CALLOUT: Composer/Songwriter for Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
By Lucy Kirkwood
Devised by Katie Mitchell and Lucy Kirkwood
Directed by Bryony Shanahan
A Nothern Stage Production
“I expect you have been told fairytales before. But you have never really heard a fairytale until you have heard it told by a real fairy.”
A stolen rose spells bad news for our heroine Belle and her unfortunate dad in this enchantingly wicked retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Families are invited to join our narrators – two mischievous fairies – a ‘thoughtsnatcher machine’ and a helpful rabbit to experience this tale as old as time in new and touching ways for Christmas 2025.
With music provided by the fleas and flies, lices and louses of the Insect Orchestra, you’ll find yourself in rural France with an eclectic cast of characters as the Prince hopes to lift a disgruntled fairy’s beastly spell.
The Role
Northern Stage is looking for a composer/songwriter to work with Director Bryony Shanahan and the productions Sound Designer, Annie May Fletcher on an inventive new take on the well-loved fairytale, Beauty and the Beast. You will have composted/written songs for multiple voices and have experience of storytelling through song. You will work closely with the Director to compose two songs for live vocal performance. The genre of music is to be decided and is open for a collaborative discussion with the successful candidate. This is a paid role in line with industry standards.
In line with our commitment to the region we serve, we want to use this opportunity to meet practitioners from or based in the North East living in postcodes beginning NE, SR, DH, DL or TS.
Key Info
Rehearsals will run from Monday 27 October to Saturday 22 November in Byker, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Technical rehearsals will take place from Monday 24 November at Northern Stage
Previews will run from Saturday 29 November to Wednesday 3 December with press night on Thursday 4 December
This role will require the composer/songwriter to deliver their compositions in time for the beginning of rehearsals. They will then be expected to attend the first day of rehearsals and to attend rehearsals to teach the songs to the company of actors at times to be arranged with the Director. The role will be required to attend some technical and dress rehearsals, and some previews in advance of the Press Night performance.
How to Apply
Please register your interest by sending your CV to producer@northernstage.co.uk along with two examples of your compositions that best reflect your work and style. Please put: “Beauty and the Beast Composer” as the subject of your email.
Artists should also please follow this link to complete our Equalities Monitoring Form: Equalities Monitoring
Hiring Priorities
Northern Stage has a range of hiring priorities, which we consider as part of any appointment to ensure we’re delivering the change we’re committed to seeing in Northern Stage, in the region we serve, and in the theatre sector.
These priorities include:
- In line with our efforts to build a more diverse and representative theatre industry, we are particularly interested in hearing from Disabled practitioners, practitioners from the Global Majority, and/or practitioners from working class/lower socio-economic backgrounds.
- Northern Stage productions are built with the contemporary North East in mind, and we are therefore particularly interested in hearing from artists from or based in the North East of England.
- As part of SCALE UP, our talent development programme supporting artists on a journey of scale, we are committed to employing artists on all of our productions who are making their midscale debuts. We welcome applications from experienced artists who are ready to take this step.
- To ensure that we share opportunities with the widest possible range of artists, we particularly invite artists who haven’t worked with us in the last 12 months to put themselves forward.
The deadline for expressions of interests is midday Wednesday 18 June 2025.
We will contact artists by Friday 20 June to let them know if they have been shortlisted.
Shortlisted artists will meet with the Director online in w/c 23 June.
We will be in contact with all artists regarding the outcome of the process in w/c 7 July.