BOOK, Music & Lyrics is led by a number of facilitators with a extensive professional experience in musical theatre.

JASON CARR (Composer/Lyricist Workshop)

After winning the Vivian Ellis Prize for Young Writers of Musicals, Jason was invited by Peter Hall to compose Born Again (a musical of Ionesco's 'Rhinoceros'), produced at Chichester Festival Theatre starring Mandy Patinkin and José Ferrer. As Associate Composer at Chichester, Jason wrote music and lyrics for two new musicals; The Water Babies and Six Pictures of Lee Miller (nominated for the British Composer Awards). His version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, written with Bryony Lavery, has played Chichester, Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Jason has composed incidental music for over 40 plays, including 17 productions for the late Steven Pimlott. Orchestration credits includes the Menier Chocolate Factory's Sunday in the Park with George (the Broadway transfer winning Jason the Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Orchestrations), La Cage aux Folles (a second Tony nomination) and A Little Night Music (also Broadway). Other credits include Richard Jones' acclaimed Annie Get Your Gun at the Young Vic, with its now infamous line-up of four pianos! Jason has accompanied many notable singers including Elisabeth Welch, Betty Garrett, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Michael Ball and Dame Felicity Lott. A long association with Maria Friedman includes arrangements for her Olivier award-winning show By Special Arrangement and her CD Maria Friedman sings the Great British Songbook.

DAVID FIRMAN (Composer/Lyricist workshop)

... is an orchestral and opera conductor, TV and theatre musical director, composer, arranger and orchestrator. He conducted the original West End productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Singin’ in the Rain, La Cage Aux Folles, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Pirates Of Penzance, and the most recent revival of Carousel, and was arranger/orchestrator on the West End productions of My One And Only, Metropolis, and Enter The Guardsman, and for the regional productions of Good Fun, where he first met its writer, Victoria Wood. For her he arranged and musical directed 3 BAFTA award-winning series: Victoria Wood as Seen on T.V., Dinner Ladies and Christmas With All The Trimmings. He developed studio experience as a session recording keyboard player, performing on the soundtracks of Return Of The Jedi, the Superman series and Basic Instinct, along with television recordings for Carl Davis, Nigel Hess and Jim Parker. He conducts for such orchestras as the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic, as well as numerous others around the globe, and he has a growing portfolio of commissions as a composer in his own right. He studied at Trinity College London, and Magdalene College Cambridge.

DAVID JAMES (Librettists Workshop)

... has worked in the professional theatre in New York, Los Angeles and London for the whole of his adult life, as a writer, a designer, and, occasionally, a performer. He was chair of the theatre committee for the Writers' Guild of Great Britain for 11 years, as well as a member of MMD since 1994 and the Dramatists' Guild. For seven years, he was a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. His award-winning plays have been produced by the BBC World Services, Radio Four, and the South African Broadcasting Company. A member of the theatre designers' union in New York, United Scenic Artists local 829, he designed the costumers for over 30 productions there. As Assistant Designer, he worked on many Broadway musicals including Promises Promises, the original production of Grease, 70 Girls 70, Bob Fosse's Dancin', The Rothschilds, Coco, George M, Minnie's Boys, Halloween, Carnival (New York City Center) and Oklahoma! (New York State Theatre). He was assistant director on the first New York revival of Company. He has been a judge for the Tony Awards, the London New Play Festival, The Writers' Guild Awards, and the John Whiting Award. He founded BML in 2010.

TIM SUTTON (Composer/Lyricist workshop)

... is a composer of musical theatre, choral music and opera. He collaborated with poet Ian McMillan on Cycle Song, a community opera for 1500 performers, for the Cultural Olympiad in Scunthorpe. His concert work Unplugged: Winning the Clay was commissioned and performed by The Eden Project in 2011, and nominated for an RPS Award, his song I Am won the Stiles and Drewe Best Song Award 2011, and his carol The Seven Joys was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2011. He was also one of four composers chosen to produce arrangements for the Jubilant Commonwealth Choir, which sang in the flotilla for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Other works include Joe Turner's Come And Gone (Young Vic), The Secret Garden (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Dreamfighter (Lichfield Festival), The Bacchae (National Theatre of Scotland) and Thought Latching To Thought… (The Place Prize 2006). His most recent work has been as arranger and Musical Director for The Amen Corner at the ntional Theatre. Tim is one of the founder members of Music Theatre For Youth, and the Musical Director of Upbeat, a community choir in East London. He also hosts a podcast, Voice of the Musical, in which he interviews the writers of the most successful musicals of our time.

JONATHAN BUTTERELL (Choreographers' workshop)

... created Musical Staging for The Light In The Piazza  (2005 Tony award) and  Assassins (2004 Tony award) and he choreographed the 2003 Tony award winning Nine revival, starring Antonio Banderas & Chita Rivera as well as the London Donmar Warehouse, Buenos Aires and Tokyo productions of Nine. Also on Broadway he created the Musical Staging for the original workshop of Sondheim’s Wise Guys at New York Theater Workshop, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty’s A Man Of No Importance, Lincoln Center Theatre and staged the 50th anniversary celebration of the Public Theatre titled Public Sings! at New York City Center. He was the choreographer  for Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet (7 Academy Award nominations) and Stay starring Ewan McGregor (both directed by Marc Forster). In the UK Jonathan has directed Stiles & Drewe’s Soho Cinders, Donmar Warehouse’s Company, Habeas Corpus, Into The Woods, How I Learned To Drive, The Maids and Electra starring Zoe Wanamaker. He devised and directed Michael Ball in Alone Together, and Divas At The Donmar. He co-directed with David McVicker on Sweeney Todd (Opera North and Sadlers Wells) and with Julia McKenzie on Peter Pan (Royal Festival Hall). He created the musical staging for Sondheim’s Passion with director Jeremy Sams. He was Associate Director for Othello at Royal National Theatre with Sam Mendes and for Hamlet at the RSC with Stephen Pimlott. He is currently working with Douglas Hodge and Aschlin Ditta on their musical Meantime and also has a commission to write and develop his Paris Project with Josh Schmidt for the Alley Theatre in Houston.

Other guest facilitators for the Composer/Lyricst Workshop include Terry Davies, Charles Hart, Jeremy Sams, Susan H. Schulman, David Spencer, Sir Richard Stilgoe, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe, Sarah Travis and Mark Warman.