Nikki Lynette is a social impact artist & suicide survivor who fuses mental health activism into her musical theater performances, film projects and visual art, creating a lane that is uniquely her own. This Chicago native’s self-produced songs are frequently featured in popular shows on Netflix, Hulu, Showtime and more. Her journey with mental health outreach began in 2016 when she returned to the public eye after a long hiatus with a confession: she’d secretly been battling mental health issues. In a time when being open about mental health struggles was taboo, Nikki began writing articles about depression and suicide for prominent media like Afropunk and AllHipHop. As the opening act for Pussy Riot’s first American tour, Nikki workshopped the material that would soon become her buzzed-about new musical about depression, GET OUT ALIVE. Nikki has made history as the first black female playwright to have a musical produced by American Music Theatre Project, the first AMTP work to debut at Steppenwolf, as well as the first Steppenwolf LookOut Series work and first female AMTP alum to be featured at NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals. The stage show is currently in development under the guidance of Octopus Theatricals. A proud ambassador and board member for the Chicago chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Nikki Lynette’s first TEDx Talk, hosted by Princeton University, was an opportunity for her to share how her punk culture roots aided her suicide recovery. Seeing her music used to tell stories in tv shows led Nikki to an interest in filmmaking. Since adapting her musical about depression to film during the pandemic, GET OUT ALIVE has been invited into over a dozen film festivals and nominated for 5 awards, of which she won three. Her zeal for crafting edgy multimedia theatrical experiences that center mental health is on full display in Nikki’s second film, the recently completed documusical Happy Songs About Unhappy Things, which boasts Jamie Foxx & Datari Turner as producers. Film fest announcements will be made in Spring 2024. Nikki Lynette is represented by Indepent Artist Group.

The Musical Theatre Writing Residency is a two-week international programme for emerging and established book writers, composers, and lyricists from the UK, India, and the United States.

The residency has been devised by Andrew Panton, Artistic Director of Dundee Rep Theatre, and will include facilitated sessions with Dramaturg Jeanie O’Hare (formerly Director of New Work Development at The Public Theater), Music Supervisor James McKeon (Musical Director: Moulin Rouge! The Musical, London), Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director of Goodspeed Musicals, Connecticut and David Greig, Artistic Director of Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh. Shonagh Murray joins as Associate Musical Supervisor, with Imogen Stirling, supported by Playwright Studio Scotland, joining as Associate Dramaturg.

The creatives will also benefit from networking opportunities and workshop sessions, both in-person and digital, with industry-leading writers, composers, producers, directors, and other theatre practitioners – including Tony® Award-winning director John Doyle, Tony® and Grammy® Award-winning producer Mara Isaacs, Tony® Award-winning producer Rashad V. Chambers, and more.

Presented by Cove Park and Dundee Rep Theatre in partnership with Capital Theatres, Citizens Theatre, Macrobert Arts Centre, National Centre for the Performing Arts – Mumbai, National Theatre of Scotland, Octopus Theatricals – New York City, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, and Traverse Theatre. Associate partners include A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, and Tron Theatre.