MGCfutures Bursary Recipients Announced

The recipients have been announced for the eighth year of MGCfutures Bursaries, awarded across a range of theatrical disciplines including directing, writing, production, design, theatre-making, and for the first time this year, a theatrical tailor. A registered charity, MGCfutures offers both financial and ongoing mentoring support to the recipients who come from across the UK.  The bursaries programme was launched in 2016 for theatre practitioners who show a commitment to their chosen career and look to progress to the next stage of their development.

The new recipients were shared in a video on social media by Luke Evans, who joins the charity as a patron, having recently appeared in Backstairs Billy - directed by Grandage, alongside Penelope Wilton who also joins as a patron.

Evans said: “MGCfutures has done excellent work over the last ten years supporting theatre makers at pivotal moments in their careers and today, I am excited to have the opportunity to introduce the new bursary recipients.”

This year's recipients are: Rachel Bellman in a joint project with Eden Tredwell, Layla Bradbeer, Ben Kulvichit and Clara Potter-Sweet as Emergency Chorus, Emma Higham, Jack MacGregor, Jasmin Mandi-Ghomi, Rebecca Prentice, Eleanor Sikorski, Virginie Taylor, and Xana; andDavid Wood , who receives The Stephanie Arditti Bursary for costume makers, and Cai Kennedy, who becomes Derby Theatre's Engagement Communications Producer. MGCfutures patron Nicole Kidman continues her generous support by gifting a bursary designed to support women in the theatre industry which this year goes to director Imy Wyatt Corner.

Theatre Director and MGCfutures founder Michael Grandage said today, “In this, our eighth year of the bursary programme, we're delighted to welcome a further 13 recipients to the futuresfamily, now standing at more than 150 members in total. This year's diverse group of practitioners represents a broad range of specialist skills in the theatre industry: three writers, a producer, a director, a video designer, a sound artist, a choreographer and three theatre makers, as well as our first theatrical tailor and a new traineeship at Derby Theatre. It's clear that the need for the unique support that we offer is increasingly urgent. In these uncertain times it's really tough for those trying to establish their careers, and it's vital that we nurture and support new talent in order to help them become established in the theatre industry.”

Quotes From Bursary Recipients:

EMERGENCY CHORUS (BEN KULVICHIT AND CLARA POTTER-SWEET)

“We're absolutely thrilled to receive an MGCfutures Bursary. We'll be using it for some research and development towards a stage work, Something In Your Voice, and expanding our choreographic practice through a new collaboration with dance artists Hannah Parsons and Lorea Burge. We can't wait to get cracking.”

JACK MACGREGOR

“The support of the MGCfutures Bursary will allow me to complete the first draft of a new political drama about the 1928 Achnacarry oil conference. Funds like MGCfutures celebrate the role of individual artists who often work unsalaried and outside of buildings. MGCfutures empower freelancers directly, giving us the support needed to make work.”

REBECCA PRENTICE

“It is incredibly meaningful to receive support at this stage in a producing career and the bursary will support an important time of upskilling and developing my commercial practice. The bursary will increase my capacity to support artists through the development process of a script about a lesbian activist with AIDS in the 80s.”