BOOK, Music & Lyrics is run by several facilitators with a huge combined experience in the area of musical theatre.

CHRISTINE DENNISTON (Lab) has enjoyed a long and varied career as a writer, director, performer and teacher. (She first appeared on stage at the age of 3, made her first attempt at writing a musical at the age of 7, and first directed a school play at the age of 10.) After the Director's Attachment at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and a number of years as Artistic Director of Tooth & Claw Theatre Company, she went freelance - since then her work has been seen on five continents. She was the first British writer to become a member of the Tony Award Winning BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. She is currently contributing the book for After Lydia, adapted from a play by Terence Rattigan (music and lyrics by Gwyneth Herbert), which received a workshop and public staged readings at The Watermill in 2010, and will be seen again in 2011 as part of the Rattigan centenary celebrations.

DAVID FIRMAN (Composer/ lyricist workshop) is an orchestral and opera conductor, TV and theatre musical director, composer, arranger and orchestrator. He conducted the original West End productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Singin’ in the Rain, La Cage aux Folles, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of Penzance, and the most recent revival of Carousel, and was arranger/ orchestrator on the West End productions of My One and Only, Metropolis, and Enter the Guardsman, and for the regional productions of Good Fun, where he first met its writer, Victoria Wood for whom he arranged and musical directed 3 BAFTA award-winning series: Victoria Wood as Seen on T.V., Dinner Ladies and Christmas with all the Trimmings. He developed studio experience as a session recording keyboard player, performing on the soundtracks of Return of the Jedi, the Superman series and Basic Instinct, along with television recordings for Carl Davis, Nigel Hess and Jim Parker He conducts for such orchestras as the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic, as well as numerous others around the globe, and he has a growing portfolio of commissions as a composer in his own right. He studied at Trinity College London, and Magdalene College Cambridge.

DAVID JAMES (Librettists Workshop) has worked in the professional theatre in New York, Los Angeles and London for the whole of his adult life, as a writer, a designer, and, occasionally, a performer. He was chair of the theatre committee for the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for 11 years, as well as a member of MMD since 1994 and the Dramatists' Guild. For seven years, he was a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. His award-winning plays have been produced by the BBC World Services, Radio Four, and the South African Broadcasting Company.?A member of the theatre designers' union in New York, United Scenic Artists local 829, he designed the costumers for over 30 productions there. As Assistant Designer, he worked on many Broadway musicals including Promises Promises, the original production of Grease, 70 Girls 70, Bob Fosse's Dancin', The Rothschilds, Coco, George M, Minnie's Boys, Halloween, Carnival (New York City Center) and Oklahoma! (New York State Theatre). He was assistant director on the first New York revival of Company. He has been a judge for the Tony Awards, the London New Play Festival, The Writers' Guild Awards, and the John Whiting Award. He founded BML in 2010.

TIM SUTTON (Composer/ lyricist workshop) His musical The Secret Garden has been performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, and he will write a new version of The Jungle Book for WYP in 2012. Other work includes Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Young Vic) and Dreamfighter, commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble and Lichfield Festival. This year he has will write a new site-specific work for the Eden Project in Cornwall. Other compositions include The Bacchae (Edinburgh International Festival and Lincoln Center Festival New York), Salute the Sun!, The Soldiers' Fortune (Young Vic), Women Beware Women (RSC), As You Desire Me (Playhouse), As You Like It (Wyndham's), Knight of the Burning Pestle (Young Vic/Barbican), The Skin of Our Teeth (Young Vic), and Thought Latching to Thought and Pulling, (Place Prize). He was MD for Sweeney Todd at Karlstad Opera House, and Choir Master for Showboat (Royal Albert Hall), The Water Diviner’s Tale (BBC Proms) and The Little Prince (BBC 2). He has led workshops for RCM and for Artisten Conservatoire in Gothenburg, and been a judge and workshop leader for Radio 3 Choir of the Year, Young Musician of the Year and Voice of Black Opera. He was one of the founder members of Music Theatre For Youth. Tim has also recently begun a podcast where he interviews significant writers in the industry: voiceofthemusical.com

Guest facilitators for the Composer/ Lyricst Workshop during 2011 have been Jason Carr, Terry Davies, Charles Hart, and Richard Stilgoe.