Stage One are delighted to announce that we have awarded a Start-Up Investment of £13,125 to Paul Taylor Mills for the upcoming tour of End of the Rainbow.

Paul is the recipient of a Stage One Bursary and currently runs the last standing weekly repertory play season in the UK at the Theatre Royal Windsor and the Manor Pavilion Theatre in Sidmouth.
Other credits include: Willemijn Verkaik in Concert (Ambassadors Theatre and 54 Below, New York); UK Premiere of Carrie (Southwark Playhouse); Closer To Heaven (Union Theatre); Batboy (Southwark Playhouse); The Cat in the Hat (Worldwide Tour); Miracle on 34th Street (UK Tour); UK Premiere of Altar Boyz (Greenwich Theatre); UK Premiere of In the Heights (Southwark Playhouse) nominated for 7 Off West End Awards and a Whatsonstage Award for Best Off-West End Production; The Beautiful Game (Union Theatre); The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (UK Tour); European Premieres of bare: the rock musical (Union Theatre and Greenwich Theatre); Stiles and Drewe’s Three Little Pigs (Greenwich Theatre); Steel Pier (Union Theatre) – nominated for a Whatsonstage Award for Best Off-West End Production; Rent (Greenwich Theatre) – winner of the Broadway World Award 2012 for Best Regional Production and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (The Lost Theatre). As Associate Producer: The Importance of Being Earnest starring David Suchet (UK Tour and West End).

“The support I have received from Stage One has been instrumental in my work both in terms of the financial support I have received but just as important, the relationships and skills that I have gained. Having a resource and a support structure where you feel confident to be inquisitive, nosey and down right ambitious makes those difficult moments easier to deal with. Producing can be a lonely and frankly terrifying path and knowing that there is always someone on the other end of the phone that actually wants to help you is hugely comforting. The advice and support is always frank but at the same time optimistic. I feel hugely proud to have come through the Stage One ranks and hope that one day I am in the position to share some of the invaluable lessons that I have learn’t thanks to Stage One.  For me, the Start Up Award was the difference between End of the Rainbow happening or not. It gives both a financial security but also a recognition of approval from a body that is highly respected and valued by the industry it works within.“

It’s 1968 and Judy Garland, a once-glittering star, is in London to make her explosive comeback. But off stage, holed up in her hotel room, Judy is battling with her young new fiancé, her devoted accompanist, and her destructive reliance on drugs and alcohol. Will she be able to conquer her demons and reclaim her crown as one of history’s great musical icons?
Featuring Garland’s most memorable songs The Man That Got Away, Come Rain Or Come Shine, The Trolley Songand of course Somewhere Over The Rainbow, End of the Rainbow is a fiercely funny and emotionally charged musical play filled with Garland’s legendary tenacity, razor-sharp wit and once-in-a-generation voice.
End of the Rainbow stars Lisa Maxwell (Loose Women and The Bill), Gary Wilmot (Me and My Girl and Chicago) and Sam Attwater (EastEnders and Dancing on Ice).