About the Symposium
The inaugural Swedish New Musical Theatre Symposium took place in Gothenburg in April 2025. The event was hosted and organised by studio three sixty, with funding from Kulturrådet, and was inspired by conversations with many people in the Swedish musical theatre community, as well as a wide range of international practitioners..
Artists, producers, educators, venues and creatives came together with a shared purpose: to discuss ways in which we can lower the barriers that exist for the creation of new work, and to build the infrastructure that supports it.
The Programme
The day was split into two sections. The morning session featured keynote speeches and panel discussions, featuring a wide range of industry experts – including international speakers from the UK and Denmark. We heard from renowned British producer Francesca Moody, who reflected on her experience of growing shows from small shows to West End successes, and shared insights into alternative financial models at a time of decreased public funding for the arts.
Swedish director Mattias Palm chaired a panel discussed on new Swedish musical theatre, featuring Mats Andersson (GöteborgsOperan), My Blomqvist Olsberg, Erik Fägerborn and Danish theatre director Thomas Bay.
The morning session also featured a conversation between Nina Norblad (HSM) and James Hadley, executive director of the UK Musical Theatre Network. James spoke about how UKMTN nurtures new musicals and promotes artistic excellence, partly through running innovative showcase festival BEAM.
The afternoon started with a musical performance by students from Artisten, before leading into an interactive group discussion. During this session, attendees were split into small groups and were tasked with responding to one of three provocations. Each group then shared their ideas with the rest of the participants.
Recorded Session: Francesca Moody
It was clear from the conversations during the day – and from feedback following the event – that there is a strong desire for the conversations that were started during the symposium to continue. As a first step, a mailing list has been created, which will be used to share updates and resources. If you’re interested, you can sign up here.
