Four finalists in the frame

Perfect Pitch and Theatre Royal Stratford East announced in June that they were working together to present the 2015/16 Perfect Pitch Award for Musical Theatre Writing and have since been overwhelmed with applications. The two organisations, which are offering a £12,000 award to a musical theatre emerging writing team, are known for developing new musical theatre. The finalists they have chosen are:

Zara McFarlane (Music & Lyrics)
May Sumbawanyame (Book & Lyrics)

Ashton Moore (Music & Lyrics)
Ben Fensome (Book & Lyrics)

Craig Adams (Music & Lyrics)
Daniel York (Book & Lyrics)

Gavin Whitworth (Music)
Shireen Mula (Book)
Joe von Malachowski (Lyrics) 

Kerry Michael, Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East said: “I am delighted with the finalists we have chosen. As a theatre we pride ourselves in nurturing new writers of musicals and plays, this process is another way for us to do this, which is exciting. I’m looking forward to see what the finalists will come up with and what we can help them develop further.”

Andy Barnes, Executive Director at Perfect Pitch said: “It’s been a really rewarding process in identifying the teams we wanted to put together. The quality of the applications was excellent but most exciting was the range of styles, ideas, and experience all of which left us with some very difficult decisions to make. There were many talented writers and composers who didn’t make the final teams so these guys should all be incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved so far.”

The winner will be selected by a team of industry judges including, Musical Theatre Star and Perfect Pitch’s Patron Michael Ball, comedian and writer of The Infidel the Musical (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2014), David Baddiel and double Olivier Award nominee Kate Prince.

The final pitching event, followed by the winner being announced will take place on Friday, 5th February at St James’s Theatre. The winning team will be awarded the £12,000 prize fund and will be tasked with writing a full draft of a new show in a 12-month period, with a view to having the piece presented in a professional staged reading or production of the piece.

•Tickets can be purchased at www.stjamestheatre.co.uk.

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