The Yard’s Live Lab will support six artists from a wide range of performance practices to develop as directors, strengthen their artistic style, and work on a new idea for a show over four months, with financial support. The programme is dedicated to the memory of the late Howard Davies CBE.
The programme kicks off with 3 weeks of teaching from world renowned director Katie Mitchell, followed by weekly masterclasses from some of the UK’s most brilliant theatre practitioners, leaders and artists including Bijan Sheibani, Natalie Ibu, Nickie Miles-Wildin, Omar Elerian, Rachael Young, Richard Eyre, Tarik Elmoutawakil and The Yard’s Artistic Director, Jay Miller with more to be announced. In addition, artists will receive one on one mentorship and support from The Yard’s Associate Directors Anthony Simpson-Pike and Cheryl Gallacher and The Yard team including producers, the technical team, and The Yard’s Artistic Director.
Each artist will receive a bursary of £1200 to support them taking part in the programme. They will also receive a £500 fee for a week of research and development in April, alongside free rehearsal space, a budget of £1000 for collaborators, and the opportunity to share their ideas on The Yard’s stage.
We’re seeking six artists who want to strengthen their voice, vision and style while broadening and honing their skills in leading a team. Six artists who want to stretch, challenge and enrich their current creative practice while coexisting within a support system of other artists to learn new skills and approaches to making new work. Six artists who will be supported to make exceptional work that is unmistakably theirs.
Calling yourself a director is not necessarily essential, but a passion for leading a team to create exciting new work and a desire to develop your existing practice is.
We’ve held at least three places on the course for those who are of Black African, African Caribbean, South Asian, East Asian, South West Asian, North African, Arab or Latinx heritage, or those artists from communities who are marginalised for their race. Additionally, at least one place will be given to an artist who identifies as d/Deaf or disabled, as these artists have historically been underrepresented in directorial roles at The Yard and elsewhere.
Live Lab is dedicated to the memory of Howard Davies CBE, one the pillars of British theatre directing over the last 50 years. This programme takes inspiration from Howard’s fierce determination, astounding work and his generous spirit towards all.
Journalist Kate Wyver has written about Howard’s legacy here.
Applying for the LaB
If you are thinking about applying for the Lab, we’ve created a Live Lab Application Pack that should tell you everything you need to know.
To read the Live Lab Application Pack,
You can also listen to an audio version here.
To read the Live Lab application form in full before applying:
You can also listen to an audio version here.
Complete the online application form here.
We’ve also compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions which you will be able to find here.
If you still have any questions about the application, or if you’re not sure if this opportunity is right for you, please get in touch with The Yard’s Theatre Producer Lara at lara@theyardtheatre.co.uk.
Deadline for Applications: Monday 30 November, 10am
Applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application by 23 December
Programme Begins: 6 January, 2021
Welcome meeting 6 January, 6-7.30pm
Teaching from Katie Mitchell
Thursday 7th & Friday 8th January, 10am – 6pm
Monday 11th & Tuesday 12th January, 10am – 6pm
Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th January, 10am – 6pm
Weekly Masterclass sessions every Tuesday, 4-7pm, between Tuesday, 26 January – Tuesday, 6 April
Research and Development weeks: From April 2021
If you’re thinking of applying, we’d invite you to read our Live Lab Application Pack first.
To read the Live Lab Application Pack,
You can also listen to an audio version here.
Before you apply, please read over to our Frequently Asked Questions page here.
Then, complete our online application form.
You can respond in text or by linking to an audio file.
The form will ask you to:
- List your previous work (no more than 2 pages)
- Answer three questions (no more than 750 words in total, or 4 minutes of speech in total)
- Share documentation/images/websites/social media accounts or any other resources to give us a sense of your work. (Please note, it will not be possible to upload files, so this will be via links to storage platforms, video sites or social media accounts only.)
Please do not apply if you are in formal education.
The deadline is Monday 30 November at 10am.
To read the Live Lab application form in full before applying:
You can also listen to an audio version here.
Artists will be selected by The Yard’s programming team and members of our young changemakers aged 15-19, The Committee.
In December, the participants will be announced.
Making an application – We have support available to help remove barriers for people with access needs to make an application to us:
- We’ve created an audio version of the application pack here.
- You can upload an audio version of the answers to your application form.
We can also provide access support if there are other barriers to completing the application form. Just email Lara at lara@theyardtheatre.co.uk.
Taking part – We know there are barriers to taking part in artist development programmes, which is why we’re providing the following to ensure that you can take part:
- If you have access needs: We have allocated an access budget to help remove barriers for people with access needs, for example if you need a BSL interpreter. Simply tell us what you need on the application form.
- If you have financial concerns related to taking part, please let us know when you apply as we have some money set aside for this and may be able to help. Simply tell us in the application form.
- If you have caring / parental responsibilities, we are committed to supporting you through offering flexibility and any other adjustments which may help you. Please let us know what you need when you apply.
If you have any questions, please contact The Yard’s Theatre Producer Lara at lara@theyardtheatre.co.uk.
- During the first session together, we will agree on a set of ground rules and guiding principles for the Live Lab. This will provide a vision for a safe and productive working environment and support healthy collaboration. Ground rules and principles will also be sent to all invited speakers and artists
- Providing one-to-one mentoring and support sessions with our Associate Directors and weekly optional group check-in sessions
- We will provide contact details of other Yard team members should you wish to raise anything or talk to anyone else
We will be closely monitoring the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic to ensure those who partake in the Live Lab can do so safely. The majority of the teaching will happen online via Zoom (all of the Katie Mitchell sessions as well as some masterclasses). The research and development period, happening across The Yard’s spaces, will adhere to Covid-safe guidelines and government advice.
To learn more about the artists and practitioners (with more to be announced) click on their individual profiles below.
Katie Mitchell has directed over 100 productions in a career spanning 30 years, including text-based theatre productions, installations, music theatre, opera and live cinema shows. In the UK she has directed 9 productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 19 for the National Theatre and 12 for The Royal Court – and she has been an Associate Director at all three organisations. Since 2008, she has split her time between working in the UK and on mainland Europe in countries including Germany, France, Holland and Scandinavia. She is currently a resident director at the Schaubuhne (Berlin) and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus (Hamburg) and she has just finished a seven-year residency at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (France). In 2015 the Stadsschouwburg Theatre in Amsterdam hosted a retrospective of her work, presenting 8 productions from across Europe.
Omar Elerian is a freelance theatre director, writer and dramaturg. Italian and of Palestinian descent, Omar trained in Italy and graduated from Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris in 2005. Omar was the resident Associate Director at the Bush Theatre from 2012-2019, where he commissioned and directed some of theatre’s most successful shows. As a sole director for the Bush, his credits include smash-hit Misty by Arinzé Kene (Bush, West End), NASSIM by Nassim Soleimanpour (Bush Theatre, Traverse Theatre and a world tour), Going Through by Estelle Savasta and Islands by Caroline Horton.
Omar is currently developing projects with the Almeida, National Theatre, HOME Manchester, Staadttheatre Mainz, Collective Ma’louba and The Shed in New York.
Tarik Elmoutawakil is an artist, programmer, creative producer as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director at Marlborough Productions in Brighton, the UK’s only performing arts orgnasiation dedicated to intersectional queer arts. His current public work is entitled Brownton Abbey, an Afro-Futures Performance Party that centres disabled QTIPOC (queer, trans and intersex People of Colour). Brownton Abbey reclaims and reinterprets QTIPOC spirituality and ritual, channelling it into an out-of-this-world, accessible party.
Nickie Miles-Wildin is Associate Director at Graeae Theatre Company where she is Head of the new writing programme. Previously she has worked at The Royal Exchange Theatre as Young Company Programme Leader and prior to that as Resident Assistant Director, part of the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme.
Online work includes: Crips Without Constraints (Graeae), MMXX and Con-nectFest (Royal Exchange Theatre) Isolation Bingo (Wild N Beets/First Art)
Theatre directing credits include: SIGNAL FIRES:BEYOND CHINATOWN (New Earth Theatre) CUTTIN’IT (Royal Exchange Theatre) The IRON MAN Library Tour (Graeae/Spark Arts), RIFT NEW WRITING FESTIVAL (Leeds University/West Yorkshire Playhouse), THE FOREST OF FORGOTTEN DIS-COS (Contact /Jackie Hagan), THE TEMPEST AT ABRAHAM MOSS (Royal Exchange Theatre); BUCK A BRENDA & BINGO LINGO (co-director/Wild N Beets); DISABILITY SEX ARCHIVES, TWO CAN TOUCAN (TwoCan Thea-tre)
In 2014 Nickie co-founded TwoCan, Gloucestershire’s first disabled led theatre company.
Anthony Simpson-Pike is a theatremaker and dramaturg. He is currently an Associate Director at The Yard Theatre. He previously worked at The Gate Theatre as Associate Director. Recent directorial work includes Once British Always British with Tamasha, The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz (The Gate) and Staff Director on Master Harold and the Boys (National Theatre). He was a finalist for the 20th JMK award and 2019 RTST award and was selected by the British Council to attend DirectorsLab North in Toronto. Working across mediums, Anthony has directed a body of audio dramas for Tamasha Theatre Company.
As a director with a passion for theatre centring young people and communities, he has worked at The Gate, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, National Theatre and The Globe.
As a dramaturg, Anthony has helped develop two seasons of work at The Gate Theatre alongside freelance dramaturgy projects encompassing dance and theatre. Keeping an international focus, he has worked on The Royal Court’s International Residency and is leading the Royal Court’s international project in Jamaica and Barbados. Anthony dramaturged the LTC’s first ever Artist Climate Lab and helped curate the last one in 2019. He was invited to be the visiting guest artist at the Banff International Playwrighting Residency in Canada in the same year. Anthony is a visiting guest tutor on the MA Dramaturgy at Birkbeck University.
Cheryl Gallacher is one of the new Associate Directors at The Yard. Alongside her work as a director and artist, Cheryl has worked for the Arts Council in the London Theatre Team. Before that, she was a youth worker for a national charity, and prior to that Creative Director at Southwark Theatres’ Education Partnership (STEP).
Directing includes: A New and Better You by Joe Harbot at the Yard Theatre, and Chapel Street by Luke Barnes at the Bush, Underbelly Edinburgh and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.
Work with young people and non-professionals includes: Yardlings at the Yard; Hamlet and Uncle Vanya at the Almeida, A View of London with Crisis at the National Theatre.
As co-director, co-writer and performer at TheatreState: Tribute Acts (UK Tour); The Fanny Hill Project (Camden People’s Theatre, Exeter Bike Shed); The Benefits of Being a Troll (ArtsAdmin; The Yard; Camden People’s Theatre).
Natalie Ibu is the new Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of Northern Stage (beginning November 2020), the largest producing theatre in the North East of England, with a regional and national sector support role.
Before Natalie joined Northern Stage, she was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of tiata fahodzi (Dec 2014- Sep 2020), the only Black-led theatre company in the UK with a sole focus on new work. During her time there Natalie increased the company’s activity levels including seven productions in five years, revived tiata delights in a reimagined format as a talent development festival at Watford Palace Theatre, presented work during the summer festivals, brokered our first international collaboration and opened up talent and career development pathways for African heritage individuals.
Richard Eyre was Director of Nottingham Playhouse from 1973 – 1978, Producer of Play for Today for BBC TV 1978 – 1981, and Director of the National Theatre from 1988 – 1997. He has directed theatre and opera in London and New York. He’s also directed many films for TV and the cinema and is the author of 5 books.
Rachael Young is an award-winning artist and writer based between Nottingham and London. Her interdisciplinary performance practice exists on the boundaries of live art, dance and contemporary theatre. Her work creates space for intersectional realities to be explored and celebrated and alternative narratives and forms to evolve and be heard.
Rachael was the inaugural winner of the Eclipse Award, which supported Edinburgh Fringe 2019 runs of NIGHTCLUBBING and OUT, where both shows were nominated for Total Theatre awards and Rachael was named the British Council’s Artist to Watch.
Most recently Rachael’s writing was performed as part of a curated programme, My White Best Friend, at the Royal Court in 2020. Her work is presented widely across the UK and internationally including: The Place, The Yard, Skopje Pride, Live Collision (Dublin), Theatre de L’Usine (Geneva) and ImPulsTanz (Vienna International Dance Festival).
Lanre is an award-winning director, choreographer & writer working across theatre and film. He creates ground breaking work which seamlessly intertwines movement and dialogue to tell socially engaged, meaningful stories about our world.
His solo show ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM (commissioned by Camden Peoples Theatre), transferred to the Roundhouse in October, 2019 and has toured internationally.
He was commissioned by the BFI to direct and choreograph his short film THE CIRCLE, which had its world premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest and was recently picked up and currently streaming via The Guardian.
His film THE CONVERSATION won “BEST DANCE FILM” at SanFransico Dance Film Festival and the BAFTA recognized Aesthetica Film festival, 2020.
The Live Lab is generously supported by:
Cockayne – Grants For The Arts, Garrick Charitable Trust, The Leche Trust, The London Community Foundation, Maria Björnson Memorial Fund and individual patrons: Andrew Upton & Cate Blanchett, Manny and Lani Azenberg, Hugh Bonneville, Matt Charman, Dame Judi Dench, Marianne Elliott, Lesley Manville, Tim Hatley, Zoë Wanamaker & Gawn Grainger, and those who wish to remain anonymous.