Happy New Year! We’re starting 2026 off with a bang as MimeLondon returns with five inspiring workshops. Plus there is more to look forward to as exciting theatre rehearsals take place in our building alongside a host of Local Lounge community events. Read on for your first #FriendsAtSTH of 2026 – a monthly round-up of the inspiring events and exciting people you can dive into the new year with.  

MimeLondon 2026

Dive into a series of dynamic, hands-on workshops led by the UK’s most inventive physical theatre makers, including Vamos Theatre, Gecko Theatre, Nola Rae, Theatre Re and  Sue Buckmaster of Theatre-Rites as they deliver inspiring and dynamic sessions for artists and creatives.

Vamos Theatre: Revealing the Mask Workshop 

17 & 18 January

Vamos Theatre returns to Shoreditch Town Hall as part of MimeLondon for an explosive workshop on full mask performance. Through creative, high-energy exercises, this workshop introduces characterisation, physicality, and techniques such as clocking, stillness, and isolation. Tickets are selling fast so grab yours now.

Nola Rae: The Clown Speaks Without Words Workshop – SOLD OUT 

24 & 25 January

Nola Rae‘s workshop will give participants an insight into how to work without text, express visual ideas with maximum clarity, and move articulately as a performer. Attendees will discover aspects of the clown that are universal, using mime, improvisation, eccentric moves and fancy footwork. Sold Out – click here to get on the waiting list.

Theatre Re: Extending Possibilities 

26 – 30 January

Inspired by the work of Etienne Decroux and Theatre Re‘s own repertoire, this workshop explores how to unlock the full expressive potential of the body through playful and rigorous training, participants will learn how to use freeing and clear vocabularies to form highly physical work. Book tickets here.

Gecko Theatre: Devising Physical Theatre

31 Jan – 1 Feb

Dive into Gecko Theatre‘s unique, visceral and poetic style in this special weekend residency. These practial and engaging sessions explore how Gecko use movement to tell stories within their work and are suitable for performing arts students, multidisciplinary arts creatives or those who have graduated within the last three years interested in deepening their devising knowledge and experience. Very limited availability, book now avoid disappointment.

Sue Buckmaster & Theatre-Rites: Core Skills of Puppetry and Object Animation – SOLD OUT

31 Jan – 1 Feb

Focusing on sharing the stage with an animated object, this two-day workshop will look at presence, focus, manipulation techniques and poetic metaphor. It will introduce the participants to a wide range of styles of puppetry including three-person operated figures. Sold Out – click here to get on the waiting list.

Supporting the Artistic Community

Hackney Society: Hackney Tour Guides Course  

7, 4, 21, 28 January

Hackney Society is launching the first ever accredited Hackney Guides course in our building! Through-out January, they will be training local guides in the rich history of Hackney and equipping them to tell Hackney’s many wonderful stories as a part of a guided tour. We’re excited to provide space for Hackney Society’s training sessions, and support this important, local work.  

Gecko Theatre: The Wedding Rehearsals  

8 – 19  January

As well as their workshop, we’re delighted to host Gecko Theatre for a rehearsal of their show, The Wedding  – a visually rich and emotionally charged work combining movement, imagery and provocative narratives. Inspired by the complexities of human nature The Wedding explores the struggle between love and anger, creation and destruction, community and isolation, and runs at Sadler’s Wells East from 21 January as part of MimeLondon. 

National Youth Theatre: Handel and Hendrix Rehearsals  

18 – 28 & 30 January

The National Youth Theatre will be joining us to rehearse their new musical Handel and Hendrix, by BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and alum Susan Wokoma, directed by Paul Roseby, with composition by Naomi Hammerton. A young girl’s life changes forever when the impossibility of meeting Handel and Hendrix becomes possible. Playing at St James’s Church Piccadilly, 4 – 7 February.

Roisin McCay Hines: Life Before You Rehearsals 

26 – 31 January

Roisin McCay Hines is an award-winning director, writer, educator and producer. She creates bold, atmospheric theatre, and is interested in work that connects us through a shared sense of humanity; be that addressing social and political topics, or finding a joyful and effervescent escape from them. Roisin will be rehearsing for her stint directing Life Before You – a fierce and unflinching new play by Eva Hudson which lays bare the fault lines between mothers and daughters whilst navigating womanhood, class and identity.

Local Lounge Returns

5 Jan – 27 March

After another brilliant year in 2025, Local Lounge is back as we offer our Front Room Bar space for free to local charities, not-for-profits and grassroots organisations. Our space can be used for a variety of activities, from Sip N Paint nights, and Zine Making Workshops, to meetings, training sessions and more. Bookings are now open until Friday 27 March 2026. Book your space now, and we look forward to seeing you soon.