‘COVID: THE MUSICAL’
A COMPETITION FOR AUSTRALIAN WRITERS
Music Theatre Melbourne is thrilled to announce that Stephen Schwartz has selected Isaac Shatford’s musical Ruth (current working title) as the winner of its competition.
Isaac is a composer and violinist, whose love for writing Musical Theatre began when he co-wrote Suspect; the Murder-Mystery Musical for his high school. Since then, his own musical Gray Eats A Pretzel, has been workshopped by University of Melbourne’s Musical Theatre Association (UMMTA), as part of The Sitzprobe 2019. He has had works performed by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NZTrio. Isaac’s flat in Melbourne has been sitting unoccupied throughout COVID-19. He can’t wait to be back!
Stephen Schwartz was very positive regarding the 3 finalists that were referred to him for his ultimate assessment by the Australian judging panel. In relation to Isaac’s winning entry, he observed:
“There was real merit in all the finalists I had the pleasure to review for the New Musical Writers’ Competition. But I thought Ruth showed an especially high level of craft in both music and lyrics, as well as a strong grasp of story-telling, with nuanced and relatable characters. I have since learned the identity of the writer, Isaac Shatford, and it is clear that he is a young man with enormous talent and potential. I congratulate him, as well as all those who participated in the competition.”
The MTM team is thrilled to have the opportunity to work and collaborate with Isaac, and is looking forward to developing his musical through workshop to its ultimate staging in September 2021.
When told of his win, Isaac said, “It’s incredible that, in this time of crisis, Music Theatre Melbourne has decided to continue developing original work. I am beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to share this story with the community. Ruth is largely based around my own experience of wanting to return to Australia, and not being able to. I can’t wait to return to Melbourne (hopefully for good, this time), and I am honoured to be working with the exceptionally talented team at MTM.”
From 61 notices of entry, Isaac’s musical work was selected with 2 other outstanding submissions from a final short list of 17 by our Australian judging panel. The 3 finalists’ works were then sent to Stephen Schwartz for his final adjudication.
MTM’s continued commitment to helping to develop and promote music theatre in Australia is the main purpose of its competition. As each of the entrants were informed, the competition title Covid: The Musical was not to be adopted literally but was to inspire the theme of entrants’ new works. The criteria were non-prescriptive and the submissions were varied in style and context. MTM believes that the Arts, in all forms, makes its most profound statement in times of crisis. This competition is MTM’s contribution to provide an outlet for writers to express themselves in this most difficult time during the world pandemic.
MTM congratulates all writers who participated in our competition. The quality of the submissions excited us and despite the current difficulties that we face, it leads us to be very sanguine for the future prospects of music theatre in Australia.
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