Stage One Launches 5 at 50 Producer Scheme for 2026

Alright, gather round the satchel, because Grace has news that smells suspiciously like progress, opportunity and maybe even a cheeky celebratory glass of fizz. Stage One is officially turning 50 in 2026 – which in theatre years is roughly equivalent to celebrating your golden wedding anniversary with the West End. Fifty years of cheerfully helping producers who had ideas bigger than their bank accounts, mentors kinder than their overdrafts, and dreams that didn’t come with a backstage pass.

Now, I love producers. They’re the people who shepherd a show from someone’s late-night scribble all the way to actual paying audiences. They are organisers, gamblers, fundraisers, cheerleaders and therapists, often all before breakfast. If you’ve ever watched a producer trying to book a rehearsal room, wrangle a cast change and solve a costume crisis while pretending everything is perfectly calm, you’ll know they deserve both respect and biscuits.

To celebrate five decades of backing these brilliant humans, Stage One is launching something rather special called ‘5 at 50’. And if you’re an emerging producer with ambitions that stretch beyond small venues and community tours, it’s probably time to sit down before you faint or start budgeting for celebratory snacks.

Here’s the nutshell: Stage One will select five exceptional early-career producers and give each of them a whole year of one-to-one mentoring from commercial theatre leaders. Think of it as having your own producing guardian angel – but with practical advice, connections, real-world wisdom and less harp playing.

And because Stage One understands that theatre talent should not be restricted to people who can afford to live on enthusiasm alone, each producer will receive a £20,000 bursary to help cover living and development costs. At last: recognition that emerging producers need electricity, groceries and the occasional train ticket, not just applause.

But wait, it gets better. Stage One will also match-fund £50,000 into each producer’s next commercial project. That means real money, real confidence and real backing for someone taking their first big dive into West End or national touring waters. Grace nearly dropped her satchel when she read that bit.

Stage One CEO Joseph Smith says mentoring is already at the heart of the organisation, but ‘5 at 50’ is designed for producers who are truly ready to level up. If you’re past the stage of wondering how to send rehearsal schedules and are now dreaming about opening nights, commercial risk and tour routing, this is the moment where things become really interesting.

The ‘5 at 50’ opportunity is open to producers who have already been supported by Stage One in some way. It is aimed at those who have successfully produced small or midscale work and are now preparing to move those skills into the joyful chaos of a commercial scale. And in the spirit of fairness and artistic richness, Stage One is especially welcoming applications from underrepresented voices. The West End will always be brighter when the people telling stories are not carbon copies of each other.

Applications open in January, at which point the five superstar mentors will be announced. Grace will be polishing her satchel in anticipation. The 50th year will also feature celebrations, events, regular placements and training programmes – proof that Stage One still has more energy than most twenty-somethings after a triple tech week.

Stage One has already helped launch or nurture the producing careers of hundreds of remarkable people: James Seabright, Jamie Wilson, Eleanor Lloyd, Richard Darbourne, Becky Barber, Simon Friend, Matt Byham Shaw, Nia Janis and Sarah Verghese, among many others. Whether you realise it or not, your favourite touring productions, clever commercial revivals, surprise fringe hits and brave new musicals have Stage One fingerprints somewhere in their history.

As part of the anniversary, Stage One is collecting memories from producers who received support over the decades. Grace would like a scrapbook, personally. Not just glossy success stories, but the odd tale of emergency prop shopping, late-night rewrites and the magical moment when an audience laughs at the exact place the writer worried nobody would.

The ‘5 at 50’ scheme is generously supported by Ian McKellen, Sam Mathias and ATG Entertainment through the McKellen Fund. Grace would like to imagine Sir Ian personally applauding with a twinkle in his eye, though that may just be me being sentimental.

Stage One also sends warm thanks to all its funders and the many individuals and companies who continue to believe in the messy, exhilarating business of getting new stories onto stages. Theatre exists because someone refuses to give up when everyone else is saying no. And producers need someone cheering them on from the wings, especially when the numbers refuse to behave politely.

Grace’s note from the satchel: this isn’t just five bursaries and some mentoring. It’s a quiet statement that commercial theatre belongs to more than the same familiar handful of backgrounds and bank balances. It’s an open door for the hungry, the hardworking, the ones writing budgets on borrowed laptops and chasing rehearsal spaces between shifts. It is for the voices who deserve to be heard long before they inherit an address book.

If that’s you, January is approaching. Grace is rooting for you. Clean your notebook, sharpen your ideas, and trust that someone out there genuinely wants to see you succeed. And when your first national tour opens, don’t forget to send the satchel a ticket – Grace loves a night at the theatre, especially when the story started with opportunity instead of privilege.