Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) and Musical Theatre Network (MTN) have been awarded funding from the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation to support five placements as part of The Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer Scheme over 2018-2022. The next placement is for a two-person writing team and will be hosted by Theatr Clwyd. We can now announce the 2022 recipients are Amir Shoenfeld and Caitlyn Burt!

“We are thrilled to be selected as the Cameron Mackintosh Resident Writing Team at Theatr Clwyd. At a time when our industry’s resources are particularly scarce, we are especially grateful to Theatr Clwyd, Mercury Musical Developments, Musical Theatre Network and the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation for this rare opportunity, and their unfailing support for new writing. We look forward to developing our musical while learning from and collaborating with such a community-focused organisation as Theatr Clwyd.” Amir Shoenfeld & Caitlyn Burt

Caitlyn Burt and Amir Shoenfeld are a London based musical theatre writing team. Their collaboration started while training at BML (Book, Music & Lyrics) where they wrote SHEILA THE TINY TURTLE, featured on the BITE-SIZED BROADWAY podcast by IndieWorks Theatre (2022). They have won the Song for Our Time initiative with the song ‘Looking at the Moon’, selected by Tony winner, Jason Robert Brown (Tarento Productions 2020) and their piece THE ONLY HONEYEATER has recently won the mini-musical competition by SMOFA (Sweden). Caitlyn and Amir have been commissioned to write the songs for the Dance ClubHouse syllabus (IDT Global). 

Individually, Amir has written several scores for the globe-touring theatre-dance company, Second Hand Dance and has won the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Award (2020). He is also the producer of the critically acclaimed album DESIRE LINES by Fictonian (Distiller Records 2015). Caitlyn was commissioned by International Dance Technique to write the touring musical, LUCY’S SEARCH FOR STARZ (2019), won a judges Lyrebird Award for her song in the play, TWENTY-TWELVE (2018) and was recently selected to attend the Hosking Houses Trust writers’ residency.

“One of the most exciting things for us as a company is having artists in our building, becoming part of the fabric of who we are and bringing their own insights to all that we do. Caitlyn and Amir are not only hugely exciting musical theatre writers but also bring a wealth of experience from different nations and forms of music making. It’s an amazing thing, particularly in these times, to be working with Mercury Musical Developments, Musical Theatre Network and the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation on such a forward looking and innovative residency.” Tamara Harvey, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd.

Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network run The Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer scheme, which is made possible by funding from the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation. Through this, musical theatre composers are paired with a producing organisation, and given the opportunity to be involved in a range of projects including developing their own new work, shadowing other composers, musical direction and composing songs, sound & music for new productions. In this placement, for the first time, it was decided to seek a two-person musical theatre writing team for the opportunity, recognising the highly collaborative approach that many musical theatre writers take. This is also the first Welsh-based placement in the scheme’s history, which began in 2011 and has now awarded paid placements to 16 musical theatre writers. Recent placements have included the Royal Shakespeare Company, Dundee Rep, British Youth Music Theatre, Hope Mill Theatre and The Lowry. 

“Amir and Caitlyn are the perfect team for this residency, as they have so much to give the Theatr Clwyd community, as well as being ready and open to learn from them. At MMD we have supported both Amir and Caitlyn over recent years as they have developed their individual voices as well as forming a creative and productive writing partnership. We are excited to see how their new musical theatre work develops and how they embrace this opportunity with their talent and energy.” Emily Gray, Executive Director, MMD

“We’ve received requests in the past from two-person writing teams wanting to apply for Resident Composer placements, but not wanted the fee to be divided in half. Thanks to the support of the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, we’ve now been able to offer this placement with two individuals each receiving the full fee towards their living costs while taking up this professional development opportunity. Locating a placement in Wales is long overdue, and Theatr Clwyd is the perfect venue for this, with its strong track record for staging innovative new musical theatre.” James Hadley, Executive Director, MTN

For more information about the next residency and how to apply, click here.