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London’s most vibrant producer of new theatre, comedy and cabaret.

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Makers’ Lab

June 2025 – January 2026
Apply now
Walthamstow Age Recommendation: 18+
From: £250, with some bursaries available
Course structure:

Fortnightly workshops

Soho Theatre has played an award-winning role in the development of innovative new work for more than 40 years.

Makers’ Lab is an exciting new programme for artists who want to make a one-hour show that crosses different artforms. 

Soho Theatre has a proud history of working with artists whose punk approach to making work defies pigeonholing into any one genre: from artists like Le Gateau Chocolat – whose work straddles drag, children’s theatre and opera – to ensembles like Sh!t Theatre who combine performance art and long-form improvisation with music to make theatrically political work. 

In the spirit of this, Makers’ Lab is a unique talent development programme for emerging artists creating multidisciplinary work in non-traditional ways. You will be guided through ten sessions with an exciting lead facilitator and a whole host of guest artists from different making backgrounds – theatre to comedy, drag to performance art, devisers to verbatim theatre-makers, and puppets to poetry. In these sessions, you will learn different approaches to making work, ranging from devising to gig theatre to alternative comedy and cabaret and many more. You will receive time and space to R&D your ideas, with tailored dramaturgical support from the Soho team. And you will share a draft of your work in a celebratory showcase at the end.

If you are an individual artist or a small ensemble (max 3 people) interested in making intersectional work, and you have an idea for a show that you feel you need support to make, we’d love to hear from you!

Some of our Labs alumni include:

AJ Yi, Charlie Josephine, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Nicole Lecky, Ryan Calais Cameron, Yolanda Mercy , Chloe Petts, Frankie Thompson, Amrou, Len Blanco, and more.

“This course was brilliant. The tutor was inspiring, supportive and really cared about us. I didn’t want it to end. I felt part of a community and that I mattered. It was the course that kept on giving. I learnt so much and it has increased my confidence in taking chances and saying yes to opportunities. Thank you to the whole team who supported us.”

Labs Participant

Course Structure

  • Sat 7 Jun 10am – 5pm, all-day welcome session
  • Mon 9 Jun 6:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • Mon 23 Jun 6:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • Mon 07 Jul 6:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • Mon 21 Jul 6:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • August and September R&D and dramaturgy
  • Sat 27 Sep 10am– 5pm, all-day debrief session
  • Mon 6 Oct 6:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • Mon 20 Oct 16:30pm – 9:30pm, regular evening session (with guest)
  • November and December R&D and dramaturgy
  • Fri 9 Jan & Sat 10 Jan, Showcase Tech
  • Fri 16 Jan & Sat 17 Jan & Mon 19 Jan, Showcase

Applications & fees

The fee for the course is £250, which covers the full 7 months, including roughly 40-45 hours of workshops, two rounds of feedback, and a public showcase. We have a limited number of bursaries available for people who are on Universal Credit, other benefits, or a low income. You can apply for a bursary when you complete the application form.

Soho Theatre is an equal opportunities organisation, and is using positive action to make sure that the people we work with are representative of our diverse community.

We actively welcome applicants who identify as LGBTQ+, disabled, people of the *Global Majority and people living in the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

*people who identify as Black Caribbean, Black African, South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern or Latinx.

Thinking about applying but not sure where to begin?

Come along to our Q&A session to find our more about the programme and how to apply:

Makers’ Lab Q&A: Open to All
Mon 24 March (5-6pm)
Join members of the Makers’ Lab Team on Zoom as we take you through the application process and answer your questions. This one-hour session is free and open to all. To reserve your space, please fill in our booking form.

You can also check out our Makers’ Lab FAQs.

Applications close Sun 30 Mar at 11pm, apply here.

FAQs

This Lab is open to artists from any making & performing background – whether you are a comedian, performer-playwright, poet, drag artist, musician, devised theatre duo, sketch trio or have any other making background!

We are open to applications from mixed experience levels – from early career artists to more experienced makers. However, this Lab is not suitable for complete beginners. If you’re a total rookie, we’d recommend trying our taster sessions, Write Night sessions, or our Saturday Labs (which are all pretty excellent if we say so ourselves).

All the labs are 18+ with no upper age limit.

£250 with some bursaries available.

You are welcome to apply for our courses from outside of London, as long as you can easily get to Soho Theatre Walthamstow (186 Hoe Street) for each workshop and R&D session, some of which start at 10am.

We recommend checking your travel options before submitting an application, unfortunately we are not able to assist with travel costs. Due to the performative and collaborative nature of the course, we are unable to offer them as zoom sessions.

You can apply through our online form via the button at the top of this page. If you want to look at the questions before starting the online form, you can find them below. If you have any access issues with the application or the form, please do reach out to us at engagement@sohotheatre.com and we are happy to offer more access support.

  • What is your name?
  • What email address can we contact you on?
  • What’s the best phone number to reach you on?
  • Have you taken part in one of our Labs courses before?
  • If yes, which Labs have you taken part in and when?
  • Are you also applying for our Cabaret & Drag Plus Lab?
  • Tell us a bit about your previous experience – what kind of work have you made to date, and how would you describe your performance style (200 words)
  • What kind of work do you enjoy watching? (100 words)
  • What are you hoping to gain from this Lab? (100 words)
  • Let us know a little bit about a show idea that you’d like to work on and explore through Makers’ Lab. (100 words)
  • If you like, you are welcome to provide video link to an example of your previous work (no longer than 5 minutes). This is entirely optional!
  • Do you require a bursary in order to take part in the Lab(s) you are applying to? (Yes/No)
  • If yes, please let us know which bursaries you are eligible for. (multiple choice)
  • If you require a bursary, please let us know a little bit about your circumstances.
  • Where did you hear about Soho Theatre Labs?
  • As we are a charity, the following questions are to do with equal opportunities data which our funders require us to collect. Most questions have a ‘prefer not to say’ option if you wish to select this.
  • Do you live in London? (Yes/No)
  • If you live in London please let us know which borough you live in. (multiple choice
  • If you don’t live in London, please let us know which town or City you live in.
    How do you describe your gender? (multiple choice)
  • How do you describe your sexual orientation? (multiple choice)
    What will your age be at the beginning of term?
  • Please describe your ethnic origin. (multiple choice)
  • What was the occupation of the main/highest income earner in your household when you were 14? (multiple choice)
  • Do you consider yourself to be disabled?
  • If yes- please let us know how you describe yourself. (multiple choice)
  • Do you have any access needs that we should be aware of?
  • Thank you, you should receive a confirmation email once you have submitted, we aim to respond to all applicants

In the application form, there are four long-form answer questions that help us learn a bit about you. You’re welcome to type these out, or answer via video, whichever you prefer.

If you’d like to go for the video option, simply film yourself answering the questions, stopping between each one. The idea is you have a separate video for each answer.

Then upload these videos onto YouTube, Vimeo, gdrive, Dropbox or any equivalent video hosting service. 

For YouTube, in the web version there’s a “create” button that looks like a camera with a “+” in it in the top right corner. In the mobile app, it’s the “+” button bottom centre. Choose the “video” option (rather than “short” or “live”), upload your video, and then set the visibility to “unlisted” – which means that only people who have the link to the video will be able to watch it. Then you can copy and paste the link to the video into the application.

You are also welcome to use other video uploading sites if preferred – for example Vimeo, Google Drive or Dropbox – but please make sure that the video can be accessed by anyone with the link, without needing an account or a password, and without an expiry date. Also please do not send download links – we will only watch videos that can be streamed in a browser. Thanks!

Yes, once you have submitted your application through the form and you have reached the ‘thank you for taking the time to apply’ page, you should receive a confirmation email directly from Typeform within 24 hours. Sometimes these may end up in junk/spam, so do check there too.

If we are able to offer an applicant a place on one of our courses, the offer is only applicable for the term specified. We are unable to defer places, but we strongly encourage people to re-apply again in future, if they are unsuccessful, or unable to accept a course offer.

The application form works best from a computer, but you can also complete it on a smartphone or tablet. For the open questions, you can also submit your answer by video, by pasting the online video link in the answer box.

If you are encountering accessibility issues, or for other support regarding the application form, please email engagement@sohotheatre.com.

As we are a small team, managing a large volume of applications, unfortunately we are not able to offer feedback. Inevitably, there are brilliant artists we’re not able to offer places to each year, due to the high application volume and limited course spots available.

Once offers are made, participants are able to confirm their place by email and by making their course payment. We do recommend applicants check course dates before applying and make sure they are able to commit to the full course programme, before accepting a place. We are sometimes able to accommodate participants who may miss 1-2 sessions, but participants must be available for the first session. We are not able to offer refunds to participants once payments have been made.

Drop us an email at engagement@sohotheatre.com

Supported by

Arts Council England

Soho Theatre Walthamstow

Our address is 186 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4QH.

We are a 5 minute walk from Walthamstow Central tube station, which is only 20 minutes from central London on the Victoria Line, and 15 minutes from Liverpool Street station on the Overground.

There are numerous buses that stop nearby and outside the venue.

Find out more