In a major expansion to its bursary programme, Michael Grandage has today announced the 33 recipients of the fifth annual set of MGCfutures Bursaries. The bursaries are awarded to the very best creative talent from the industry and are looking to progress to the next stage of development. 

The bursaries are spread over a range of theatrical disciplines including directing, writing, producing, designing, choreography, digital, casting and performance-makers. The lucky recipents of the bursaries this year are: Waleed Akhtar, Tom Bellerby, Rebecca Brewer, Teresa Burns, Ghost Chan, Zhui Ning Chang, Liz Daramola, Beth Flintoff, burn/gobscure, Sam Hardie, Natalie Haslam, Kitty Hawkins, Courtenay Johnson, Eve Kann, Júlia Levai, Tom Lightbody, Rafaella Marcus, Tony Mills, Will Monks, Madelaine Moore, Laurie Motherwell, Anna Orton, Nisha Oza, Claire Rimington, Luke W. Robson, Nye Russell-Thompson, Lucía Sánchez Roldán, Amber Sinclair-Case, Freya Smith, Lexie Ward, Naomi Westerman, Christopher Worrall and Lilac Yosiphon. 

With these 33 recipients, it means that the registered charity will have awarded bursaries to over 100 people in just five years. They provide ongoing mentoring and financial support to the recipients who come from all corners of the UK. This year, they will be working in partnership with Lyric Hammersmith Theatre with a literary associate and Pilot Theatre for two Creative Assistants. 

Michael Grandage said: “This year it feels more vital than ever before to support and nurture the theatre makers of the future and to create new work by offering them money, time and mentorship. I’m enormously proud of the achievements of our past bursary recipients - to witness their work and growth as artists is a wonderful part of this initiative. The charity continues to support the vast network of jobs that make up the whole theatre ecology as we believe it is only this way we can build an industry for the future. We’re grateful to the Theatre Community Fund whose generosity has enabled us to award our largest ever number of bursaries in honour of the fifth anniversary of the scheme.”

Grandage founded MGCfutures in 2013, with the bursaries programme launched in 2016 allowing creative talent to pursue and commit to their careers and applicants can apply for bursaries of up to £5000. This year the expansion to more bursaries has been possible because of the Theatre Community Fund which has generously donated £300k for MCGfutures to help and support creatives over the next 3 years.

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