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Writing songs brought them together. A hit song tore them apart.
Overview
In the songwriting rooms of New York’s Brill Building, Mara, a session player, and songwriter Charlie find each other through the songs they write together.
Take 51 follows what happens when one of those songs starts to move through producers, performers, and the system around them, and as it does, Mara begins to see how easily her voice disappears, and what it takes to claim the work as her own.
The title song: demos, deadlines, and the take that lands.
Synopsis
Inside the Brill Building, Mara, a session singer, finds creative and emotional connection with Charlie, a young songwriter, and together they begin writing songs that quickly gain attention. But as their work moves through producers and performers, the industry starts to reshape the songs — and as Charlie is pushed forward, Mara finds herself increasingly sidelined, her contribution heard everywhere but recognised nowhere.
As success arrives unevenly, Mara is forced to confront the cost of staying inside a system that’s elevating her work while erasing her voice. What began as a shared creative bond becomes a fight for authorship and identity, as she is pushed to decide whether to remain part of the machine, or claim her voice, and the work, as her own.
Writer
Writer, composer and lyricist
Ian M. Wilson creates original musical theatre shaped by music, memory and identity, where performance can protect, distort, or reveal who we are.
His work focuses on the people behind the sound: who is heard, who is hidden, and who claims authorship, with projects in development with Adrian Grant Productions and Bill Elms Theatricals across the UK and US.
Take 51 explores authorship — who claims it, and who is denied it.
Contact
For creative, development, producing, or industry enquiries relating to Take 51, please contact:
Writer, composer, lyricist, collaborations, workshops, and development conversations.
Selected character
Mara is a gifted young songwriter trying to find her place inside a world that rewards polish, speed, and certainty. Beneath the ambition is someone still deciding what she is willing to trade for a song to be heard.
Mara at the edge of her future — talented, hungry, and still being told she is not quite ready.