Our Programme & Artists
Lawrence Batley Theatre is the creative heart of Huddersfield. We share exciting and entertaining stories, encourage creativity, nurture confidence and develop local and national talent.
We host a wide-ranging year-round programme of in-house and visiting productions, from drama and contemporary dance to circus and pantomime. Our work with artists includes providing vital rehearsal space, supporting commissions for new work, and creating opportunities for artists to engage with our community.
Our Programme
Our programming strategy is broken down into three strands:
Entertaining
Entertaining shows should provide our audiences with a great time at the theatre. Work people of Kirklees deserve to have access to on their doorstep. This strand makes up the largest part of our programme.
Brave & Exciting
Brave & Exciting shows push form and/or are from the freshest, boldest & most daring artists around.
Locally Rooted
Through our Locally Rooted programming we are celebrating & supporting Northern talent and/or emerging artists from West Yorkshire.
For the Main House we are currently programming 12 months in advance, for example in Spring 2025 our main programming work is focussed on Spring 2026. Our diary is open for 24 months in advance, we are also happy to pencil future dates for artists and companies who are reliant on funding cycles.
For our Cellar Theatre and Courtyard, we are typically programming this work between 6 and 12 months in advance. Diaries open 24 months in advance in line with the main house.
How to get in touch and what happens then...
If you have a show you'd like us to consider programming in our spaces, please get in touch by emailing programming@thelbt.org
Please introduce yourself and your work and tell us why you are interested in working with Lawrence Batley Theatre, how your work fits into our programme and what it offers our audiences. Please send through a tour pack including images, reviews and a short tech spec (if you have them).
Let us know when and where we can see your work and how we can find out more about what you do.
Our programming team meets every 6 weeks to discuss what we have received from artists. Our programming team is made up of our CEO (Becky Dash), our Head of Creative Programme (Olivia Race), our Head of Marketing (Linzi Tate-Smith), our Head of Participation (Rebecca Winwood) and our Creative Associate (Keisha Hamilton). We will get back to everyone after our meeting.
We love to meet new artists and companies through invites to see work at an early stage of its development or as a finished product ready to tour. We will also reach out to artists or companies who are making work we feel is a good fit for the theatre’s values and audiences.
If you are an artist or company interested in hiring one of our spaces for your show, please visit here.
Associate Artists
Our Associate Artists are mid-career or established artists and companies who are making nationally and internationally touring work.
These artists are creating brave and exciting new performance, testing boundaries of creativity and telling unheard stories with a distinctly Northern voice.
Our Associate Artists have a genuinely collaborative relationship with the theatre, receiving support including space to develop new shows and the opportunity to showcase new work here, giving local people the chance to see brand-new world-class theatre right on their doorstep.
Our current Associate Artists are:
Gary Clarke
Gary Clarke is a choreographer, director, performer, mentor, teacher and facilitator. He has worked with some of the worlds most prolific dance companies and choreographers and has developed a growing reputation for creating his own extraordinary dance work of various sizes and scales which has received both critical and audience acclaim. Gary is the Artistic Director of Gary Clarke Company, a pioneering, award-winning dance theatre company based in Barnsley. Gary's journey with Lawrence Batley Theatre began in 1999 when as a student he visited to see a contemporary dance performance on our main stage – a performance which inspired him to pursue a career as a dance artist and ultimately to forming his own company. We previously worked with Gary on Chronicles, a site specific show which took place in the windows of our building, telling the story of the theatre’s history.
Philip Stokes
Leeds based writer Philip Stokes’ is recognised by the British Library as a Culturally Important Playwright of the 21st Century. His critically acclaimed plays have had sell out runs across the globe, winning numerous awards. We have supported Philip’s work for a number of years now, beginning in 2022 with the acclaimed Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me which took the Edinburgh Fringe by storm before heading to Australia for an award-winning run at the Fringe in Adelaide. We’ve seen further success with shows including LASH and Shellshocked, which was excitingly selected for an Off-Broadway run in New York City – a first for a Lawrence Batley Theatre supported show.
Artists in Development
Our Artists in Development programme is designed to nurture and empower local artists and companies, providing them with the space, time and support they need to develop brave and exciting new ideas.
We will commit to supporting three artists and/or companies per year, in line with our Spring, Summer and Autumn/Winter seasons.
We are particularly interested in projects which are:
- Led by Kirklees based creatives
- Led by South Asian creatives
- Explore the environmental agenda
- Led by Global Majority creatives
The artist development programme packages up the space, time, and expertise we can offer emerging artists and companies. There is no outcome required from the artist/company. The programme is designed to give space to those who have a brand-new idea, to those who need development time, or to those who are almost ready for an audience.
Our Artist in Development will receive:
- 1-to-2-week residency in our Cellar Theatre or Attic Theatre space for free.
- Mentoring from our team: this can be in the form of support with funding applications, dramaturgy, community engagement support, marketing advice, movement direction or technical assistance.
- Opportunity to present a sharing performance at the end of the residency to an invited audience (if appropriate).
On being selected as an Artist in Development you’ll have a meeting with our Head of Creative Programme about your project and will set a timeline for your time as an Artist in Development at Lawrence Batley Theatre.
Summer 2025 Artist in Development
Application deadline: Wed 16 April, 5pm
Decision by Wed 30 April
To apply to be our Summer 2025 Artist in Development please send a written (maximum 1 side of A4) or video (maximum 2 minutes) application to programming@thelbt.org.
Your application should include:
- Some background to you / your company / your creative practice and any other creatives involved.
- Some information on the project you are seeking support on including how far along this current project is (incl. details on timeline).
- How would being an artist in development at Lawrence Batley Theatre support you / your project?
Autumn/winter 2025 Artist in Development
Applications to be our Autumn/Winter 2025 Artist in Development will open on Wed 30 July 2025.
Artists mailing list
If you are an artist or company and you'd like to hear more about any upcoming opportunities, please sign up to our Artists mailing list below.
Resident Artists & Companies
We have several wonderful resident companies and artists here at Lawrence Batley Theatre who are based within our building.
Dark Horse
Dark Horse is a theatre company that exists to create and find equal opportunities for people with learning disabilities to train and work in the performing arts. A leading vocational trainer of actors with a learning disability we offer courses validated by drama school ALRA (Academy of Live and Recorded Arts.)
Dark Horse tours bold and entertaining new shows that change audience expectations, break down barriers and increase representation for talented learning disabled actors on stages and screens across the UK. Previous work includes #OutBreakOut (digital production 2021) #FutureLoading (digital production 2021), The Garden: Lockdown Edition (digital production 2020), Stir (2019), You Have Been Watching (2017) and Snakebite (2015.)
Barbara Hellowell
After obtaining a First Class Honours Degree in Contemporary Art Practice at Leeds University in 2007, Barbara became an Artist full time. Sculpture is what fires her imagination. A drawing in space that becomes a 3D sculpture. The freedom to use any materials and any processes. To transform raw materials into an object that might be aesthetically pleasing, thought provoking, an emotional journey or a moment in time. Her inspirations are the natural world and human interactivity. Barbara works with dynamic shapes and lines to suggest movement in an aim to illustrate the interaction of a moving object with the space that surrounds it.
Barbara’s work focuses on her perception of the natural world and how it is shared, not just by humans. An examination of existence and identity. Family characteristics, human nature, the passage of time and the memories left behind. These are her inspirations. Barbara’s work is the product of her imagination which complements the varied scope of the theatre.
Jane Wilson
Jane is a mixed media artist and enjoys the opportunity to immerse herself in a wide range of creative practices. Jane’s inspiration comes from an eclectic mix of interests, particularly science, with a fascination for quantum physics, astronomy, a love of philosophy and a general thirst for knowledge.
Her passion for bringing old and overlooked fragments together in an unusual way allows fresh connections to form. This invites the viewer to look more closely and explore the finer details in a mindful way. Jane also practices the art of origami and finds that it helps to calm a racing mind, much needed in these challenging times.
Through her poetry, Jane aims to articulate what it is to be human. Words are chosen as building blocks to form bridges that enable us to revisit our emotions and reconnect with other. Combining vintage artefacts with her poetry also helps to liberate the words from the page, making it feel more accessible and alive.
Theatre Users Association
Huddersfield has a rich history of amateur theatre, with many companies having being in existence for over 100 years.
Local amateur companies were instrumental in campaigning and raising funds for the redevelopment of Lawrence Batley Theatre in the 1980s before it opened in 1994.
We are proud to host musical theatre and drama performances every year from some outstanding local amateur dramatics societies, known collectively as the Theatre Users Association. These societies give 100s of local people the chance to take part in large scale productions of exceptional quality on our stages.
The local amateur companies that make up the Theatre Users Association are:
Venues North
We are proud of be members of Venues North.
Venues North is a network of venues from across the North of England who are committed to supporting artists to create new work. Out aim is to work together as venues to support new and emerging artists from the North get their work more widely seen regionally, nationally and internationally.
Venues North members meet three times a year to share our learning around supporting artists, and the champion the artists we support.
For more information please see: Routes In: A Guide to Getting New Work Programmed in the North of England