The Programme
Overture is an exciting new musical theatre development scheme led by Burnt Lemon Theatre and The REcreate Agency in partnership with The Other Palace, Birmingham Hippodrome, Sheffield Theatres, MAST Mayflower Southampton, The Hope Mill, Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate.
Overture’s aims are to develop the skills and practises of underrepresented Musical Theatre writing teams across the UK, whilst building relationships with venues and other leading UK talent.
Each writing team must have an actual show they want to develop and we welcome applications from participants at all stages of the development process. All teams will have the opportunity to share up to 15 minutes of their new show at the final showcase and will be supported by a West End cast, musicians and a musical director.
Our venue partners will support with mentoring, workshops and most importantly continue supporting the companies next steps with development and programming opportunities after the scheme ends.
The final 6 teams will receive:
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£1000 seed funding
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10 skills based workshops
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Mentorship from Burnt Lemon and REcreate
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Peer to peer learning and support
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A supported industry showcase and networking day at The Other Palace
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Future programming and development opportunities with our partner venues
The 10 workshops will cover a range of themes including ‘The Writer/Director Relationship’,‘Writing and Devising New Musicals Collaboratively’, ‘Orchestrations and Arrangements’, ‘Who you need and when you need them’ and delivered by practitioners working in every corner of the musical theatre landscape.
The workshops will be delivered on mornings across September and November 2023, both in-person and online. We’re keen to encourage applicants from across the UK and there’s an additional travel bursary to ensure participation is accessible for all teams.
Why?
Overture was born out of Burnt Lemon and REcreate's reflection and wish that we had received further upskilling in the workshop topics before we went about our own creative projects. Having spent the past year curating this programme, we believe the tool kit and peer-support artists will gain from these sessions will be imperative to a richer quality of work in their future careers.
In addition, developing relationships with venues often seems an impossible challenge in UK Theatre so we’re excited to begin an open dialogue and help demystify these relationships with the support of our partner venues who will be there to support and nurture the successful teams throughout the process.
Overture Cohort 2023
HYPER
EMY.P (She/Her) + Michelle Payne (She/Her)
About The Show:
Following our personal outrage after the BBC Panorama show about how ‘easy’ it is to get an ADHD diagnosis, Hyper is a three hander musical exploring ADHD in young people (18-30). Our story is told through rap, hip-hop & loop pedals to illustrate the workings of an ADHD brain through sound.
About The Team:
EMY.P and Michelle Payne are a musical theatre writing duo from Essex and both diagnosed with ADHD.
Emy is a spoken word artist, poetry slam champion, musician & podcast host of Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix Me. Michelle is a director & published playwright, recently Resident Director on the UK Tour of Bugsy Malone.
In 2022 they collaborated on a musical commission for Mind Over Matter organisation which led to the song Keep Me From Going Under being short-listed for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize 2022. It’s Emy & Michelle's mission to create roles & stories for neurodiverse women and ‘Essex Girls’.
THIS IS MY NAME
Dominique La Victoria (She/Her) + Melisa Camba (She/Her)
About The Show:
1896, the Spanish occupied Philippines. A woman shows up at a ball wearing ribbons that say Viva la Libertad! She is Sra. Maria del Rosario Gil y Montes de Sanchiz: a poet, mistress, and feminist. Erased by the friars and forgotten by history, she takes the stage and tells the story of the Filipino woman—responding to the violence of exclusion through poetry, songs, and ribbons.
About The Team:
Dominique and Melisa are theatre artists from the Philippines who have recently moved to the UK. This is their first time collaborating on a musical together.
Dominique is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, and theatre educator. She has worked in productions based in the UK, US, Japan, and the Philippines. Website and portfolio: bit.ly/dominiquelavictoria
Melisa is an actor, singer, and theatre-maker. Her one-woman show Boses was part of the Maiden Speech Theatre Festival in 2019 at the Tristan Bates Theatre. She also premiered ‘Greta’s Song’ in NEWSFEED at Southwark Playhouse in the same year. Recent credits are Little Women: The Broadway Musical (Dugdale Arts Centre) and Legends of Arahma (St. Paul’s Church). She is represented by Access Artiste Management. Portfolio & CV: https://melisacamba.carrd.co/
ONE MORE GAME
Mwansa Phiri (She/Her) + Daniel Ahenkorah (He/Him)
About The Show:
ONE MORE GAME is a choose-your-own-adventure rap musical about four friends who get trapped inside their video game. Exploring themes of privacy, hyper-surveillance, technology addiction and free will, ONE MORE GAME is an immersive mind-bending play with multiple endings.
About The Team:
This project will be the first collaboration between West London based cousins Mwansa Phiri and Daniel Ahenkorah. Playwright and producer Mwansa, is an alumna of Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab where she wrote her debut play Talking Stages which was shortlisted for the 2022 Tony Craze Award. Her second play waiting for a train at the bus stop (VAULT Festival 2023, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023) was long-listed for the BBC Popcorn Award for New Writing. It also won the Eclipse Award and Keep It Fringe Fund Award. Songwriter and music producer Daniel, works across various genres including UK Rap, Afroswing, Drill and Grime. He has provided consultation to artists such as Trench Taze, Boy Boy, and Lauren Cofie. He also mentors and supports young and emerging artists looking to develop new music.
Overture Artists 2023
HYPER
Emy P (She/Her) + Michelle Payne (She/Her)
About The Show:
Following our personal outrage after the BBC Panorama show about how ‘easy’ it is to get an ADHD diagnosis, Hyper is a three hander musical exploring ADHD in young people (18-30). Our story is told through rap, hip-hop & loop pedals to illustrate the workings of an ADHD brain through sound.
About The Team:
EMY.P and Michelle Payne are a musical theatre writing duo from Essex and both diagnosed with ADHD.
Emy is a spoken word artist, poetry slam champion, musician & podcast host of Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix Me. Michelle is a director & published playwright, recently Resident Director on the UK Tour of Bugsy Malone.
In 2022 they collaborated on a musical commission for Mind Over Matter organisation which led to the song Keep Me From Going Under being short-listed for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize 2022. It’s Emy & Michelle's mission to create roles & stories for neurodiverse women and ‘Essex Girls’.
THIS IS MY NAME
Dominique La Victoria (She/Her) + Melisa Camba (She/Her)
About The Show:
1896, the Spanish occupied Philippines. A woman shows up at a ball wearing ribbons that say Viva la Libertad! She is Sra. Maria del Rosario Gil y Montes de Sanchiz: a poet, mistress, and feminist. Erased by the friars and forgotten by history, she takes the stage and tells the story of the Filipino woman—responding to the violence of exclusion through poetry, songs, and ribbons.
About The Team:
Dominique and Melisa are theatre artists from the Philippines who have recently moved to the UK. This is their first time collaborating on a musical together.
Dominique is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, and theatre educator. She has worked in productions based in the UK, US, Japan, and the Philippines. Website and portfolio: bit.ly/dominiquelavictoria
Melisa is an actor, singer, and theatre-maker. Her one-woman show Boses was part of the Maiden Speech Theatre Festival in 2019 at the Tristan Bates Theatre. She also premiered ‘Greta’s Song’ in NEWSFEED at Southwark Playhouse in the same year. Recent credits are Little Women: The Broadway Musical (Dugdale Arts Centre) and Legends of Arahma (St. Paul’s Church). She is represented by Access Artiste Management. Portfolio & CV: https://melisacamba.carrd.co/
ONE MORE GAME
Mwansa Phiri (She/Her) + Daniel Ahenkorah (He/Him)
About The Show:
ONE MORE GAME is a choose-your-own-adventure rap musical about four friends who get trapped inside their video game. Exploring themes of privacy, hyper-surveillance, technology addiction and free will, ONE MORE GAME is an immersive mind-bending play with multiple endings.
About The Team:
This project will be the first collaboration between West London based cousins Mwansa Phiri and Daniel Ahenkorah. Playwright and producer Mwansa, is an alumna of Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab where she wrote her debut play Talking Stages which was shortlisted for the 2022 Tony Craze Award. Her second play waiting for a train at the bus stop (VAULT Festival 2023, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023) was long-listed for the BBC Popcorn Award for New Writing. It also won the Eclipse Award and Keep It Fringe Fund Award. Songwriter and music producer Daniel, works across various genres including UK Rap, Afroswing, Drill and Grime. He has provided consultation to artists such as Trench Taze, Boy Boy, and Lauren Cofie. He also mentors and supports young and emerging artists looking to develop new music.
ALMOST ASTRONAUTS
Jenna Dyckhoff (She/They) + Helen Arney (She/Her)
About The Show:
ALMOST ASTRONAUTS follows an extraordinary group of women who could have been the first into space. It’s stacked full of funny, real, complex, badass pilots who made history - and sometimes made mistakes - in an upbeat musical that wants you to laugh, cry, punch through walls and shoot for the stars yourself.
About The Team:
Jenna Dyckhoff and Helen Arney write musical theatre together. They’ve combined their superpowers of multi-instrumentalist actor-musician (Jenna) and science songwriter / recovering stand-up comic (Helen) to put complicated women centre stage - and into orbit. Jenna has orchestrated, arranged and music-directed several shows since graduating from London College of Music in 2021. Helen has been funny on stage, TV and radio for 15 years, both as herself and with Festival of the Spoken Nerd, and has filled several notebooks with rhymes for “Uranus” (none of which are printable here). ALMOST ASTRONAUTS is their first collaboration.
RUST
Helena Fox (She/They) + Geraint Owen (He/Him)
About The Show:
Rust is an award-winning musical about addiction, mental health, and what it means to rebuild yourself from rock bottom. Based on personal experience, the musical follows Evie as she spends four weeks in a rehab centre following a crisis. Rust celebrates the immensely difficult but inexpressibly worthwhile process of recovery.
About The Team:
Helena is a writer, performer, and drag artist also known as King Hoberon. She has worked with the likes of The Vaults, Farnham Maltings, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In drag, they came second at Man Up! in 2019, with their photograph subsequently appearing in Vogue Italia.
Geraint is a composer, musical director and pianist from Cardiff. His latest commission was the verbatim song-cycle Queerway, which toured venues across South Wales, prior to which he was the Associate Musical Director for the UK tour of My Fair Lady direct from the West End.
THE CLOCKWATCHER
Charlie Turner (She/Her) + Liv Warden (She/Her)
About The Show:
When an orphaned evacuee struggles to settle into her new life in the countryside, The Clockwatcher - Director of Fairywood and Guardian of Bedtime Stories - recognises her need for happiness. Can he reunite the troublesome cast of Hansel and Gretel, bring their tale alive again and offer Daisy the magic she desperately needs?
About The Team:
Liv Warden’s professional theatre debut was the MeToo inspired Anomaly. Written at The National Theatre playwriting course, it debuted at The Old Red Lion Theatre in 2019 and soon after was transferred to Montevideo, Uruguay. In 2021, she was accepted onto a 6 month TV mentorship scheme with Channel 4.
Charlie works closely with record label Westway Music, writing for some of the biggest stars of the West End stage. Her song ‘Battlefield’ was a 2023 single for Kerry Ellis ft Sir Brian May. She has recorded in Abbey Road Studio 2, and had songs played on BBC Radio 2.
About Us
Burnt Lemon Theatre - Partner
Burnt Lemon Theatre is a multi-award winning, female led company who give rise to innovative new work. From riotous gig-theatre to electrifying musicals, they tackle sensitive stories with tenderness, punch and precision. Since Burnt Lemon was formed in 2017, the company have gained critical acclaim, winning the Les Enfants Terribles ‘Stepladder Award’ as well as New Diorama and Underbelly’s ‘UNTAPPED’ award for their Edinburgh Fringe sell-out show Tokyo Rose. Utilising skills of musicianship and fever for spoken word, Burnt Lemon Theatre’s productions demand your attention and leave you asking scorching questions.
The REcreate Agency - Partner
The REcreate Agency is a multidisciplinary creative agency that develops the potential in independent artists, producers & projects. Founded in 2020 by independent producers Reece McMahon and Emily Beecher, REcreate is at the forefront of cultural change and is changing the culture of how we share, talk and think about making work together.
The Other Palace - Venue Partner
The Other Palace is a home of musical theatre dedicated to discovering, developing, exploring, and celebrating theatre. It’s a lively, friendly and inventive place where ideas can be shared and explored, and the next generation of theatre-makers are encouraged, supported, and celebrated.
The Other Palace has an extraordinary history dating back to 1766 when it began life as the Charlotte Chapel and was turned into the Westminster Theatre in 1931. In 2021 the venue was acquired by Bill Kenwright Ltd, one of the largest commercial theatre producers in the UK.
The Other Palace continues to develop and produce new musicals in the Studio since reopening post-pandemic, including Love is Only Love and Millennials.
Overture is led by Burnt Lemon Theatre and The REcreate Agency in partnership with The Other Palace, Birmingham Hippodrome, MAST Mayflower Studios, Hope Mill Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate.
Birmingham Hippodrome - Venue Partner
Birmingham Hippodrome is on a mission to provide that “goosebumps” feeling through memorable and extraordinary experiences. Our vision is clear, we want a “distinctive, world-class Birmingham cultural scene with the Hippodrome at its heart”. As one of the biggest providers of arts and culture in the city, the Hippodrome provides over a million people a year with those same goosebumps moments through our on and off stage programmes and performances.
Long recognised as one of the UK’s premier presenting theatres, the past five years have seen Birmingham Hippodrome develop into a creative producing organisation focused on access, diversity and inclusion, doubling our impact to match our annual audience of 550,000 with a further 450,000 people engaged via festivals, learning, participation and produced work.
With nine Associate Companies, the Hippodrome produces and commissions bold new work, telling fresh and engaging stories, reflecting the youth and diversity of the city and region.
MAST Mayflower Studios - Venue Partner
MAST Mayflower Studios (MAST) is Southampton’s leading creative producing theatre. It exists to provide a warm welcome and creative space for everyone, whether it’s those who have never been to the theatre before or those who want to be challenged or involved themselves.
MAST is bound by a common purpose, to provide inspiring experiences for everyone, whether that’s individuals or families who are new to theatre or for those already steeped in theatre’s culture and all that it offers.
MAST, which opened in 2021, is open to all even if it’s just for coffee or to meet in the city centre location and is deeply connected to its long established sister Mayflower Theatre.
Hope Mill Theatre - Venue Partner
Hope Mill Theatre was the dream of couple Joseph Houston and William Whelton. The venue, based in Ancoats, Manchester, opened its doors in November of 2015, and has become one of the most successful and reputable independent venues in England – winning Fringe Venue of The Year at The Stage awards in 2018.
Sheffield Theatres - Venue Partner
Sheffield Theatres is home to three theatres, the Crucible, Lyceum, and Playhouse. Presenting a varied programme across its spaces, Sheffield Theatres also has a dedicated talent development hub, The Bank, supporting a new cohort of emerging theatre-makers every year.
Winner of ‘Regional Theatre of the Year’ on four separate occasions, Sheffield Theatres has a reputation for bold new work. Starting life in the Crucible in 2019, the award winning Life of Pi transferred to the West End in 2021 and to Broadway in 2023. This success follows hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie which also transferred to the West End, toured the UK and enjoyed a feature film release internationally on Amazon Prime in 2021. Both Life or Pi and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie return home to Sheffield Theatres as part of their 2023 – 24 UK and Ireland tours. Last year, ROCK / PAPER / SCISSORS was staged to celebrate Sheffield Theatres’ 50th anniversary, winning Best Directors at the UK Theatre Awards 2022. Most recently, Sheffield Theatres, in co-production with the National Theatre and Various Productions, revived Standing at the Sky’s Edge, returning the show to the Crucible before transferring to the Olivier Theatre and winning two Olivier awards including Best New Musical.
Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate - Joint Venue Partners
One of the largest multi-artform venues in the UK, Warwick Arts Centre delivers a high quality, engaging, diverse programme of performing and visual arts, presented in world-class venues and spaces at the heart of the University of Warwick campus. Warwick Arts Centre is an important resource for the arts and for audiences in the region, and a significant force in national and international arts networks. Independent theatre studio China Plate are Associate Producers at Warwick Arts Centre. Together they collaborate on a number of commissioning, training and development initiatives.
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