Musical theatre writer training in Britain: Contexts, developments and opportunities

While the global explosion of commercial West End hits in the 1980s and 1990s has seen a surge in performer training outside the United States, the same is not true for aspiring writers. However, the past decade or so has seen the beginnings of a new infrastructure in the United Kingdom, not least due to the 2010 Arts Council funding designed to nurture partnerships and connections between writers, theatres and producers that have started to change this situation. This article investigates the training opportunities for writers based in the United Kingdom as a case study for possible approaches to nurturing musical theatre writers outside the United States. To this end, the article explores four key aspects of musical theatre writer development – the available literature, professional mentorship, industry training and development opportunities, and formal higher education courses – to identify current opportunities and assess ways in which industry leaders and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) might build on these to create a more robust and sustained infrastructure that can nurture a diverse range of high-quality new musical theatre.