Writers from across the world are once again being invited to compete with homegrown talent for a place in this year’s line-up at the popular From Page to Stage festival.
Returning for its sixth year, the musical theatre event created by leading independent theatre company Aria Entertainment will move into the Southwark Playhouse from 10 until 25 September 2018.
Alongside From Page to Stage 2018 in London, Aria Entertainment has also announced the launch of From Page to Stage North West.
The latest development in the successful ongoing partnership between London-based Aria and Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre will offer one writing team a full writing commission of an original musical.
Selected at the end of the series of pitching days, the chosen writers will see their work initially produced in workshop form in 2019 with the intention to stage the show fully at the Hope Mill Theatre a year later.
Announcing details of this year’s event and its North West expansion, Aria Entertainment’s Katy Lipson said: “I have always believed that the future of musical theatre in this country can only be brought about by investing regularly in new musicals and new writers and so I am proud to be presenting the sixth year of the From Page to Stage Festival of new musicals.
“In just six years we have given a platform to over 100 new musicals from over 15 countries with some shows going on to have full productions, more development workshops and even publishing deals. Contrary to other showcases, we invite both industry and the public in to take part in the early stage development of these works, which is important in helping to mould audience’s expectations of what the genre can actually deliver.
“We are delighted to be presenting work at London’s Southwark Playhouse this year and know their incredible record as a receiving house for musical theatre means they have a large receptive audience ready to receive this exciting new work.
“Our expansion into From Page to Stage North West further cements our commitment to developing, commissioning and staging new musicals in the UK. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be partnering with Joe (Houston) and Will (Whelton) at the Hope Mill Theatre to find new musicals for us to actually bring from page to stage by 2020.”
Hope Mill Theatre’s co-artistic director Houston, added: “We are so thrilled to announce our musical commission as part of Katy’s From Page to Stage season. When Will, Katy and I formed our collaboration it was always our aim to champion new musical theatre and to date we have been so fortunate to be able to stage many premieres, but creating new work was always our ambition and this commission is hopefully the first of many grass-roots projects to come from Hope Mill Theatre.
“It is such an exciting time for Manchester to have From Page to Stage branch out to the North West and we cannot wait to see how we can continue to champion and develop new musicals regionally.”
FPTS 2018 will showcase each step of how an original musical is developed, from a songwriting showcase, to full staged readings of new musicals. There will also be a showcase evening which will feature sections of at least four different shows in development with a repertory cast.
Entrants for this year’s event should include their show title, composer/lyricist/book writer, short synopsis and three recorded tracks from the show (full details are available of the website).
Each show submitted before the closing date of 25 June will be fully assessed by a team of experts and the 50 shortlisted submissions will each receive a short constructive critique from FPTS. The musicals selected for the festival will be revealed in July.
Writing teams interested in From Page to Stage North West will need to sign up on the From Page to Stage website and register their interest. Writing teams will then be invited to a pitching day in August 2017.
Last year’s festival at The Other Palace, the first to invite writers from overseas to submit their work, attracted a record-breaking 300-plus submissions.
Angela Thomas
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