Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) and Musical Theatre Network (MTN) have been awarded funding from the Mackintosh Foundation to support five placements as part of the Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer Scheme over 2023-2025, with the next placement being hosted by British Youth Music Theatre.

Through this scheme, professional musical theatre writers are paired with a company and given the opportunity to be involved in a range of work which could include writing/composing assignments on the host company’s projects, shadowing development/rehearsal processes, and working on development of their own musical theatre material. Recent hosts have included the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre of Scotland, MAST Mayflower, Theatr Clwyd, Octagon Theatre, Hope Mill Theatre, and The Lowry.

This placement is for a musical theatre writing team of two. The opportunity will provide paid writing time and support for the team to develop a new musical over the course of the placement. This will commence from March 2025 and comprise six months of full-time work, to take place over a period of six to nine months. Alongside this, the composer of the team will collaborate with the wider BYMT team on their 2025 season of new musicals as a music coordinator, while the bookwriter will be involved in each show in a dramaturgical capacity. Following on from the placement, the team will have a guaranteed production or developmental workshop week in 2026 with a cast of approximately 36 young people.

The successful recipients will receive an all-inclusive grant of £13,000 per individual writer, thanks to the generous support of the Mackintosh Foundation. BYMT’s offices are in Leeds and London and so the resident team may base themselves at either of these locations. With 2025 projects taking place across the UK, there may be some travel involved, for which additional expenses would be covered.

MMD, MTN and BYMT are committed to diversifying voices in new musical theatre writing and broadening the art form, and writers from a background which is under-represented in musical theatre writing are encouraged to consider applying.

If you are interested in applying and for more information, please visit the Mercury Musical Developments website here. The application deadline is 29 January.