Call goes out to creatives for The Little Mermaid at Nottingham Playhouse

​Nottingham Playhouse, Christmas 2025.

Nottingham Playhouse has issued a call-out for a director, a writer and a composer for The Little Mermaid, announced as its 2025 festive show for younger children.

Submissions are sought from creatives from the East Midlands who wish to create an original stage play for children aged three to eight years old.

The 50-minute show is performed in the Neville Studio and then tours to schools, libraries and other community settings across the region.

Adam Penford, artistic director at Nottingham Playhouse, commented: “We have been recruiting for this project via open submission for five years now and have read and listened to hundreds of applications. Each year, we are blown away by the level of creativity and the panel debates long and hard.

"We're looking forward to seeing how the artists respond to the magical story of The Little Mermaid.”

The open call-out enables Nottingham Playhouse to meet new theatremakers and helps remove potential barriers, ensuring equal access to opportunities.

It builds upon the work through the Nottingham Playhouse Amplify programme for local artists, which now has over 800 members and provides masterclasses, workshops and career development opportunities.

The Designer for the production will be appointed through the Playhouse Prize, run in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University, from their BA (Hons) Design for Theatre and Live Performance degree.

The 2024 Christmas show for younger children, The Ugly Duckling, was as popular as ever. It offered a refreshed and updated version of the classic story, with original script, music and characters, and lots of opportunities to join in. Audiences were extremely enthusiastic.

Nottingham Playhouse has a long-standing reputation for creating original and charming theatre for young children:

Submission deadlines for all three creatives are in January and February, Find out more at www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

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