imagine if theatre company is offering an incredible, accessible opportunity for female identifying working-class writers over 18.

Writers’ Toolbox 2 is a six-month paid programme, starting in April in Leeds. The focus will be on writing for stage and screen and supporting women to begin working on a new piece of writing as well as giving them the tools to secure funding to produce their own work.  We want to support writers of all levels of experience, who have distinctive voices and incredible stories to tell.

Leeds Playhouse Youth Theatre's 2025 Spring Term is now on sale!

Secure a spot for someone you know now and let them be part of weekly drama sesions led by outstanding professional artists and directors. 

Sign up for the next term by Mon 6 Jan. 

Please note, places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. 

“It took us fifty-odd years to learn that it wasn’t really about what we thought it was about,” says Joi Gresham, Director and Trustee of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust. Gresham is talking about the ending of Lorraine Hansberry's seminal work A Raisin in the Sun, which begins an English tour this month at Leeds Playhouse.
 

In 2017, Leeds local, Ruth Berkoff, had a brain haemorrhage. A perimesencephalic brain haemorrhage. She didn’t know anyone else who’d had one before, so she felt alone.

It got even worse when the neurologist said that there was little chance she’d go back to her dream job (being a gnome, getting people to high five her giant carrot).

ACCA Dance Theatre are Leeds based dance theatre making work that reflects and comments on the contemporary society via funny, thought-provoking dance theatre performances and participation activities. Their style has a physical backbone, drawing on character and conceptuality to investigate the topics which inspire each project.

Now they have a question for anyone aged 18+, female identifying, who loves dance and theatre and wants to perform in front of an audience...

Leeds Playhouse has launched an open casting call to find young actors to star as Coraline in the world premiere of Coraline – A Musical in its Courtyard theatre in spring 2025 ahead of a national tour.

Candidates must be 9-13 years old at date of audition and live within approximately an hour’s commute from Leeds or Manchester. This is a paid role, and the Playhouse welcomes female and female-identifying young people and those with additional access requirements. 

ACCA are Leeds based dance theatre duo Anna Cabré-Verdiell Bosch and Charlotte Arnold. Led by two female-identifying creative leaders, ACCA makes work that reflects and comments on the contemporary society via funny, thought-provoking dance theatre performances and participation activities. Their style has a physical backbone, drawing on character and conceptuality to investigate the topics which inspire each project. 

On Thursday 18th January Thackray Museum of Medicine is opens its Victorian operating theatre for a one-night-only performance of care - and you’re all invited. Trephination for the Twenty-First Century is a brand new one-woman theatre performance by your friendly travelling madwoman Amanda Grace.

A spectacular event bringing Leeds 2023 to a close.

For the past 12 months, LEEDS 2023 has celebrated arts and culture in all our diversity as part of the Year of Culture. Transforming the city and astonishing the public with everything ranging from public installations to pop-up festivals and large-scale theatre. 

But the challenge is: how do you bring a year like this to close?

Ten puppet-makers have spent three months creating twenty puppets for this joyful musical of Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile, with the world premiere at Leeds Playhouse between 6th December 2023 and 6th January 2024. In this blog post Director Emily Lim and Co-Director and Puppetry Designer Toby Olié talk about this new family musical and working with puppets.