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
January 4-8, 2027
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP)
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, Sydney
You should apply to AMTI if:
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 new to musical writing
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 ready to level up
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.
You’re stuck on your musical
What you'll learn
Across five days, YOU’ll work hands-on with industry professionals from across Australia, the UK and US 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 in a 10 minute slot to an industry panel.
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, investors
About AMTI
AMTI 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, 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 opportunity they’d wished they had, on their home soil, many years ago.
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 blind protagonist, winner of the 2025 MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award, and developed at Theatre Royal Plymouth thanks to Arts Council England funding.
Jack is a five-hander spoken word musical by Lauryn Redding based on the life and loves of Anne Lister, aka Gentleman Jack – England’s OG lesbian lothario. The show will receive its second round of development in Feb 2027.
We Interrupt Your Regular Scheduled Programming by Liam Maguire is an absurdist comedy about a wannabe TV presenter and her encounters with the extraterrestrial, for programming in Aus and the UK.
Maryann is also the producer for Gothic Opera, staging rarely heard operas with supernatural themes; recently Halevy’s La Dame de Pique at Battersea Arts Centre.
Maryann is a recipient of multiple producer bursaries from Stage One, is 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.
Special guests
Laura Murphy
Darren Yap
Guest lecturers TBD and subject to change.