Linda McLean is an award-winning playwright based in Glasgow. Her plays are produced in the UK and internationally, most notably in the USA and France. In 2023, she wrote Castle Lennox for Lung Ha Theatre Company and the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. During the pandemic she wrote, Go On, a response to Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape for the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. She is currently under commission to the Citizens Theatre, the Royal Lyceum, Dundee Rep and Magnetic North. She is an excellent cook, loves board games (current favourite is Everdell), crochet, and has ambitions to weave her own willow coffin. All true.

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.