ARIA
ENTERTAINMENT to offer a full time literary department for International New
Musicals
Aria
Entertainment,
an independent producing company has announced today that they will offer a
full time literary department for International New Musicals. Since 2013, Aria
have offered an annual festival of new musicals which has supported over 100
new musicals in development from showcases of new musicals, to readings and
also full productions - with last year’s headline musical Unexpected Joy receiving
premieres both in London and Off-Broadway.
Katy Lipson
launched the From Page To Stage Festival
in 2013 and has presented it for 6 years. Last year’s festival took place at Southwark Playhouse, following a hugely
successful 2017 festival, which took place at the Lloyd Webber Theatre’s The Other Palace. Usually the
submission window for the festival would be open for 3 months with 3 weeks at a
theatre being full of various work in development presented to an industry and
public audience.
This year Aria wanted to develop
their commitment to new musicals in a different way - by offering writers a
window to reach out with their work at all times throughout the year. Submissions
will be accepted in the form of 3 demo’s, 3 scenes and a synopsis through our
website frompage2stage.com. Feedback will not be able to be given but Aria will
not only consider the work but also the writers themselves for future
commissions. There will not be a festival this year but Aria will select work
for development and future productions from what is received.
Katy Lipson said: “Over the
last 6 years we have presented so many shows in development and we now reach a
time as a company where we want to focus on finding new work to develop behind
the scenes using our partners to build a future for some of them in and outside
of London. We as a company have already begun the commissioning process for 4
new shows and wish to expand this remit. The future of our producing portfolio
is definitely new musicals and in order to match the volume of revivals we have
produced with new works in the future we have to begin this process now.”
Some
highlights of the FROM PAGE TO STAGE festival have included Return Of The
Solider, which received a production at the Jermyn Street Theatre as well as the
Hope Mill Theatre and the New Wolsey, Ipswich; Claus - The Musical which has
been picked up by licensing house TRW’s British Collection as well as Gallicas
in Germany and XY, a reading which happened in 2017, which was recently performed
at the prestigious NAMT festival in New York. From Page To Stage has featured
the work of British writers Pippa Cleary, Jake Brunger, Charles Miller, Elliot
Davis, James Bourne, Tim Sanders, Tim Connor, Susannah Pearse, Alexander
Bermange, Tasha Taylor Johnson, Eamonn O’Dwyer, Andy Collyer, Tamar Broadbent,
Dougal Irvine to name a few.
Katy Lipson (photo Pamela Raith)
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