Published: Thu 23 Feb 23

Q&A with our Head of Theatre David Luff

An interview with our Creative Director

You’re Soho Theatre’s Creative Director. What’s your day-to-day like?

I oversee the artistic output of Soho Theatre, with particular focus on theatre programming, commissions and literary development and creative engagement, learning and participation. I work closely with Steve Lock, our Head of Comedy, who leads on all the comedy, drag and cabaret activity at Soho. As Co-Chief Executive, I work with our Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive Mark Godfrey on overall strategy and vision for the Soho Theatre Group, including our Walthamstow, digital and touring growth areas. As Creative Director I am following the development of Soho Theatre Walthamstow really closely feeding into some of the design and programme conversations.

What do you like about Walthamstow and do you have roots in the area yourself?

Although I don’t have roots in Walthamstow I used to live in South Tottenham/Stoke Newington, so I wasn’t too far from Walthamstow. I have lots of friends from the area too.

Soho Theatre has been working in the borough for a number of years. Can you say something about the impact you’ve had in Waltham Forest?

Soho Theatre has had a huge impact in the borough, leading transformational creative engagement work, such as an extensive Parks Project which created activity and performances across multiple parks in Waltham Forest, and also education and creative learning activity, leading playwriting courses, comedy and cabaret labs, and creating new devised performances with teenagers.

How will people be able to get creatively involved with the new theatre?

There is the main performance programme which will feature comedy, music, community performance and pantomime. This will generally have a professional, commercial outlook, however there will be multiple opportunities for locals to perform on our stages in community events. For newer creatives looking to break through into the industry, there are performance opportunities at Soho Theatre Dean Street, and we’ll have studio spaces at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, which will be used for a variety of community activities, both for artistic and non-artistic activity. In the future there is likely to be a performance programme in one of the studio spaces at Soho Theatre Walthamstow which will open up even more opportunities for up-and-coming local creatives on our stages.