Perfect Pitch and Theatre Royal Stratford East announce award for Musical Theatre Writing

• New partnership between Perfect Pitch and Theatre Royal Stratford East
• Musical theatre award for emerging writing talent
• £12,000 award for winners to develop a new musical
• Winner to be announced at event at St James’s Theatre on 5 Feb 2016

Perfect Pitch and Theatre Royal Stratford East are delighted to announce they will be partnering together to present the 2015/16 Perfect Pitch Award for Musical Theatre Writing.

Both companies, known for developing new musical theatre, are collaborating on the project, which will see a new, British writing team awarded with £12,000 and the opportunity to collaborate on a new musical.

Writers from across the UK apply as individuals to take part in the scheme and successful candidates will be paired up with a collaborator to work on a 10-minute pitch of a new musical which will be presented in rehearsed reading format before a panel of experienced industry judges.

The final pitching event will take place at St James’s Theatre on 5th February 2016 where the winning team will be awarded the £12,000 prize fund and will be tasked with writing a full draft of a new show in a 12-month period, with a view to having the piece presented in a professional staged reading or production of the piece.

They will be mentored and supported throughout by Theatre Royal Stratford East and Perfect Pitch.

Andy Barnes, Executive Director at Perfect Pitch said: ‘We have been chatting with the team at Theatre Royal Stratford East for a while about working together on a project and after we invited Kerry to sit on the judging panel for our last Award, it felt like a natural progression to collaborate together this time around.’             

Kerry Michael, Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East said: ‘Creating new musical theatre is a key part of the work we do here so we are always looking to discover new artists to work with. We’re delighted to be partnering Perfect Pitch on this project and hope to find original storytellers that want, like us, to re-fresh the way new musicals are presented.’

Two years ago over 300 applicants applied for a place on the inaugural award scheme, which was ultimately won by Chris Bush and Matt Winkworth with their piece ‘Odd’ which continues its development following a performance at Royal & Derngate, Northampton.

Applications are open to everyone from 12th June, from playwrights and screenwriters to composers and songwriters, and no previous experience of writing a musical is necessary.

For more information on the application process, please see www.perfectpitchmusicals.com/award.html or www.stratfordeast.com/perfect-pitch. The final date for applications is 20 July 2015.