News

Seven Dials Playhouse is delighted to announce the first recipients of ‘First Steps’ and ‘Next Step’, two new artist development initiatives launched as part of its wider commitment to supporting theatre-makers at all stages of their careers.

These funded programmes offer space, time, and vital financial support for artists to explore bold new ideas, develop work-in-progress, and forge connections within the industry. The selected projects span gig theatre, puppetry, psychological drama, and music-infused storytelling, exploring themes including masculinity, cultural identity, grief, and colonial legacies.

About the Programmes

First Steps and Next Step are part of Seven Dials Playhouse’s newly expanded artist development strand. Designed to remove financial and logistical barriers to creativity, these initiatives support artists not just at the start of their careers, but at any point where focused development time is needed. The programmes form part of the organisation’s  commitment to platforming distinctive voices, developing sustainable creative careers, and modelling a values-led approach to artistic support.

Katie Pesskin, Creative Director of Seven Dials Playhouse, said:
“We launched First Steps and Next Step to meet artists where they are - not just at the start of their careers, but at any point where time, space and support can make the difference between a good idea and a future production. These projects speak to the richness and urgency of the stories we want to see on stage, and we’re proud to support such a bold, diverse group of theatre-makers as they take a step forward in their creative journeys.”

First Steps‍

First Steps offers groups of up to five* theatre-makers a funded week of creative exploration, with free rehearsal space and paid development time at Equity minimum rates. The 2025 recipients are:

DEFENESTRATION‍

A punchy one-act gig theatre performance using punk music to explore working-class male aggression and its wider impact on marginalised communities. Set in 1980s Britain, it follows Dee, a teenager whose pent-up rage leads him to do something dangerous - dangle a classmate out of a 3rd floor window. The story goes on to explore what led him to that point, what the repercussions are/could be and how he could channel that fury into something more constructive. The Research and Development phase will be spent developing the music within the narrative, with the hopes of developing a project that can be toured to theatrical and non-theatrical venues (working men's clubs, community centres, football clubs etc.)

Co-directed by Casey Lloyd and Taylor Ayling.

‍Casey Lloyd is a Bristol-based director, actor and theatre-maker whose punchy, genre-mixing work centres Working & Benefits Class voices. A participant in Headlong Theatre’s Origins programme, his sold-out satire Gurt Haunted was hailed by Bristol 24/7 as “one of the funniest staged shows ever seen.” Lloyd’s credits span Bristol Old Vic, Cardboard Citizens and Tobacco Factory Theatres.‍

Taylor Ayling is a Bristol-based theatre director, producer and actor trainer whose devised and politically-driven work explores themes of recovery, identity and anti-capitalism. He has worked across the South West and beyond, including projects with Exeter Northcott, Temper Theatre and The Front Room, and is the founder of RAM Theatre Festival in Stroud.

FOR THE LOVE OF JOLLIBEE

A new show that uses the Filipino global fried chicken franchise as a lens to explore colonialism, capitalism, and cultural identity through personal storytelling, comedy, and music - the heartbeat of the Filipino community. The show will unpack urgent socio-political issues about colonial histories of the Filipino/South East Asian community - a growing community in the UK but still severely underrepresented onstage.

Sierra Sevilla (Writer/Performer) is a CHamoru/Filipina theatre-maker based in London, originally from Guam. Her debut solo show For the Love of Spam toured internationally to critical acclaim, and she was nominated for the 2024 Filipa Bragança Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sierra’s work blends activism and personal storytelling to spotlight underrepresented East and South East Asian (ESEA) voices.

Izzy Rabey (Director) is a bilingual director and applied theatre facilitator from Mid Wales. Her work spans theatre, music video and stand-up, with credits including the Royal Court, National Theatre Wales and Cardboard Citizens. Izzy has toured internationally and specialises in socially engaged, bilingual practice through their company Under the Sun/Dan Yr Haul.

Brent Tan (Production Manager/Sound Design) is a Singaporean production manager and freelance producer based in London. Specialising in touring, immersive and interactive theatre, his work champions culturally diverse storytelling and global collaboration.

Caleb Lee (Producer) is a Singaporean producer, lecturer and theatre critic, currently teaching at the University of Exeter and co-leading Five Stones Theatre - an international collective creating dance and theatre for children and young people that are “a little different.”. His producing credits span the Fringe to the West End, with work for Talawa, Bill Kenwright Ltd and New Earth Theatre. Caleb specialises in cross-sector projects bridging performance, research and digital innovation.

TRANSIT

An urgent show bringing in-yer-face theatre into the 21st century. It's a forced feminisation stage horror that uses one MP as a stand-in for the entire fascist movement. TransIt will work directly with 3 Transfemme actors, highlighting their voices, writing how they actually speak and having conversations they’re actually having.

Writer Tabby Lamb is a Fringe First Award Winner who strives to tell stories that explore the intersections between popular culture and politics. Tabby recently became the first trans woman to have a play on the main stage of Shakespeare’s Globe with Burnt at The Stake, and runs creative projects for young people from the LGBTQ+ community.

Produced by Jess Donn from Just Something Different; a new production company which exists to find experiences that involve audiences and celebrate Queer and Trans joy from the get-go.

Next Step

Next Step supports theatre-makers ready to shape their work for the stage. The programme, again supporting up to five* theatre makers per group, includes a week of paid development at Equity minimum rates, rehearsal space, and culminates in a work-in-progress sharing for industry professionals. The 2025 recipients are:

INTO THE BLUE

A puppetry-led children’s show centring on 10-year-old Kai, an impoverished pearl diver from the Sama-Bajau tribe in the Philippines. The Sama-Bajau people live on houses on stilts, are expert fisherfolk, and are known for being able to hold their breath for long periods of time - 15 whole minutes. Inspired by the lack of ESEA stories in children’s theatre, this new work will experiment with puppetry, projections, music and light and the development of storytelling techniques for young audiences.

Written by Mikayla Teodoro, a UK-based Filipino puppet designer and maker, and co-founder of Puppet Theater Manila. Mikayla holds an MA in Design for Performance (specialising in puppetry) from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and is passionate about using puppetry to tell Filipino stories and build the art form in the Philippines. Mikayla has created puppets for theatre, film, and stop-motion, and works to connect communities through performance and craft.

THERE’S A MOUSE IN THE KITCHEN

A taut psychological two-hander set in a cramped East London flat, where two brothers, Sean, a young student, and Tristan, his older, tightly-wound carer, live suspended between duty, silence, and the weight of their shared history. As a dissertation deadline looms, the sound of something gnawing behind the walls begins to fester.

What begins as domestic realism gradually fractures into a haunting meditation on masculinity, care, and the things we bury to survive.

Exploring themes of grief, masculinity, and memory, There’s A Mouse In The Kitchen is written by Cal-I Jonel,  a British-Caribbean writer, actor and composer from London and directed by Rachael Nanyonjo, a Ugandan British choreographer, director, movement director and creative consultant working in the UK and internationally. 

RUN TO THE NUNS

First performed in 2022 to critical acclaim and record audience numbers at Riverside Studio’s festival, Run to the Nuns is a comedy musical telling the story of a queer community set in a nunnery. When 21st Century Britain no longer serves them, the members of Perpetua Abbey escape it.

Run to the Nuns was born from an interest in how the community of a convent is strangely comparable to the togetherness found in the queer community.

Written and produced by Estelle Homerstone - a multi-award-nominated  producer, actor and theatre-maker who is the owner of Estelle Homerstone Productions: a neurodiverse, queer collective, championing new writing and genre-bending entertainment. Acting credits include work at The Globe, Donmar Warehouse, Southwark Playhouse, The Park Theatre and VAULTS London. 

* Seven Dials Playhouse supports up to five artists per First Steps/Next Step project with Equity minimum fees. Larger teams are welcome to apply and may bring their own supplementary funding to include additional collaborators.

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