These pages detail how we programme our live performance work spanning theatre, music, dance, comedy, cabaret, circus, talks and more. For further information on hiring the venue for a commercial event, please refer to our Event Hire pages.
Since 2012, Shoreditch Town Hall has established itself as a vibrant arts and cultural space programming a range of live performance of varying scales. We like to give audiences surprising, transformational and unique experiences – ones they can’t have anywhere else.
We don’t work with a traditional back-to-back programming model, although presented work often falls roughly into Spring (Jan – July) or Autumn (Aug – Dec) seasons. We tend to work nine to twelve months ahead with programming, though we remain deliberately flexible with some work programmed on shorter or much longer timescales than that
If you’d like to talk to us about presenting a large-scale live music or comedy gig at the Town Hall (primarily in the Assembly Hall or building-wide) then please contact the producing team at programming@shoreditchtownhall.com with as much information about your proposed event as possible. Please read more about the Assembly Hall in particular before getting into contact, just to ensure that our space is right for you.
Please note that Shoreditch Town Hall is not bound to accept all live music or comedy gig enquiries; we reserve the right to refuse a gig if we don’t deem it appropriate or in-keeping with our wider programme.
Every show we have at Shoreditch Town Hall is part of a curated programme of artistic activity. In terms of theatre and performance we don’t hire our spaces for ticketed, public performances of work that hasn’t at some point been developed through and/or in consultation with Shoreditch Town Hall.
We like to programme unique, bold and innovative performance, particularly:
• work that can benefit from or respond to our varied non-traditional spaces and allow us, as one of only a few non-traditional venues in London, to meaningfully contribute to the wider development of site-responsive work
• work that’s being made in new and exciting ways
• work that, on the whole, has had little to no London exposure to date
As a rule we programme very little traditional script-based work, unless we are working with a specific partner, and while we are open to projects involving new writing, we generally do not have the capacity to read unsolicited scripts.
The development of new work through artistic residencies is central to our artistic programme at Shoreditch Town Hall, with almost all of our theatre and performance programme stemming from work that artists have developed in the building over a period of time.
Rehearsal space; producing, fundraising, marketing and technical support; support in the creative process; professional and industry advice, are just some of the areas in which we can support artists in residence.
We also encourage artists to undertake work-in-progresses of what they’ve been developing at some point during an artistic residency providing that the work is at a stage where the artist feels comfortable exposing it in this way. Shoreditch Town Hall works closely with artists to determine the best format for their work-in-progress as well as the best audience, which can include creative collaborators and colleagues, industry professionals and/or the general public.
You can find out more about hiring our spaces for rehearsals, classes, workshops, meetings, and more by downloading our Rehearsal Hire Guide here
We’d very rarely start a conversation in regards to an artistic residency and/or programming at Shoreditch Town Hall without having seen the work of an artist live at some point before. The best way to start a relationship with us is to invite us to see your work, whether it be finished or work-in-progress. However, before you do, please do consider whether your work is in line with what we get excited by at Shoreditch Town Hall based on what we’ve written on these pages as well as on the type of work we’ve supported and programmed to date. You might like to get a sense of how we use our spaces here at Shoreditch Town Hall by coming along to see one of our upcoming shows (look at the What’s On section), looking at our Previous Productions or our recent Annual Reports.
If you think your work is right for us then please do send your invite to programming@shoreditchtownhall.com. Due to the large volume of invites we receive we ask that all invites are sent at least 3 weeks before the final performance date of the event.
If you have no performances or work-in-progresses coming up then please write to us at the above e-mail address with information about your company, details of a project that you want to do, why you want to do it at Shoreditch Town Hall, and what support you require. If your project is something that we think would work at the Town Hall then we’ll arrange a catch up with you.
Please remember that if we can’t come to see your work on a specific occasion or don’t follow up an e-mail with a meeting then that isn’t necessarily the end of the conversation; please do keep us updated with all your work and future developments.
We look forward to hearing from you!
“The increasingly essential Shoreditch Town Hall . . . filling the gap in non- traditional performance spaces in London.”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
020 7739 6176
info@shoreditchtownhall.com
Shoreditch Town Hall,
380 Old Street,
London EC1V 9LT
