Where Australia's next great musicals begin
The home-grown incubator for musical theatre writers
The Australian Musical Theatre Incubator (AMTI) gives musical theatre bookwriters, composers and lyricists the opportunity to develop their craft through intensive workshop and masterclass programmes, starting with our inaugural five-day intensive in Sydney in January 2027, presented with support from Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP).
Join us in Sydney this January
4-8 January, 2027
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP)
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, Sydney
COST: $950 for ages 27+ (OR $800 FOR ages 18 - 26)
You should apply to AMTI if:
You’re new to musical writing
From the foundations of musical theatre writing to the ins and outs of getting your work produced, you’ll learn the skills needed to write an original musical and the steps towards getting it produced.
You’re ready to level up
You’ll get world-class insight into the Australian and overseas musical theatre industries, with classes and workshops taught by acclaimed writers, other creatives and producers currently working in Australia, the US and UK.
You’re stuck on your musical
You’ll meet fellow musical theatre writers, help build community and a support network within Australia, and learn concrete exercises and steps to further your writing career.
APPLICANTS MUST BE 18+
What you'll learn
Across five days, YOU’ll work hands-on with industry professionals from across Australia, the UK and THE USA to hone your skills, develop your ideas, and road-test your new musical
From the foundations of writing dialogue, studying song structure, developing characters, plotting storylines and fully utilising the musical form, you’ll learn the business side of the new musical theatre industry, including tips for pitching to venues and producers and tools for raising investment.
You’ll have time to work independently and with others, to expand your creative portfolios, to start or continue developing a new show, and to build networks with fellow writers in order to nurture further collaboration and community.
On the final day, writers will pitch their show to industry professionals.
examples of What WE'll COVER
Convention and form: Why is your show a musical?
Musical structure: Book writing dramaturgy
Composing an opening number: Hooks, themes and style
Re-writing: How to edit and improve your work USING critical feedback
How to get your show produced: Pitching to venues, producers and investors
About AMTIAMTI was founded by two ambitious, theatre-loving Australians who, when in their twenties, had to make the difficult decision to go overseas because of the lack of opportunities to further their skills in the musical theatre industry within Australia
AMTI is created and led by writer Carmel Dean and producer Maryann Wright, and supported by Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), the home of the next generation of artists and their stories.
After many years learning their craft and honing their skills on Broadway, the West End, and beyond, they are bringing their expertise and experience home to Australia and providing the opportunities they’d wished they had on their home soil.
AMTI IS proudly DEVELOPED AND PRESENTED BY
Carmel Dean
Carmel Dean is a Grammy-nominated musician from Perth, Australia, now based in New York. Over the last twenty years she has built an extensive career as a musical director and arranger, contributing to the Broadway productions of The Notebook, Funny Girl (revival with Lea Michele), If/Then (with Idina Menzel), Hands on a Hardbody, American Idiot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other notable projects include Whispering Jack (STC), Fun Home (STC), Clueless (London’s West End), Chicago (Hong Kong), and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
As a writer, Carmel’s compositions include Maiden Voyage (London), Renascence (Off-Broadway), and the acclaimed Well-Behaved Women (multiple productions around Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom). She is currently developing two new musicals in New York City.
Carmel holds an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University, a BMus from WAAPA, and is an alumna of New York’s BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including a Grammy Award nomination, a Fulbright Scholarship, a Sydney Theatre Award, an Off-Broadway Alliance Award, and the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for Composition.
Maryann Wright
Maryann Wright is a London-based, Sydney-born theatre producer of musicals, plays and opera, with a particular passion for new musical development and dramaturgy.
Her new shows in development currently include: Echolocation, a two-hander musical in the dark with a low-vision protagonist written by Sam Norman and Eliza Randall (winner of the 2025 MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award), Jack, a five-hander spoken word musical by Lauryn Redding based on the life and loves of Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack – England’s OG lesbian lothario, and We Interrupt Your Regular Scheduled Programming by Liam Maguire, an absurdist comedy about a wannabe TV presenter and her encounters with the extraterrestrial.
Maryann is also the producer for Gothic Opera, staging rarely heard operas with supernatural themes; with an upcoming production of Halevy’s La Dame de Pique at Battersea Arts Centre in London.
Maryann is a recipient of multiple producer bursaries from Stage One, a member of the League of Independent Producers, and a proud trustee of the UK charity FANZA, which promotes and supports Australian and NZ artists in the UK.
guest teachers
Laura Murphy - Composer/Lyricist/Writer
Laura’s latest work includes ZOMBIE! THE MUSICAL (book, music and lyrics), which premiered at the Hayes Theatre in 2024 and won the TimeOut Sydney Arts and Culture Award for Best Musical and the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Musical. Laura is the composer and lyricist of the new musical THE DISMISSAL, which had a return season at the Seymour Centre in Sydney in 2023 and won the 57th AWGIE Award for Musical Theatre. In 2022, Laura’s original musical THE LOVERS made its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House, and a cast recording of THE LOVERS was released in 2024. Laura is currently developing a new musical based on the novel PUBERTY BLUES.
Darren Yap - DIRECTOR
Darren’s production of Laura Murphy’s ZOMBIE! THE MUSICAL won Best Direction at the Sydney Theatre Awards 2024. Other directing credits include Ebony Booth’s Pulitzer Prize winning play PRIMARY TRUST for Ensemble Theatre, Sydney Theatre Award winning production YONG by Jenevieve Chang for Monkey Baa at The Melbourne Arts Centre, a new production of JOSEPH AND HIS AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT and GHOST, THE MUSICAL in Tokyo, and the critically acclaimed musical MIRACLE CITY produced by Hayes Theatre.
Hayden Tonazzi - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF ATYP
Hayden is an award-winning director and creative producer who in 2025 was appointed the Artistic Director & CEO of the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). A graduate of the 2019 NIDA MFA Directing Program, for over eight years’ they have worked across new writing in theatre and musical theatre, most notably SAPPLINGS by Hannah Belanszky for the 2024 Sydney Festival (Winner of Best Production for Young People, Sydney Theatre Awards), PICKLED كبيس for PYT Fairfield & Downstairs Belvoir, the last train to madeline by Callum Mackay for Fever103 and MeatMarkets Melbourne, and CONVERTED! by Vic Zerbst with Oliver John Cameron for the 2025 Sydney Festival.
George Kemp - PRODUCER OF NEW WRITING AT ATYP
George is the Producer of New Writing & Artist Development at Australian Theatre for Young People, and has mentored at ATYP’s flagship writing programs National Studio and Fresh Ink, as well as working for NIDA, Bell Shakespeare and many other arts institutions. As a writer, George won the ATYP Foundation Commission Award 2020 for his play SHACK (published by Playlab), which is on the new 2026 NSW Drama Curriculum and is in early stages of development for television. George adapted THE NUTCRACKER for Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2022 and was Dramaturg on the stage adaptation of DRUMROLL PLEASE, IT’S STEVIE LOUISE (Playlab). George’s debut fictional novel SOFT SERVE was published by the University of Queensland Press in February 2026.
More guest lecturers to be announced and subject to change.
with special thanks to
