This summer I’m directing the National Youth Music Theatre’s new commission – a musical by Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary called PRODIGY. It follows the ups and downs of five young musicians in a classical music competition – X Factor for instrumentalists! The NYMT has been going for nearly 40 years and offers young people aged between 11 and 23 the chance to develop their craft and work towards professionally led productions during their holidays. It’s amazing to be part of something that has allowed so many young performers an incredible opportunity – I took a lot of the national auditions recently and it’s thrilling to see how much raw talent there is all over the country. We have a cast of 27 across the entire age range for Prodigy who all act, sing and dance – and many of them play a musical instrument as well. Our rehearsal week was quite extraordinary – extremely noisy – lots of trumpet playing – but so exciting to be able to collaborate with the cast and create a brand new piece for them. They’ve all gone back to school now to do their exams and we will meet again at the start of August to rehearse for a week before launching ourselves at the St James Theatre to blow the roof off. Until then – it’s endless Facebook chatter on our (also extremely noisy) group page, and for Jake and Pippa and I – rewrites!