Spotlight

Spotlight is our new initiative where the focus is on you, our MMD members. The floor is yours to tell us more about yourself, both professionally and personally. What are you working on? What inspires you? What advice do you have for your fellow writers? As MMD continues to grow and flourish we want to ensure our members are at the heart of what we do, and it starts here with Spotlight.

We are also proud of our passionate and dynamic board members who work extremely hard for the MMD membership. They are champions of new writing and we want you to get to know them too. Each month we will also shine a spotlight on a member of the MMD board.

Spotlight: Rachel Victor-Sampson

September 6th, 2020

Rachel joined MMD as a Member in 2018 and is currently proactively questioning and addressing the cultural diversity of MMD and its members, partners and audiences. We asked Rachel to tell us her story of coming into the new musical theatre sector and how she wants to see it change. I suppose my jou...



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Spotlight: Sumerah & Ajay Srivastav

September 6th, 2020

Meet MMD members, writing and life partners, Sumerah and Ajay Srivastav! They share how they got into writing together, the way they work, how they overcome challenges and what they hope for the future of diverse musical theatre. How long have you been a member of MMD? AS: About 1 year SS:...



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Spotlight: John Cohen

September 6th, 2020

John Cohen is a partner, and Chair of Clintons, an award-winning boutique law firm, based in Covent Garden. It is a market leader in the entertainment, digital media and creative industries and John is recognised as a leading practitioner in the field. Now technically an ex-board member, we were hon...



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Spotlight: Kath Haling – Masterclass Blog

September 13th, 2019

“Yours was the worst” – A Day with Claude-Michel Schönberg I re-read the email numerous times. The email saying I had been selected to attend a masterclass with Claude-Michel Schönberg.  I told my muggle friends and they responded with blank looks of …who? I told my theatre loving...



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Spotlight: Matthew Bugg – Regional Rep

September 13th, 2019

I recently had the great privilege to become the regional rep for Yorkshire and Humberside for Mercury Musical Developments. This got me thinking…. What does it mean to be a ‘regional artist?’ Well, first off… why are there “artists” and also “regional artists”? Why, if we do not liv...



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Spotlight: Cordelia O’Driscoll – Across The Pond

September 13th, 2019

The New York subway is really warm. Myself, Tom and our team of University of Sheffield graduates found this out very quickly when we arrived in Manhattan for this July’s New York Musical Festival, truly fulfilling our role as ‘brits abroad’ as we sweated our way through packed platforms ...



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Spotlight: Cassie Kinoshi – Resident Composer

September 13th, 2019

Being based at Dundee Rep for the Cameron Mackintosh Residency has been a truly inspiring experience. Whilst balancing the residency with both performing and other theatre work, I have thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in both the city and the creative shadowing opportunities that Dundee Rep has o...



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Spotlight: Rosabella Gregory

September 13th, 2019

How long have you been a member of MMD? I joined in 2018, when My Marcello was selected for BEAM that same year! My longstanding collaborator/lyricist/book-writer (and awesome twin sister, Dina) was responsible, as she was forever sending me links to MMD competitions and opportunities. How and when ...



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Spotlight: Emily Gray – Executive Director

September 13th, 2019

What drew you to apply for the role of Executive Director at MMD? The combination of music, writing, choreography, design and storytelling can be the most thrilling thing to work on and to experience as an audience member; my happiest times have been directing musical theatre. I was at both of the B...



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Spotlight: Becca Anderson – To Be It, Do It

December 20th, 2018

In 2018, I have presented two readings of two separate musicals, completed full rewrites (new drafts) of both of those same musicals, written a full act of a new musical, started and finished a full-length play, written a pilot, written and had a full production of a commissioned work, and have cont...



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