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For the fourth year running, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund is launching a grant scheme to help train the musical theatre performers of the future.

The Training in Musical Theatre scheme helps ambitious and talented students who need financial support to pay their course fees. A total of £150,000 will be distributed in grants through the scheme, which was formerly known as the Musical Theatre Bursary. Each applicant can apply for a grant of up to £8,000 for an academic year.

Dorothy Wilson, Chair of the Performing Arts Fund, said: "We are delighted to launch this funding opportunity, offering the chance for the most talented and motivated musical theatre students, whether about to start a course or part way through their course, to apply for help with their tuition fees.

"The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund is the UK's biggest funder of Musical Theatre Training, in the charity sector, and we've supported over 100 students to date with awards totalling over £600,000. Spotting talent and developing musical theatre performers for the future is what this is all about."

The Fund, a registered charity, will receive revenue from the voting lines on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One's forthcoming series Over The Rainbow featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber, who said: "The Training in Musical Theatre scheme is all about giving talented individuals the support they need to develop as performers.

"One of the things I enjoy most about the TV casting shows I have made for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is discovering and nurturing young people who I would not normally see during the theatrical audition process. I hope that the financial contributions from the new casting show Over The Rainbow will help the scheme to continue its much-needed work."

Lee Mead, West End star and winner of ´óÏó´«Ã½ One's Any Dream Will Do, said: "I was delighted to hear that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund is supporting Musical Theatre students for one more year by contributing to their proper training. I am very proud to be associated with the valuable work of this charity."

Students aged 17 and over on or before 15 March 2010 are eligible to apply to the scheme. They need to have a place, or to be applying for one, on a musical theatre course and be without the means to pay their fees. It is open to those who are about to start their course or who are part way through their studies and the grants are for a contribution to college tuition fees only.

Each application will be considered by the scheme's independent assessors.

Applications open on 15 March and will close on 23 April 2010. Auditions will take place in June at Interchange Studios in London. The winners will be announced in July 2010.

Notes to Editors

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund helps aspiring music-makers and performers looking for a way to get ahead.

To date the fund has allocated £2.4m to fund young musicians, from a range of genres, to help them pursue their careers in music.

Our mission is to seek out and support excellent aspiring performers and those directly supporting performing artists, who for reasons of lack of existing opportunity, personal background or circumstance, would not have been able to achieve their most ambitious goals, or their talent's greatest potential without the Fund's support or intervention.

This is the fourth year the scheme, which was previously known as the Musical Theatre Bursary, has been run. So far over 100 winners have shared over £600,000 in funding. Students who receive a Dance and Drama Award from their college are not eligible to apply for the Training in Musical Theatre scheme.

Each application form will be read by the Fund's independent assessors. If the student has made a good case to receive a grant, they will be invited to an audition in London, in June 2010. They will perform to a panel of three people who work in the musical theatre business. If they pass the audition, and if the assessors are satisfied that financial circumstances would make it difficult for them to take up their college place, they will be asked to stay behind for an interview, to discuss their application further.

The auditions and interviews take several days and it will be several weeks before a decision is made. The decision of the Fund is final.

The Fund receives revenue from voting on shows such as I'd Do Anything and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

KT