New York Columbia Exchange Programme 2025

Stage One has announced the 12 UK producers selected for the New York Columbia Exchange Programme 2025. In partnership with Columbia University, the exchange will take the producers, all previous alumni of a Stage One programme, to New York from the 15th – 19th September for a series of industry focused workshops to learn everything about how to produce on Broadway. Marking the 5th annual exchange between Stage One and Columbia University, the programme has now become one of Stage One's core development programmes offering industry focused training and investment. 

The producers selected for 2025 are Bethany Cooper, a producer, general manager, and recipient of the 2022 Nicole Kidman Bursary, designed to support emerging female producers in the theatre industry; Conor Gray, previously the associate general manager at The Old Vic, he has now taken on the role of producer of the Watermill Theatre, and David Shopland. They are joined by Demid Naumov, the current associate producer (international) for SIX the Musical and London based producer Gareth Andrews.

Also chosen for the program is musical theatre specialist James Steel, whose company, James Steel Productions, supports international collaborators across the West End, Broadway, and beyond, alongside Jamie Rycroft, a London-based independent producer and Jazz Lintott Bruce. 

Kate Baiden, currently a producer for London’s Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Simon Paris, who showcases his mission to disrupt the traditional performer-audience relationship through interactive, immersive, or entirely reimagined theatrical forms. 

Completing the cohort are Sophie Visscher, co-founder of Speakerphone Productions, and Winnie Imara, the co-producer for the West End transfer of Retrograde.

Through the Columbia Exchange, Stage One Producers will be given an intensive education in producing for Broadway, from US labor laws and unions, to fundraising, copyright law, US touring and much more, equipping them with the practical knowledge to make their ambitions of producing for on or off Broadway a reality.

The Columbia Exchange is supported by the John Gore Organisation.