Five days doesn't sound long enough to create a musical. So how has one group done it, asks Louise Holden.

Take a dozen songs, written by a classful of students on a range of themes, and try to make a musical. The result in an unlikely tale that sees a pirate's curse freeze the canals of Venice and a disillusioned Mafioso fleeing to an island of Abba worshippers.

Over five days the transition-year students of Mount Temple School in north Dublin created the script, score and set of a show they called Bringing Back The Heat. Otherwise retiring students found themselves singing their songs to a packed house.

"I'm quite shy as a rule," says Stephen Woods as he sews a section of pirate flag. "But I'll be singing a song on stage tonight that I had a part in writing. Hopefully, I'll have more confidence after this."

Caomhain Connolly is more comfortable in the limelight; this is the second time he has taken part in the drama programme for schools run by Actiontrack Performance Co, an organisation based in England. Caomhain has written a song that he will perform in his lead role as an uncomfortable gangster called Slip the Leash.

He explains how the class came together to create the musical. "On the first day of the week we used word- association games to come up with ideas for songs. Everyone wrote a title and a few passages, and then we put these into a hat. We all drew out someone else's work and finished it off. Then we chose the best work and began to build a story."

Naturally, the lyrical themes were disparate, and the result is a musical that sweeps across eras and storylines. With the help of the Actiontrack team, however, the students were able to create a credible fantasy adventure that made sense of all their work. By Wednesday the script was ready and rehearsals and set building began.

"There is just no time to be shy about doing your bit," says Christine Orford, another student. "Everyone is involved in everything, and we've all written a piece of the script. I'm singing a song I wrote with another student called Sleeping With The Fishes. It was because of this tune that the Mafia theme was introduced. Usually, I would never have the confidence to get up and sing in front of people, but the whole project came together so fast: before I knew it I was up there."

Actiontrack comes to Mount Temple every year to create a show with the school's transition-year students. They also visit other Irish schools with their whirlwind programme. Schools keep the fees reasonable by spreading the cost between ticket sales, transition-year budgets and student contributions. This year Actiontrack has visited Mount Temple twice because the students demanded it.

"This has been a great project for our school," says Michael Tubridy, Mount Temple's transition-year co-ordinator. "It's our fourth year with the programme, and it has become a highlight of transition year in Mount Temple. It brings together all the key principles of transition year: teamwork, creativity, new skills and confidence building."

When I visited the school's assembly hall on the day of dress rehearsal I found a maelstrom of activity. Students were everywhere, building façades from bamboo and tissue paper, painting Venetian street scenes, putting the final touches to an enormous pirate flag and making costumes from scraps of fabric. In every corner others were singing songs, reciting lines or pacing out scenes. Two students, Mel O'Brien and Gerard 'G' Gibney, were rapping in one corner while an angelic, Didoesque voice balanced the rough with the smooth.

"All the students are really switched on," says Rachel Harland of Actiontrack. "The male students are as enthusiastic as the females. We came here earlier in the year and it was mostly girls who took part. This time it's the other way around."

The students are psyched about the performance because it's exactly the way they want it, says Clara Talbot, who plays a Venetian coffee merchant called Cappuccini. "These are all our own ideas. The songs are written in the styles we know and love. At the beginning of the week we didn't trust our abilities to write and perform our own material. Now here we are, five days later, about to stage our own show."

Nick Brace of Actiontrack has been facilitating school drama and music for 20 years; he believes the key to success is to get everyone as involved as possible. "Over the five days these students go on a journey of self-discovery. Some travel further than others, and it's not necessarily the most obvious candidates who take the biggest steps. The student who steals the show with her performance may have come a certain distance, but the student who sang a line may have made an enormous leap of confidence."

Brace believes every education system should introduce a version of transition year. "I can see the growth of these individuals over the course of the year: it's really startling. I wish we had something similar in the UK."

Actiontrack's website is at www. actiontrack.org.uk. The group is keen to train theatre practitioners who wish to develop versions of the programme in Ireland and beyond