Seven Dials Playhouse Announces 2026 Recipients of first steps and Next Step Artist Initiatives

Seven Dials Playhouse has announced the first cohort of 2026 recipients for first steps and Next Step, its two funded artist development initiatives supporting theatre-makers at different stages of their creative careers.

Launched last year, the programmes sit within Seven Dials Playhouse’s expanded commitment to artist development, offering paid time, space and resources for artists to experiment, research and shape new work. The selected projects span speculative and interdisciplinary theatre, new musical writing, drag and cabaret, and archive-led performance, with many engaging directly with queer and marginalised histories, identity, community, education, power and resistance.

Both initiatives provide paid development time at Equity minimum rates, alongside free rehearsal space and opportunities to connect with industry professionals. The aim is not only to support individual projects, but to remove some of the financial and logistical barriers that often prevent bold or unconventional work from being developed at all.

Katie Pesskin, Creative Director of Seven Dials Playhouse, said the organisation is proud to continue supporting artists at pivotal moments in their careers, where time, space and paid development can make a meaningful difference. She noted that the 2026 recipients are asking urgent and imaginative questions about history, identity and community, and that the Playhouse is committed to providing a platform for these ideas to be explored and shared.

Previous participants have described the programmes as transformative. Taylor Ayling, part of first steps in 2025, described the experience as being about visibility and permission to tell their story on their own terms. Cal-I Jonel, a Next Step recipient in 2025, said the programme gave their work the momentum it needed to move towards the stage.

first steps 2026 Recipients

first steps supports groups of up to five theatre-makers with a funded week of creative exploration, combining paid development time with free rehearsal space. The 2026 recipients are:

Alone, Alone and Everywhere

A speculative, multi-disciplinary theatre project exploring the legacy of occultist illustrator and so-called “mother of tarot” Pamela Colman Smith, in conversation with other Black and queer Victorians. Using Smith’s tarot illustrations as a starting point, the project brings her world into dialogue with modern-day queer characters, opening a conversation across time about erased histories, possible futures and the desire to reclaim what has been lost.

The project is written by actor and writer Mei Alozie, whose work centres Black and queer speculative histories, and directed by Micky (FKA Dix) McDevitt, a multi-disciplinary director and performer working across surrealism, punk aesthetics and high-concept performance. The creative team also includes producer Hannah Balogan and costume designer Phaedra Leigh.

House Girl Duties

An interdisciplinary new musical following a 16-year-old British-Ugandan girl who immaculately conceives. Combining 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. The work aims to create a joyful and immersive experience that invites audiences to laugh, reflect and connect.

The project is led by Rẹmi Shorunke-Samuel, a British-Nigerian actor, writer and storyteller from South East London and a recent LAMDA BA Acting graduate. Development is supported by No Table Productions, an award-winning company known for telling individual stories rooted in lived experience and broader infrastructural issues.

The Tears of Rod Hudston / El Gran Varón

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

The residency will function as a process-led laboratory, moving from archival research towards a coherent performance concept using verbatim fragments, movement-led dramaturgy and image-based composition. Living Museum of HIV is an interdisciplinary platform created by Diego Agurto Beroiza, developing ethical, multilingual, community-led performance projects that confront stigma, institutional violence and colonial legacies.

Next Step 2026 Recipients

Next Step supports theatre-makers ready to shape work for the stage, offering a week of paid development, rehearsal space and a work-in-progress sharing for industry professionals. The first 2026 recipients are:

Clown Baby Clown

Three teenagers sign up too late for a compulsory after-school club and find the only option left is Finding Your Clown. Under the guidance of idealistic teacher Naomi, the group form unexpected bonds. But when parents campaign against one student and her drag king alter ego, the group’s fragile sense of safety begins to fracture.

Part play and part cabaret, Clown Baby Clown is a politically charged exploration of queerness, education and the pressure to conform. It is written by Gemma Lawrence, whose debut play Sunnymead Court was OFFIE-nominated, and directed by Emily Aboud, recipient of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award.

Hatie Kopkins

A high-camp drag cabaret biography of one of Britain’s most notorious professional provocateurs. Part pantomime villain origin story and part cultural autopsy, Hatie Kopkins examines how media outrage is manufactured, and the damage caused when disability and vulnerability are framed as shame.

The project is an outrageous musical satire interrogating reactionary platforms, bootstrap bravado and the machinery of outrage itself. The all-drag creative team includes playwright and drag antagonist Aiden Strickland, aerialist and Next Drag Superstar winner Daisy Horan, director Steffi Walker, and movement artist and choreographer Isidro Ridout.

New Work by Isabella Leung

An interdisciplinary theatre project led by an all-female creative team, this new work explores East and Southeast Asian female identity through absurdism. It examines the psychophysical impact of exoticisation under the white male gaze, using absurdity as both resistance and revelation.

Led by independent theatre artist Isabella Leung, whose work has been recognised by the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and the Manchester Culture Awards, the project brings together director Kim Pearce, actor and interdisciplinary artist Vinna Law, circus artist and butoh dancer Rika Fujimoto, and performer Sara Chia-Jewell.

About Seven Dials Playhouse

Based in the heart of London’s West End, Seven Dials Playhouse is dedicated to nurturing theatre-makers and performers at all stages of their careers. Through year-round development programmes and live performance, the organisation aims to support a theatre industry that reflects diverse voices and stories, and remains relevant, valued and necessary.

Seven Dials Playhouse continues to position itself as a vital space for experimentation, development and sustainable creative practice within the UK theatre landscape.

Seven Dials Playhouse, 1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP
https://www.sevendialsplayhouse.co.uk/