnight voice messages with vocal experiments they are trying out at home. I have been moved to tears countless times through rehearsals—sometimes just witnessing the way in which Huzir teases out nuance and depth in each character, or watching Hafeez’s choreography imbue a song with new layers of meaning.

As for the music, it has been surreal. For more than 10 years I have written and performed my own music, and now I get to sit before a cast of 12, singing my words and melodies with so much conviction and emotion… I feel so lucky, and I’ve been very emotional through it all.

Huzir Sulaiman: Working with my 12 cast members (plus two understudies), I tried to pull out and make clear the themes and questions that the text poses. Improvisations and discussions allowed us to flesh out the backstories of the characters. Building a rich and detailed world was important to me, as well as ensuring the story unfolded with both clarity and nuance. I tend to work first in broad strokes, returning to scenes again and again to get ever more specific and layered.

Choreographer Hafeez Hassan and weish as musical director worked alongside me in the rehearsal room to optimise the movement and singing respectively. They are so good at what they do that it was a joy.

Has this show made you look at your schooling experience in a new light? How so?

weish: Not schooling exactly, but teaching, yes; I was forced to confront my flaws and failings as a teacher with new eyes, which has been difficult, but cathartic. The show has also reframed my feelings looking back on my time in the service—where before I had filed these memories as depressing or scary, I now remember all the things that were delightful, life-affirming. Avuncular maths teachers and their dad jokes; cleaning aunties who were deeply wise and kind; the hilarious and absurd things teenagers say; quiet poems and little letters and earnest journals that made me smile.

Huzir Sulaiman: Kindness is so important. Not only for students but also for teachers, who deserve compassion and understanding from pupils and colleagues equally. I wish I had realised these things when I was a kid. I had no idea what my teachers were going through—I found out years later that some were dealing with domestic violence, with divorce, with chronic illnesses. Adults seem so powerful, but I now know how fragile they are.

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Catch It!

Secondary: The Musical runs from 19 to 28 April 2024 at Victoria Theatre.