But changes, though they may be frustrating for a real-live cast, according to Alfred have consistently improved the musical academically. "It gets stronger with each draft," he says.

It is challenging, Alfred says, to write songs which not only achieve characterization, but also move along the action of the musical. "That's a very difficult thing to do," he says.

The advisor explains that at first he feared Fletcher's rhymes "were too easily arrived at." But experience has greatly improved Fletcher's rhyming ability, says Alfred.

"He's gotten better. That's a skill that takes years. He certainly has the talent to do that," says Alfred. "I think he's largely achieved that in the songs he has."

A Special Concentration

The project as a whole was something Fletcher knew he wanted to do, but he never dreamed it would be one he could pursue as an academic endeavor, he says.

After a year as a Music and English concentrator, Fletcher says he realized at the end of his sophomore year that it was time to change. "There wasn't as much opportunity to do the kinds of things I was most interested in," he says.

Making the switch in concentrations wasn't easy. "The special concentration people want to make sure your program is not too specific, nor too general," Fletcher says. He also needed written statements from faculty certifying that he could not satisfactorily "pursue his goals" in the Music and English departments.

As a Music and Dramatic Arts concentrator, Fletcher has been able to study what he wants to. "I have always been interested in music," Fletcher says. The director and composer started playing the piano at age five, and discovered the theater at age six. "I've been interested in the combination of the two. When I got to Harvard, I was interested in a combination but I didn't think it was possible," Fletcher says.

"So much of our life combines language and music, and that's what I'm interested in," he continues. "I really wanted to study that--existing forms, and creating original works: songs, musicals and opera."

So the switch was a good idea: and according to Alfred, Fletcher is well suited to the world of the stage. "He does have a working sense of the shape of a dramatic action. He showed he could grow with the genre, which is what you hope for with someone just beginning to write for theater," says the professor.

Making the Grade

Now that Fletcher has created an original work, he says that he believes "there is a lot of anticipation for this project because it hasn't been done before; in my time it hasn't been done as a thesis."

And when all is said and done, the musical will, like any other thesis, have to be graded. Fletcher's graders will attend a performance of "The Errols." But luckily for him, if someone should come down with laryingitis, that won't mean automatic failure for Fletcher.

"If the actors happen to have a bad night when the graders come, that won't affect my grade. What really counts for my thesis is what's written--the score and libretto," Fletcher explains.

But regardless of whether his project is a summa or not, someday, Fletcher says, he would like to play the role of director again--but in front of an orchestra. After a year or two as a music and theater teacher at Andover, Fletcher wants to apply to conservatories in order to study conducting, he says.

"It's very difficult and it's going to take lots of work and discipline, which I have to develop," Fletcher says. But the challenge doesn't frighten him away from setting high goals, as it did not frighten him in choosing to pursue his offbeat thesis.

When considering the concert halls and opera houses where he'd most like to conduct, Fletcher laughs, before answering: "the big ones."