News

Seven Dials Playhouse is delighted to announce the first cohort of 2026 recipients of ‘first steps’ and ‘Next Step’, two artist development initiatives launched last year as part of its wider commitment to supporting theatre-makers at all stages of their careers.

These funded programmes offer space, time, and financial support for artists to explore bold new ideas, develop work-in-progress, and forge connections within the industry. The selected works span speculative and interdisciplinary theatre, new musical work, drag and cabaret, and archive-led performance, with projects engaging themes of queer and marginalised histories, identity, community, education, power and resistance.

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About the Programmes

first steps and Next Step are part of Seven Dials Playhouse’s recently expanded artist development strand. Designed to ease some of the financial and logistical pressures faced by theatre-makers; these initiatives support artists both at the start of their careers and at the 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 with paid development time at Equity minimum rates.

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Katie Pesskin, Creative Director of Seven Dials Playhouse, said:
“As we welcome the second cohort of first steps and Next Step recipients, we’re excited to continue supporting artists at moments where time, space and paid development can help their ideas move forward. These creatives are asking urgent, imaginative questions about history, identity and community, and we’re proud to be offering a platform for their projects to be explored, tested and shared as they take their next steps.”

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Quotes from previous participants: 

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Taylor Ayling (Defenestration, first steps 2025): “It wasn’t just about developing a show - it was about being seen and having permission to tell our story our way.”

Cal-I Jonel (There’s a Mouse in the Kitchen, Next Step 2025): “It gave my work the life force it needed for the next stage. I’m now a few steps closer to seeing my ideas on stage and continuing my journey as a theatre-maker.”

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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 2026 recipients are:

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ALONE, ALONE AND EVERYWHERE

A multi-disciplinary, speculative theatre project exploring the legacy of occultist illustrator and “mother of tarot” Pamela Colman Smith, in dialogue with other Black, queer Victorians. Using Smith’s tarot illustrations as a starting point, the research and development will bring her world into contact with modern-day queer characters - initiating a conversation across time and space about hidden pasts, possible futures, and the desire to reclaim erased histories.

Written by Mei Alozie, an actor and writer working across theatre and film whose work centres speculative histories and Black, queer narratives. Alone, Alone and Everywhere is her debut play.

Directed by Micky (FKA Dix) McDevitt (she/they), a multi-disciplinary director and performer whose work blends surrealism, punk aesthetics and high-concept performance.

The team also includes Hannah Balogan (Producer), Phaedra Leigh (Costume Designer).

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HOUSE GIRL DUTIES

An interdisciplinary new musical following a 16-year-old British-Ugandan girl who immaculately conceives. Bringing original gospel music, humour and audience interaction, House Girl Duties explores eldest-daughter responsibility, faith, and the pressures of growing up as a young black girl in the UK creating a joyful, immersive experience that invites audiences to laugh, reflect and connect.

Rẹmi Shorunke-Samuel is a British-Nigerian actor, writer and storyteller from South-East London, and a recent graduate of the LAMDA BA Acting programme. Her recent credits include The Girls I Look Up To (Riverside Studios) and Dance Nation (LAMDA).

Developed with No Table Productions, an award-winning company led by Co-Artistic Directors Montel Douglas and Nora Lempriere, with associate artists Emily Olum and Harmony Daniel. The company tells individual stories about infrastructural issues from lived-experience perspectives.

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THE TEARS OF ROD HUDSTON / EL GRAN VARÓN 

A performance-in-development rooted in testimonies, archives and texts gathered through workshops with migrant communities living with HIV. Developed by the Living Museum of HIV collective, the project transforms archives and lived stories into radical performance, reclaiming queer histories, challenging stigma, and centring collective memory through humour, tenderness and political clarity.

The one-week residency will function as a process-focused laboratory, moving from research materials towards a coherent performance concept through verbatim fragments, movement-led dramaturgy and image-based composition.

Living Museum of HIV is a London-based interdisciplinary platform created and directed by Diego Agurto Beroiza. The platform develops radical performance and archival projects with migrant communities around HIV, confronting stigma, institutional violence and colonial legacies through ethical, multilingual, community-led storytelling.

Collaborating Team

• Diego Agurto Beroiza – Direction / Lead Artist
• Eduardo Arcelus – Performer
• Emilia Cadenasso – Movement & Music
• Nikita De Martin – Lighting Designer & External Eye

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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 first batch of 2026 recipients are:

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CLOWN BABY CLOWN

Three misfit teenagers sign up too late to a compulsory after-school club, only to find the last remaining option is Finding Your Clown. Led by idealistic teacher Naomi, the group form unexpected bonds and uncover hidden parts of themselves. But when a group of parents campaign against one student and her drag king alter ego, Al Dente, the group’s fragile sense of safety is put at risk.

Part-play, part-cabaret, Clown Clown Baby is a bold, funny and politically charged exploration of queerness, education and the pressure to fit in. 

Written by Gemma Lawrence, whose debut play Sunnymead Court was nominated for an OFFIE Award and toured the UK following runs at the Tristan Bates Theatre and Arcola Theatre, and directed by Emily Aboud, recipient of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award, with recent credits including Tender (Bush Theatre) and Disco Inferno (National Youth Theatre).

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HATIE KOPKINS

A ferocious, high-camp drag cabaret biography of Britain’s most notorious professional provocateur. Part pantomime villain origin story and part cultural biopsy, Hatie Kopkins skewers the creation of a media monster and the damage caused when disability and vulnerability are treated as shame.

An outrageous musical satire, the show interrogates reactionary megaphones, bootstrap bravado and the machinery of outrage itself.

The project brings together an all-drag creative team including award-winning playwright and drag antagonist Aiden Strickland, aerialist and Next Drag Superstar winner Daisy Horan (Goblin), director Steffi Walker (Sweet FA), and movement artist and choreographer Isidro Ridout (Izzntshe).

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NEW WORK BY ISABELLA LEUNG 

An interdisciplinary theatre project bringing together an all-female creative team, the work explores East and Southeast Asian female identity through the lens of absurdism. It examines the psychophysical impact of exoticisation under the white male gaze, deploying absurdity as both resistance and revelation. Connecting symbolic worlds with lived realities, the project confronts questions of race, migration, politics and shared humanity.

The work is led by Isabella Leung, an independent theatre artist with Hong Kong roots. Her debut play A Bouffon Play About Hong Kong was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting (2021), and she was a finalist for Independent Creative of the Year at the Manchester Culture Awards (2023).

She will be working alongside award-winning director Kim Pearce; Malaysian actor and interdisciplinary artist Vinna Law (Silent Witness, BBC); Japanese circus artist, actor, butoh dancer and clown Rika Fujimoto; and Sara Chia-Jewell, who appeared in Dress Up opposite Tim Downie.