Aria Entertainment 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 the 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.”
