Musical Theatre Network And Mercury Musical Developments Announce BEAM2018

Musical Theatre Network and Mercury Musical Developments in association with Theatre Royal Stratford East today announced BEAM2018, their biennial industry showcase of new British musical theatre.

The first stage of BEAM is made up of 15 pitching days spread across venues around the UK where creative teams developing new musicals can pitch their ideas. This culminates in an industry showcase of the most promising projects to be held at Theatre Royal Stratford East on 1 & 2 March 2018. This two-day event provides a platform for aspiring and established musical theatre professionals to display their work to the producers, venues and anyone with resources to help develop and stage them. BEAM also gives an overview of up to 40 new British musicals currently in development. This is the second showcase following the inaugural event launched at the Park Theatre in 2016.

The 15 pitching days, beginning on 30 September in Cardiff, will see the company travelling to cities all over the country in search of the most promising new musicals in development. Other cities along the tour include Leicester, Glasgow, Dundee, Gateshead, Ipswich, London, Watford, Leeds, Southampton and Manchester.

BEAM is designed for anyone in a position to help develop and stage new British musicals. We'll do all the legwork to bring the most exciting talent and emerging musical theatre projects together from around the UK, so you can experience them, meet the creative teams - and grab the opportunity to become involved from the early stages of development. BEAM is a key part of both organisations' mission to support the development of new musical theatre. BEAM will encourage the development of musical theatre across the UK, supporting diverse art form development, connecting practitioners and finding champions for original work. The two day showcase itself will also be an unprecedented opportunity for the musical theatre community to gather together.

Do you have an idea for a musical? Or perhaps you're already developing one?

Whether you've written a musical before or not, if you have a track record as a professional artist and an idea for a new musical, then we want to hear from you. Please see below for full information on locations and dates. For more information on how to get involved and see a full schedule of pitching days, please go to www.beamshowcase.com to apply before 25 September.

Musical Theatre Network brings people and resources together to improve infrastructure and opportunities for new musical theatre in the UK. Its membership is a national network of venues, producers, colleges, organisations and individuals. In partnership with its members, MTN works to strengthen and diversify the new musical theatre sector nationwide, and so support development of the artform.

Mercury Musical Developments is the UK's only membership organisation dedicated to developing new musical theatre writing. We nurture and support the work of bookwriters, lyricists and composers through a series of initiatives including workshops, masterclasses and showcasing opportunities. Join our growing community of over 400 members and be part of the conversation shaping the future of musical theatre writing.

Executive Director of Mercury Musical Developments, Victoria Saxton, said today "Showcases like BEAM are vital for writers of new musical theatre to get their work in front of the right people. There is a perception that new, innovative musicals are born in America but as BEAM2016 demonstrated there is enough exceptional new work in the UK to fill theatres twice over. BEAM:2016 was an enormous success, over two thirds of work presented went on to be workshopped, produced or commissioned and led to other opportunities for the writers. BEAM2018 is going to be even bigger and better. We can't wait to show the industry the talent we have here in the UK"

Executive Director of MTN, James Hadley said today, 'BEAM was developed to meet the industry's need for a more efficient way of producers finding the new musical theatre projects they'll want to help achieve their potential and reach audiences. The new musical theatre landscape is like an iceberg - most musicals take around 5 years to develop, so the vast majority are below the surface for years. As a result, we found most in the industry are only aware of a small percentage of the talented writers seeking to bring their musicals up to the surface, and BEAM is our way of changing that.'

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