Friday New Pathways
This week's new development opportunities for artists and theatre professionals
This week we have opportunities for writers, including the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize with Mercury Musicals Development (MMD), a six part video series released online for young writers from the Royal Court, and a writing masterclass at the Royal & Derngate in Northampton.
For other theatremakers, we have callouts from Brixton House, looking for local artists aged 18-26 for their DISRUPTORS programme, Sheffield Theatres, looking for eight artists interested in dramaturgy, creation, and co-creation for their Theatremakers Group, and Camden People’s Theatre, looking for six deaf, disabled, neurodivergent performance makers, or makers with a long term health condition to present short pieces of new work for their Every Body Festival Scratch events.
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Stiles & Drewe are teaming up with Mercury Musical Development (MMD) for The Best New Song Prize. This is awarded on an annual basis recognising an outstanding song from a new musical written by a member of MMD.
Twelve finalists will have their songs showcased in a live concert in London, performed by West End talent. A panel of industry judges, including George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, award the Best New Song Prize and the winner receives a prize of £1,000 to put towards developing their work. One person on the writing team needs to be a member of MMD - find out more about becoming a member here.
Applications for 2025 will open on 20 May 2025 and will close on 19 June 2025.
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Sheffield Theatres are launching the Theatremakers Group at The Bank; a four-month training programme for early-career theatre artists, local to Sheffield Theatres, who want to develop skills focused on dramaturgy, creation, and co-creation.
The team are looking for eight artists to be part of the programme. Applications are open now and will close at midnight on Sunday 15 June. Sessions for this programme will take place weekly on Tuesday evenings, running from July - October 2025.
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The Royal Court are releasing a six-part video series from award-winning playwrights Sabrina Ali, Tife Kusoro, Ryan Calais Cameron, Beth Flintoff, Nina Segal and Vinay Patel, you’ll find writing exercises, tips and advice, taking you through the different stages of writing a play.
Videos are on the website, alongside a worksheet, covering topics such as finding a spark, creating characters, building structure, writing scenes, breaking the rules, and redrafting.
This series was initially designed to support entry to the Royal Court Young Playwrights Award, which was open to young people aged 13-18 living or attending school in London. Applications for the award are now closed but the videos look great!
You can also listen to The Playwright’s Podcast, which has just kicked off series 7:
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Brixton House are looking for emerging artists to join DISRUPTORS, our new year-long programme focused on developing skills in theatre, visual arts, digital media and music production. If you are aged 18-26, living in Lambeth and passionate about creativity and skill-building, this is for you.
The programme runs from June 2025 to May 2026 with 2-3 hours a week commitment with some weekend sessions. There is a free open session at 6.30pm, Tuesday 3 June for more info. Apply by 9am, Monday 9 June.
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Royal & Derngate in Northampton are running a writing masterclass for 16-30 year olds with a passion for writing.
This will be run by Tristan Bernays on Wed 4 June 2025 6pm-8pm and offer a deeper understanding of the playwriting process. Tickets are £5 and places are limited so book to avoid disappointment.
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Camden Peoples Theatre is looking for six deaf, disabled, neurodivergent performance makers, or makers with a long term health condition to share 15-30 minutes of new work as part of the Every Body Festival Scratch events.
Scratch is a place to test new work, so it doesn't have to be polished - in fact it's better if it isn't. Your work does NOT have to be on the theme of disability unless you want it to be, and there will be access to some technical support including the option of sound, lighting and projection, but remember it's a scratch, so keep it simple!
The Scratch performances are on the 3rd and 9th of July, and will be BSL interpreted. Each performance will have a £75 stipend.
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Good luck to anyone applying for any of these opportunities!