Writers’ Lab (18+)

‘This time last year I would NEVER have thought I’d have written a play. It’s amazing.’

Applications for Soho Theatre Labs 2022 are now closed, but you can check out our FAQs here.

Our Writers’ Lab programme is an entry-level course designed to support new writers to create a play over 9 months. Workshops cover a wide range of topics and are led by Lakesha Arie-Angelo, Sharmila Chauhan and Jules Haworth with a number of guest artist masterclasses over the year. We take writers through a three-draft process with one-to-one feedback support, with an opportunity at the end of the process for writers to submit to our  annual Tony Craze Award.

Writers who have completed the programme include:

Alissa Anne Jeun Yi, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Archie Maddocks, Ava Wong Davies, Charlie Josephine, Danusia Samal, Holly Robinson, Iman Qureshi, Ifeyinwa Frederick, James McDermott, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Kalungi Ssebandeke, Karim Khan, Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, Milly Thomas, Nicole Lecky, Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Ross Willis, Ryan Calais Cameron, Tabby Lamb, Tom Wright, Yasmin Joseph, Yolanda Mercy and many more.

Course structure Oct 2022-June 2023:

Writers Lab runs once a month on Tuesday evenings with occasional Saturday workshops. The course involves 48 writers, who are placed into three groups of 16.

Oct- Saturday 22 Oct, daytime
Nov- Tuesday 6.30-9.30pm
Dec- Tuesday 6.30-9.30pm
Jan- Saturday date TBC
Feb- Tuesday 6.30-9.30pm
March- Tuesday 6.30-9.30pm
April- Saturday date TBC
May- Saturday date TBC
June- Saturday date TBC

We are aiming for the workshops to take place in person at Soho Theatre, but we may use zoom as a back-up option if Covid-19 restrictions change. Applicants must be available for the full programme. For more detail about the course structure and dates, please see our FAQs here, you can find out more about our leading team here.

Application and fees

Our online application for Writers’ Lab closed on Mon 1 Aug, 5pm. We aim to re-open applications in July 2023.

The fee for the course is £150, which covers the full 9 months, roughly 35-40 hours of workshops and three rounds of feedback. We have a limited amount of bursaries available to people on Universal Credit, other benefits, or a low income. We also have the following sponsored bursaries available for October 2021:

• Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini bursaries for people who identify as disabled
• Alistair Wilkinson bursaries for people from low socioeconomic backgrounds
• JBR bursaries for people who identify as trans or non-binary

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.