I was the only local writer in the collaboration. Kari Skousen and Bill Kilpatrick are from Southern California. We don't like to compare our show with the Caird-Gordon musical, because we think it's very different. I saw the LaJolla production on the first night of the preview, and I believe there is room for our show out there, too. When we started writing, we didn't think there were any other Jane Eyre musicals out there; now we know of three others, which we have all seen. We didn't want the darkness that pervaded the Caird-Gordon play, because we found it depressing, and we think this is a very uplifting story. We have darkness at the right moments, but we want the audience to feel good at the right moments also. We have a message to get across, which I didn't get from the Caird-Gordon musical.

As to our lyrics being repetitive, perhaps Ms. Watkins couldn't hear the words very well, because we feel we have very little repetitions. A few choruses may repeat once or twice, as choruses are supposed to, but the verses are very different--sometimes even in melody.

The acting that Ms. Watkins criticized is merely community theater, and many of our actors had never been on stage before. We think they did amazingly well for the amount of experience they had. We are a small community, so we did not have a long list of talent to draw from.

As this was a work in progress, some of the orchestration was not completed, but most of the songs were fully orchestrated, on CD.

I found the Caird-Gordon musical very well performed, and the technical design was awe-inspiring, but I did not find the music memorable. The lyrics were good, but the sound of the songs did not vary enough one from another. I did not go home humming any tunes.

Though Caird and Gordon are about 4 years ahead of us, we feel we should go ahead with our project, because we have a different take on the story. We know we still have a long way to go, but we feel confident that "Jane Eyre: The Musical" will reach those it is meant to.