BBC launches fourth musical theatre training scheme
The BBC is offering a total of £150,000 to aspiring musical theatre performers as part of its Training in Musical Theatre scheme, which is now in its fourth year.
Grants of up to £8,000 are available through the initiative, formerly known as the Musical Theatre Bursary, which is designed to support musical theatre students who need financial help to pay their course fees.
The scheme’s money comes from the BBC Performing Arts Fund, which receives revenue from the voting lines of BBC1 entertainment programmes that seek to find new performing talent, such as How Do you Solve a Problem Like Maria? and the forthcoming Over the Rainbow.
Dorothy Wilson, chair of the Performing Arts Fund, said: “Spotting talent and developing musical theatre performers for the future is what this is all about.”
Andrew Lloyd Webber, who features in the forthcoming Over the Rainbow, which will see one contestant cast as Dorothy in a new stage production of The Wizard of Oz, said: “The Training in Musical Theatre scheme is all about giving talented individuals the support they need to develop as performers. One of the things I enjoy most about the TV casting shows I have made for the BBC is discovering and nurturing young people who I would not normally see during the theatrical audition process. I hope that the financial contributions from the new casting show Over The Rainbow will help the scheme to continue its much-needed work.”
Students aged 17 and over on or before March 15 this year are eligible to apply to the scheme.
Applicants need to have a place, or be applying for one, on a musical theatre course and be without the means to pay their fees.
It is open to those who are about to start their course or who are part way through their studies and the grants are for a contribution to college tuition fees only.
Applications close on April 23.
Auditions will take place in June at Interchange Studios in London and the winners will be announced in July.
See www.bbc.co.uk/performingartsfund/musicaltheatre for more information.
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