A three-day taster course designed for cis and trans women and non-binary individuals aged 18yrs+, offering practical Back of House skills that can lead to entry-level roles as apprentices or casual technicians in theatre.
This initiative is part of our ongoing effort to challenge inequality and improve access across the industry. Over the three days, you will gain hands-on experience and training in stage, hemp flying, knots, lighting and sound set up and operation. The course will also explore pathways into working in the industry.
Key Information:
- Dates: Friday 13 - Sunday 15 November
- Location: Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, TW9 1QJ
- Eligibility: This opportunity is for those interested in pursuing a career in technical theatre, especially individuals with some prior amateur or professional experience
- Cost: £180 (with £90 subsidised places available)
For more information and to book, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Applications are now OPEN for Young Techs 2027.
Our Young Techs programme is a FREE introductory training programme for 18–25-year-olds who want to develop practical skills and explore a career in backstage theatre.
This introductory training programme gives participants hands-on experience in lighting, sound and stagecraft, working alongside professional theatre technicians and industry practitioners.
Course Summary:
- WHAT? Stratford East's Young Technicians Course
- WHO? Young people aged 18-25 from East London*
- DATES? January - March 2027
- WHERE? Theatre Royal Stratford East, E15 1BN and other locations in London
- HOW MUCH? FREE
- DEADLINE: Midday on Wednesday 11 November 2026
All eligible applicants will be invited to join us at a Selection/Interview workshop at Stratford East on Wednesday 9 December, 4:00-5:15pm or 6:30-7:45pm.
Participants on this programme will be paid a training bursary when working on specific shows.
For more information and to apply, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Learn practical voice techniques over 8 weeks to develop a stronger, more confident voice for performance, public speaking, and everyday communication.
Key information:
- Dates: 26 January - 16 March 2027
- Time: Tuesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No experience needed
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Explore fundamental voice techniques to improve breath control and support, vocal strength and expression through practical work
- Learn about and explore key aspects of speech such as consonants, vowels and tone
- Build confidence in managing nerves and performing under pressure
- Learn practical vocal warm-ups you can use before performances, presentations and public speaking situations
- Experience speech in the present moment, free your voice and find a true connection to the words you speak through practical work with texts
- At the end of the course, you will be invited to perform a poem and a piece (acting monologue or public speech) to apply your learning in context
What will you leave with?
- Confidence using your voice in performance, public speaking and professional settings
- Practical vocal techniques you can continue using and developing beyond the course
- A stronger understanding of how breath, voice and speech work together to support effective communication
- Strategies for managing nerves and speaking with greater ease in front of an audience
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
This 8-week course is aimed at those who want to develop their playwriting further with an established playwright.
Key information:
- Dates: 28 January - 18 March 2027
- Time: Thursdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory playwriting experience required or completed our Playwriting: An Introduction short course
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Expand your initial scene or treatment to several key scenes
- Develop scenes with more compelling character relationships that drive dramatic action
- Challenge yourself to become more ambitious in your writing - thinking beyond everyday lived experience towards exploring the greater and more expressive possibilities of theatre
- Explore the structure of your play scene by scene for maximum effect
- Refine and develop your unique voice as a playwright
- Organise your own readings, workshops and feedback sessions in the future
What will you leave with?
- Significant progress on your play and a clearer path towards completing your script
- More developed scenes, characters and dramatic relationships
- A stronger understanding of theatrical storytelling and how to build a play that engages an audience
- Practical techniques for redrafting, developing and strengthening your writing
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Work with an established playwright over 8 weeks to explore the fundamentals of writing a play.
Key information:
- Dates: 27 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No experience needed
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Turn your ideas into the foundations of a play with guidance from an established playwright
- Develop compelling characters, a structure plot, dramatic action and dialogue that engage an audience
- Discover and strengthen your unique voice as a writer
- Learn how playwrights develop, redraft and refine their work through feedback and reflection
- Gain insight into how new writing reaches theatre companies, producers and publishers
- Experience the excitement of hearing your work brought to life by actors
What will you leave with?
- Confidence in your ability to generate, develop and shape ideas for the stage
- Ideas for a play, a developed character breakdown and a completed first scene
- First-hand experience of seeing your writing performed and understanding how it works in practice
- A clearer sense of your next creative step, whether that’s completing your play or progressing to Playwriting: Intermediate
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
This 8-week course takes a multidisciplinary approach to the creation of solo performance for actors, writers, and artists who want to experiment with this eclectic form.
Key information:
- Dates: 27 January - 20 March 2027
- Time: Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Actors, writers, and performers with some experience
- Class size: 14
- Course fee: £450
What will this course help you achieve?
- Create and develop original solo performance work using techniques drawn from contemporary performance, live art, alt-cabaret, experimental comedy, and physical & postdramatic theatre lineages
- Turn lived experience and autobiographical material into compelling performance
- Experiment with persona, audience relationship, performance text, and the expressive potential of the body
- Develop a distinctive comic and performance voice through the exploration of levity and gravity
- Build confidence in creating, testing, and refining work through practical exercises, assignments, and feedback
- Create and share work-in-progress extracts of a solo performance for an invited audience
What will you leave with?
- A toolkit of creative techniques for generating and shaping solo performance work
- Work-in-progress extracts of your own solo piece, developed over the course
- The experience of sharing your work with an invited audience
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Build your screen acting skills by performing scenes from film, television and commercial genres on this 8 week evening course.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory acting experience required
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £625
What will this course help you achieve?
- Create believable performances by working on monologues and duologues from film, television, and commercial genres
- Explore acting techniques that strengthen your imagination, authenticity, and ability to connect with an audience on screen
- Learn how to adapt your performance to different camera setups and filming environments
- Gain insight into the casting and audition process for film, television, and commercials
- Experience what screen acting is like using rehearsal and camera-based exercises
What will you leave with?
- Confidence performing on camera and bringing characters to life on screen
- Practical screen acting techniques you can continue developing beyond the course
- Experience working with monologues, duologues and scenes across a range of screen genres
- First-hand understanding of how acting for camera differs from stage performance
- Insight into the realities of casting, auditions and the screen industry
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Advance your acting skills through contemporary scene work and character exploration twice a week over 8 weeks.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory acting experience required or completed our “Acting: An Introduction” short course
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £595
What will this course help you achieve?
- Train with techniques drawn from a range of practices including Stanislavski, Demidov and Viewpoints
- Develop the skills, habits and disciplines professional actors use to prepare, rehearse and perform
- Explore how text, casting and performance choices shape the stories we tell and reflect the world around us
- Contribute to an ensemble and collaborate creatively with other performers
What will you leave with?
- Experience applying a range of acting approaches to contemporary texts and characters
- Enhanced rehearsal, ensemble and collaboration skills developed through practical performance work
- First-hand experience of conservatoire-style actor training and the disciplines professional performers develop
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Always wanted to act? Discover what professional actor training is really like twice a week over 8 weeks in this evening course.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No previous acting experience required
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £595
What will this course help you achieve?
- Learn the techniques actors use to create truthful, engaging performances
- Bring characters to life through imagination, improvisation and creative exploration
- Develop greater confidence, presence and self-expression through practical voice and movement techniques
- Experience the process of taking a scene from page to performance through rehearsal and scene work
What will you leave with?
- Confidence performing and expressing yourself in front of others
- A toolkit of practical acting techniques you can continue developing beyond the course
- First-hand experience of conservatoire-style actor training and the skills professional performers develop
- Experience bringing scripts to life through scene work, rehearsal and performance
- A clearer understanding of whether further acting training, drama school or performance opportunities are right for you
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Applications are open now for LYT ONSTAGE. Join our performance company!
Our season runs January–December, and members can return for multiple years.
At LYT, 60% of members participate for free, while others pay what they can through tiered pricing. Simply tell us what’s affordable in your application — no bursary application needed.
What does a year at LYT involve?
- January - April: Show 1: Get to know the company and begin rehearsals for the first production of the year.
- May - June: Workshops: Develop your performance skills with leading industry creatives as you prepare for Show 2. Flexible scheduling around exam season.
- July - August: Show 2: Our largest production of the year, with three weeks of Monday–Friday rehearsals followed by a final week of technical rehearsals.
- September - December: Show 3: A devised production where you create an original production from scratch.
We rehearse every Saturday from 11:30am to 3:30pm at LYT is based at 1A Tower Street in Covent Garden. The Summer Intensive (Show 2) rehearses Monday - Friday in late July to mid-August.
Interested? We’d love to meet you! Click the Opportunity Info link below to sign up for a free Taster Session!
