The Hatch Lab, a brand new Musical Theatre Residency Program for writers and composers

The Hatch Lab was created to assist Australian artists in their development of new musicals and provide much needed support to writers and composers who seek an opportunity to revise, workshop and ultimately bring to life their musical works on stage. Salty Theatre is currently producing the much anticipated “Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody” and has been making a name for itself as an “underground highlight” (Cameron Woodhead – The Age), “someone to watch” (ArtsHub) and “the answer to off-broadway in Melbourne” (Youshouldseeitmelb). They’re very excited to be offering a new opportunity to musical theatre writers, composers and artists in the coming months.

“We wanted to create a program that returns to that brilliant, collaborative, ‘old school’ way of developing musicals, to bring playwrights and composers back into the rehearsal room and nurture their ideas”, says Ashley Taylor, cofounder of Salty Theatre. Sarahlouise, cofounder, adds, “Musical Theatre creation thrives in a kinetic environment. The added level of ‘laboratory’ experience allows real-time evolution of the book and score.”

The Hatch Lab offers an individual writer/composer or writer/composer duo a professional 12-month residency to work alongside the creative team at Salty Theatre (Ashley Taylor, Producer/Director; Sarahlouise Younger, Producer/Director; David Youings, Musical Director in Residence) while also being given the incredible opportunity to have one-on-one mentoring sessions with renowned industry professionals in writing, composition and musical theatre development both from Australia and overseas.

Mentors include Michael Rubinoff (Olivier Award Winner, Tony Award Nominee; Producer and Concept Creator of Come From Away, Founder of the Canadian Music Theatre Project), Dean Bryant (Helpmann, Greenroom and Sydney Theatre Award Winner; Dir. Kiss of the Spider Woman, MTC; Writer. Prodigal, Off-Broadway), Ashley Clapp (Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize of Musical Composition; MD. My Brilliant Career), Lee Hart (Movement Dir. Ghost Ship; Dir. Half Girl, Theatre Royal), Michele Lee (Australian Writers’ Guild stage Drama Award, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award; Writer. Going Down, Malthouse; Rice, PlayLab Theatre), Megan Phillips and Peter Cavell (Best of Fringe, Ed Mirvish Award; People Suck, Toronto, Salty Theatre/Theatre Works; The Anxiety Show, The Pirate Queen of the Stars) and Scott White (Dora Nominee, Canadian Comedy Award Nominee; Composer. Top Gun! The Musical, Salty Theatre, Canada, US; The Giant’s Garden, Canada).

Salty Theatre shares, “The selected resident will not only be in meetings and writing rooms for written development, but will also participate and workshop their book and music through rehearsals on the floor with directors, actors, choreographers and musical directors to workshop both the book and score. Together, we’ll all provide feedback to hone, clean, tweak and give the resident’s musical the love it deserves. We hope that this is only the beginning of The Hatch Lab and the incredible work Australian artists will create here.”

And the last piece of exciting news? In the final quarter of the residency, the musical will have a fully rehearsed and staged production as part of the Theatre Works 2021 season.

Salty Theatre and Theatre Works want to help these artists make Musical Theatre Gold. No biggie.