CGO Institute – Diploma in Musical Theatre Writing

“There is so much to admire, to weep over and to write music or poems about” Mary Oliver

UPDATE 15th December 2020. We are welcoming applications for the first Diploma in Musical Theatre Writing (DipMTW) starting 31st May 2021 and running across 20 weeks including 12 weeks intensive teaching, writing weeks (and a short break during the Edinburgh Festival). Completing 9th October 2021.

There are a maximum of 12 Scottish, UK and International places. Please read through these pages and, if interested in applying, email chris [at] chrisgrady [dot] org.

CGO established the CGO Institute during lockdown in 2020 and first established a Diploma in Creative Producing (DipCP). We are now launching a new programme over 20 weeks accessible to inspiring writers & composers who wish to inform the future of the artform and create work locally, nationally, and internationally. The course is cloud-based, run from Scotland, for a limited number of practitioners who will work together and learn from a range of established writers and arts professionals.

  • The course will be centered around the collaboration of creatives in words and music leading to live stage performances of Musical Theatre but here we open wide to all forms of work which could be the future of this artform, stage, children’s, participatory, opera/music theatre, gig/festival, digital and blended cloud and ground-based. The course will not focus on film music or literary publishing,  but all skills taught will be transferable.
  • The course is cloud-based allowing participants to be together at one time on one platform working from your own home/work base. It is hoped that many will meet together ‘on the ground’ away from the cloud also. The course will help each participant find a mentor, writing partners on the course and local networks which can further your on the-ground interactions in and around your own planned future work base.

Chris Grady has 40 years experience in the theatre/arts business including 10 years developing and leading courses and masterclasses in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, China, Russia, Korea and Japan. 

Chris created the first worldwide Quest for New Musicals in 1990 leading to the first Festival of Musical Theatre in Buxton (England) 1992. From there he worked on quests in Oxford, the development of the 6 years of Musicals festivals in Cardiff (Wales)., served for two years on the Festival of New Musicals panel for NAMT (New York), created the Musical Theatre Awards at Edinburgh Festival (Scotland), Musical Theatre Matters (now MTN UK) and New Musicals Alliance (now merged to become Mercury Musical Development (MMD UK). He ran conferences on Musical Theatre and shortform courses for writers and composers in London, the Netherlands and most recently Russia . This website offers other areas to look at CGO and Chris’s work.

  • Rob Hartmann
  • Eamonn O’Dwyer