MTI Mentorship Award

Generously supported by Musical Theatre International (Europe), the Mentorship Award is presented biennially to a writer or writing team who have submitted the first full draft of a new musical. Stiles and Drewe, along with a panel of judges, select the winning project – the writers of which then benefit from bespoke mentorship and support over a 12-month period.

This includes:

  • A fully funded, one-week development residential retreat to work on the winning musical. This has previously happened at Anthony’s house in France or Kent. Location in 2023 TBC.
  • Participation in two Progress Labs. In each of these, the Mentorship Award winner will present a section of their musical and receive feedback from a panel of industry professionals.
  • Access to work shadowing opportunities – either on a Stiles and Drewe show or with alternative industry contacts (subject to availability and production schedules).
  • After 12 months, the above culminates in rehearsal provision for a workshop with an Industry Showcase presentation at the end. This is with a professional cast, Director and MD.

How to Submit:

Submissions for the 2023 Mentorship Award will open on Friday 9th December 2022.

Mentorship Award 2023 Timeline (subject to change):

  • Open submissions: Friday 9th December 2022
  • Close submissions: Saturday 11th February 2023 at 23.59
  • Collation for R1 judges: 13th – 17th February 2023
  • R1 judging: 20th February – 13th March 2023
  • R2 judging: 20th March – 16th April 2023
  • Finalist selection & interview: mid-late April 2023
  • Mentorship Award winner announced: early May 2023

Application Process (for information only):

The application process has three steps:

1. A completed Personal Information Form – on completion you will receive an email with file upload instructions and a link to the optional and anonymous Equal Opportunities Form.
2. A completed Equal Opportunities Form – on completion you will receive an email containing a link to your personal show upload folder.
3. Mentorship Award Application File Uploads (anonymous) – upload all required files to your personal show folder in the format outlined below.

Whilst there is no entry fee, at least one member of the writing team must be a member of MMD. You can find out more about MMD and join our organisation by clicking here. If you have any questions about MMD membership please email Kate McKeown, Membership & Communications at: kate@mercurymusicals.com

Entry Requirements for the MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award:

We ask writers or writing teams to ensure they meet the following entry requirements:

  • Entrants must be resident in the UK (i.e. if chosen, you need to be able to attend the one-week writers’ residential retreat with Stiles and Drewe, prepare and participate in two Progress Labs and the final Industry Showcase during the course of the year-long mentorship). N.B. Overseas Members of MMD may still submit for the annual Best New Song Prize.
  • Entrants must have written a full first draft of the musical to be entered. Full draft means a complete script, with all songs written.
  • Your musical cannot have had a professional production (defined as a production with professional cast and creatives, mounted for an audience.) We will accept a submission from writers who have had developmental workshops or sharings of their work, either financed privately, by a producer, venue partner or via funding.
  • Writers must declare on the application form if their musical is currently under option or if it is a commission. Please provide details of any creatives (producer, director, venue, licensing organisation etc.) attached to the musical.

General notes:

• ONLY the Personal Information form should carry any personal details. The Equal Opportunities form, and ALL uploaded show materials should be presented ANONYMOUSLY. Show materials should also be labelled according to the format requested below BEFORE uploading them.

• You may only enter the same musical for consideration for the Mentorship Award twice. This can be done on consecutive Mentorship years. The judges will not consider a musical a third time.

• A writer may submit multiple shows in any given Mentorship Award year. Please complete a SEPARATE application process for each show.

• Due to the volume of submissions, neither Stiles and Drewe nor MMD cannot guarantee individual feedback regarding the final selection.

Please read all the entry requirements and instructions carefully BEFORE submitting your application and when ready, using the link below follow the three-step process, uploading the following materials when prompted:

REQUIRED MENTORSHIP APPLICATION File Uploads:

N.B. Please DO NOT include details of the composer/lyricist in ANY file names in your application. Rename the files as below BEFORE uploading them, as you will not be able to delete or make changes once the files have been uploaded.

1. SHOW INFORMATION (a SINGLE pdf document consisting of) :

• A synopsis (no longer than 500 words)
• A full character list
• A full track list
• Song 1 – lyric sheet in the context of the scene from the full first draft of the musical (i.e. include full dialogue leading into the song, the song lyrics, and any dialogue following the song).
• Song 2 – lyric sheet in the context of the scene from the full first draft of the musical (as above).
• Song 3 – lyric sheet only

N.B. The context scenes and song lyrics for Songs 1 and 2 above should total no more than 20 pages of the pdf. The lyric sheet for Song 3 is an addition.al page. Please label each page of the single pdf you upload starting with your SHOW TITLE followed by the key words/information for each section as in the examples below:

• OKLAHOMA! – Synopsis
• OKLAHOMA! – Character List
• OKLAHOMA! – Track List
• Song 1 Scene SHOW TITLE – Song Title (e.g. Song 1 Scene OKLAHOMA! – People Will Say We’re In Love)
• Song 2 Scene SHOW TITLE – Song Title (e.g. Song 2 Scene OKLAHOMA! – I’m Just A Girl Who Cain’t Say No)
• Song 3 Lyric (e.g., Song 3 Lyric OKLAHOMA! – The Farmer And The Cowman Should Be Friends)
• Label the Underlying Rights or Public Domain Letter in this format: OKLAHOMA!_Underlying Rights Letter

2. Three Songs: (MP3 or MP4) demo recordings and piano/vocal sheet music if available (pdf).

The file names of the MP3/4 tracks should be labelled following the same format as above: Song 1 SHOW TITLE – Song Title
(e.g., Song 1 OKLAHOMA! – I’m Just A Girl Who Cain’t Say No)

If available, sheet music (piano and vocal arrangement/pdf format) should be uploaded for all three songs. If songs are scored for instruments other than piano (e.g., guitar charts) you may also submit these in the first instance. Please DO NOT include details of the composer/lyricist in either the file name or on the sheet music pdf itself.

3. Additional Song Demos from the show (optional):
If you have demos for more (or all) of the show’s songs, please upload the relevant MP3 or MP4 files and piano/vocal sheet music if available (pdf) using the same show title / song title labelling format as for your first three songs. Additional song demos are optional and will not affect your application.

4. Full First Draft of the musical (pdf):
Again, please use the labelling format as above (e.g., OKLAHOMA! – First Draft).

5. Underlying Rights Declaration (pdf):
If the musical contains any copyrighted material, please upload proof that the underlying rights have been secured OR if the musical is wholly original or based on material now in the public domain please upload a signed letter stating this.

6. Score Notation (pdf):
Please confirm whether you can notate their own compositions into a Piano/Vocal score, or that they have access to an individual who can do that for on your behalf. If shortlisted, a scored version of all three songs would need to be submitted.

Please make sure you have read ALL the above entry requirements and instructions carefully BEFORE submitting your application.
If you have any queries regarding the submission process, please contact Martin Jackson at martin@mercurymusicals.com.

2023 applications are now closed