Chris Bush and Matthew Winkworth are the winning writing team of the inaugural 2013/14 Perfect Pitch award, supported by Northampton’s Royal and Derngate.
The pair have been awarded a £12,000 commission to complete a full draft of their musical Odd over the next 12 months.
The show will be developed through workshops before being presented in a professional staged reading.
Initially 318 applicants were narrowed down to 44 shortlisted writers and five finalists. The award was open to all UK-based writers.
The finalists had to pitch ten minutes of a new musical to a panel of experienced judges who included Michael Ball and director Rachel Kavanaugh.
The winning musical, Odd, is a contemporary adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey seen through the eyes of a teenage girl. After a decade in care, 16-year old Odessa decides to make her journey home using the Odyssey as her guidebook.
Perfect Pitch became an Arts Council England national portfolio organisation in 2012 and aims to help writers in the development of their musicals.
Chris Bush and Matthew Winkworth said, “Winning is incredibly humbling. It’s a great demonstration of faith from Perfect Pitch and Royal and Derngate. We can’t wait to start working with them.”
Royal and Derngate artistic director James Dacre commented, “The origination of new work is central to Royal and Derngate’s future which is why we’re working with 12 writers and composers to premiere new work in our Made in Northampton 2014 season.
“We’re thrilled to be working in partnership with Perfect Pitch to host and develop Odd into a full musical and to showcase the enormous potential of this new writing partnership between composer Matthew Winkworth and writer Chris Bush.”