Composer & Lyricist YEAR ONE
The first year programme of workshops is designed to develop and nurture the craft of writing songs for musical theatre. Through practical exercises in a workshop environment, members explore the conventions of song within the framework of a musical setting.
Throughout the year, members work as pairs to create various types of musical theatre songs, which they then present to the group. This pairing is different for each assignment. Facilitators and the group members offer constructive feedback to inform rewrites and further development. The year culminates in the writing of
10-minute musicals, in collaboration with members of the librettist workshop.
After the first term, composers and lyricists are encouraged to sit in on the Librettist group.
Workshop faciltators
JASON CARR
After winning the Vivian Ellis Prize for Young Writers of Musicals, Jason was invited by Peter Hall to compose Born Again (a musical of Ionesco's Rhinoceros), produced at Chichester Festival Theatre starring Mandy Patinkin and José Ferrer.
As Associate Composer at Chichester, Jason wrote
music and lyrics for two new musicals: The Water Babies and Six Pictures of Lee Miller (nominated for the British Composer Awards). His version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, written with Bryony Lavery, has played Chichester, Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Jason has composed incidental music for over 50 plays, including 17 productions for the late Steven Pimlott.
Orchestration credits includes the Menier Chocolate Factory's Sunday in the Park with George (the Broadway transfer winning Jason the Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Orchestrations), La Cage aux Folles (a second Tony nomination) and A Little Night Music (also Broadway). Other credits include Richard Jones' acclaimed Annie Get Your Gun at the Young Vic, with its now infamous line-up of four pianos!
Jason has accompanied many notable singers including Elisabeth Welch, Betty Garrett, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Michael Ball and Dame Felicity Lott. A long association with Maria Friedman includes arrangements for her Olivier award-winning show By Special Arrangement and her CD Maria Friedman sings the Great British Songbook.
SUSANNAH PEARSE
Susannah Pearse is a writer and composer. Musical theatre credits include Around the World in 80 Days, A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island with Kate Ferguson (all for The Octagon Theatre in Bolton), Hall of Mirrors and Rossum’s Universal Robots with Robert Hudson (for BBC Radio 3 and 4 respectively), Jabberwocky with Rebecca Applin (BYMT), The Stationmaster with Tim Connor (Aria Entertainment), and Once Upon a Time in Narcissia with YounYoung Park (Daegu International Musical Festival, South Korea).
She writes the original music for the comedy songs on John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme on BBC Radio 4, and she has also developed several musicals for young people to perform with Go Live Theatre Projects (previously Mousetrap Theatre Projects). She also wrote I Am Not Yours - Mother Nature with composer Anna Semple (Royal Opera House).
From 2013–2024 Susannah taught new musical theatre writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, supervising the creation of over thirty new musicals during that period. She has also taught musical theatre writing and history on a range of shorter modules at Wolverhampton University, Leeds Conservatoire, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Urdang (City St George’s, University of London). She is currently the Royal Literary Fellow for De Montfort University, a member of Mercury Musical Developments, and a facilitator for Book, Music & Lyrics, a development programme supporting new musical theatre writers in the UK.