Creatives Commentary: Executive producer Aidan Grounds on commissioning new Made At Curve productions

Aidan Grounds, Curve’s Executive Producer, on what it means to be a producing theatre and commissioning new plays and musicals to create Made at Curve productions on stage.

These pictures for me illustrate a few of the many steps in the process of developing a production from page to stage. Producing any play or musical is both challenging and thrilling, but producing brand new musicals is even more complex and rewarding. Prior to joining Curve, the first musical I produced was a new musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox co-produced with Curve in 2016, who were the most supportive and collaborative partner. When I joined Curve last year, the Made at Curve production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 – The Musical was playing in the West End, having first premiered in Leicester in 2015. Before both musicals opened, they took a number of years to develop, with the writers, composers, directors, designers and creative teams working closely with Chris, Nikolai and the Curve team. At the time of writing, we don’t know when we’ll be able to reopen without social distancing and produce full musicals, but we are determined to keep developing new plays and musicals, so we hope it won’t be too long until the next new Made at Curve play or musical makes it from idea to page to stage.

Lead image credit: Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 – The Musical – photography by Pamela Raith