THE PROGRAMME

The day was split into two sections. The morning session featured keynote speeches and panel discussions, featuring a wide range of industry experts – including international speakers from the UK and Denmark. We heard from renowned British producer Francesca Moody, who reflected on her experience of growing shows from small shows to West End successes, and shared insights into alternative financial models at a time of decreased public funding for the arts. Swedish director Mattias Palm chaired a panel discussed on new Swedish musical theatre, featuring Mats Andersson (GöteborgsOperan), My Blomqvist Olsberg, Erik Fägerborn and Danish theatre director Thomas Bay. The morning session also featured a conversation between Nina Norblad (HSM) and James Hadley, executive director of the UK Musical Theatre Network. James spoke about how UKMTN nurtures new musicals and promotes artistic excellence, partly through running innovative showcase festival BEAM.

The afternoon started with a musical performance by students from Artisten, before leading into an interactive group discussion, facilitated by David White, David Griffith-Jones and Markus Vitra. During this session, attendees were split into small groups and were tasked with responding to one of three provocations. Each group then shared their ideas with the rest of the participants.

The day concluded with a speed networking session, with attendees able to book one-to-one slots with international producers, artistic directors, and venues.

Click here to view more information about the programme.

A new chapter for Swedish musical theatre may have quietly begun. Over the course of the day, artists, producers, educators, venues and creatives came together with a shared purpose: to discuss ways in which we can lower the barriers that exist for the creation of new work, and to build the infrastructure that supports it. 

We gained invaluable insights and inspiration from international guests. Francesca Moody MBE challenged us as a community to think outside traditional funding models and development processes – to consider incremental approaches rather than expecting a fully fledged international hit to appear from the ether. Thomas Bay spoke of his work establishing the Fredericia Musicalteater in Denmark and encouraged openness to Nordic collaboration. James Hadley from the UK Musical Theatre Network provided a fascinating case study of a successful musical theatre showcase festival, and spoke about how festivals and network organisations can find, encourage and develop new musicals.

There was talk of the need for affordable venues, where failure can be part of the process, not the end of it. Rehearsal spaces donated by established institutions. Regular events where composers and writers can hear their work out loud. Collaborations across borders and mentorships that span the Nordics. A Swedish national platform to connect performers, writers, composers with venues and producers.  More collaborations, festivals, workshops and readings to support artists and their work at all stages of development.

To capture as many of these ideas and reflections as possible, we organised three written exercises throughout the day. Attendees were invited to contribute to a “Pains & Gains” wall, where they could share their views on current challenges as well as ideas to boost the genre and establish Swedish musical theatre on an international stage. During the afternoon’s group discussion, each person was asked to spend three minutes writing down reflections on paper. And finally, at the end of the day, attendees were asked to respond to a propmpt: “Based on everything I’ve heard today, I wish…”. The responses to these exercise can be downloaded below.

With support from: