Who created this musical?
Three Gemstones Productions was formed in July 2015 for the purpose of producing the musical Artaban.
Meet the creative team of Daphne Lander, Rick Radley and Anne Jones.
Anne Jones – Lyricist
Anne lives in The New Forest National Park with her husband Tony and two Labradors. She is an established author of 7 books which are in 18 languages world-wide. Her work as inspirational speaker and healer keeps her constantly on the move as she regularly tours Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, South Africa, USA and Norway where she gives seminars and appears on TV and radio. Her writing career has focused on self-help books, blogging and articles in magazines. Her venture into fiction, a trilogy of novels, The Master Series is due to be published in 2022. She is excited and inspired by her collaboration with Daphne and Rick on the musical ‘Artaban’ and is eagerly awaiting the first “Curtain Up”.
Daphne Lander – Librettist
Daphne Lander lives in Surrey with her husband David. She has been involved with the Theatre throughout her life, both amateur and semi-professionally. She has been a member of several drama societies in Surrey and South London. A trained singer, she has played leading roles in many musicals including Sister Sarah in ‘Guys and Dolls’, Evie in ‘Stop the World I want to get off’, Nancy in ‘Oliver’, Nellie Forbush in ‘South Pacific’ and Sally Bowles in ‘Cabaret’. She has headed the cast in a wide range of plays including Brian Friel’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’, Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Bedroom Farce’, and as Ranyevskaya in Chekov’s ‘Cherry Orchard’.
Daphne’s directing credits include Arthur Miller’s ‘All my Sons’, John Godber’s ‘Up and Under’ and Michael Frayn’s ‘Alphabetical Order’. She has also directed Pantomimes and variety evenings. She currently sings with a Swing Jazz Band.
She was commissioned to write a play celebrating the Centenary of a local Church and also adapted the radio Christmas play ‘Bethlehem’ for the stage. She has greatly enjoyed adapting the book of “The Other Wise Man” and is pleased to be part of the artistic team along with Anne and Rick.
Rick Radley – Composer
Rick lives in beautiful Dorset with his wife Sashi. He is a professional musician and composer who has been in the music business for many years. His early career included backing various well-known UK and USA recording artists e.g.. Billy Fury – Madeline Bell – The Flirtations – Bruce Channel to name a few. His career continued as lead singer/guitarist under the alias of `Fred` with Dr Marigolds Prescription who toured during the late 1960`s and 1970`s in the UK and abroad. The band had several record releases, radio and TV appearances. Dr Marigolds held the No. 1 slot in South Africa for 16 weeks in 1973 with their single `Hello Girl`. They also had album releases in the UK and USA. Rick continued to tour internationally during the 80`s and 90`s, and is still working as Lead Guitarist and Vocalist with a touring band performing at high profile society functions.
When first approached by Anne to compose the music for `Artaban` he wasn’t sure, as it was so far away from his genre of Rock and Blues. However, once he read the lyrics and libretto something magical happened.