Gus Gowland announces brand new month-long challenge for musical theatre writers

Award-winning writer Gus Gowland today announces The Musical Theatre Writing Challenge, a brand new concept to encourage creatives to keep writing - come what may.

Earlier this year, Gowland created a free online writer’s room on Zoom, designed as a shared space to work, to meet other writers, and to combat freelancer isolation. It was here that The Musical Theatre Writing Challenge was born.

Every day during May, participants will receive prompts – some provided by special industry guests – focused on generating new work and keeping creative juices flowing. Writers can be at any stage of their writing journey, and it’s free to get involved.

Gowland said: “The online writing room has been such a wonderful thing during this current lockdown. The Musical Theatre Writing Challenge is a way for us to expand this community and provide all of us with an opportunity to really test ourselves as writers. Half of the challenge of being a musical theatre writer is being able to work quickly, and to a brief. Although this is a bit of fun, we hope that it will also help writers to enhance their skills.”

Each prompt will be adapted to your particular skill (book writing, lyrics, music, or a combination of) or provided with clear instructions on how to approach it without specialist knowledge. The goal of the challenge is not to complete the next Hamilton, but to create and to develop, every day of the month, come what may.

Sign up to be part of the inaugural musical theatre writing challenge here and follow the journey via the hashtag #ComeWhatMay.