Arts opportunities

Arts opportunities

* The Bill Cashmore Award offers a paid opportunity for two new one-act plays to be professionally produced at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Applications close on 22 December

* Entries are open for the 2025 Open City Documentary Festival in London on 6–11 May. The festival “seeks to nurture experimentation within the expanded field of non-fiction cinema, from artists’ moving image to documentary, the essay film, audio and cross-media works.” Deadline for entries is 13 December.

* People from Africa, Asia and Latin America are among those eligible for the Wellcome Collection’s non-fiction awards that aim to find and support writers from “underrepresented groups, who have a big idea for a book for general readers that engages with the themes of health and being human”. Closing date for applications is 11 November.

* The forthcoming For the Culture: Celebrations of Blackness Festival at the Lyric Hammersmith includes   Audacious Creation, a “masterclass on moving through artistic industries with conviction, creativity and audacity”, with Candice Carty-Williams, Nathan Bryon and Adjani Salmon, from £10.

* The Royal Court Theatre has launched The Writers’ Card, part of its programme of helping playwrights at every stage of their career. It offers mentoring, networking, funding opportunities, events, and use of resources in the building, such as the library, subsidised meals and free script printing. For more information on the Card, full details of the writer support offer and how writers can sign up to the free membership, visit https://royalcourttheatre.com/playwriting/

* Theatre in the Pound: The Cockpit Theatre’s monthly scratch night enables performers to try out 10-15 minutes of new work, plus a short Q&A.

* Finding the Words is the theme of Freedom From Torture’s poetry competition, which costs £5 to enter but is free for past or present refugees. The deadline is 28 October.

* Wanted: dancers of Latinx backgrounds to participate in workshops and perform at Hoxton Hall, east London to tell the story of Latin America's Indigenous communities. Weekly evening workshops from September, Hoxton Hall performances 27 November to 1 December.

* The Arcola Theatre is recruiting participants to join its new community theatre group for adults who have experience of forced migration and being a refugee. No experience needed, just an interest to work with others in a creative way to explore performance, poetry and movement. Weekly free sessions every Monday evening. Facilitators speak in English, Arabic and French.

* The 15th Open City Documentary Festival in London next May invites entries: deadline: 13 December.

* Are you a writer, director, producer or theatre-maker with a piece of new writing that you’d like to put in front of an audience? This is the place.

* Papatango has launched a digital playwriting course, with tips and insights from a host of top artists.

* Riverside Studios is offering a regular drop-in playwriting group: “Whether you’re working on a script and want creative inspiration, you're intrigued by the idea of writing a play, or simply want a creative outlet, these monthly meetups are informal, fun and open to everyone.”

* Artists’ alert: London is to get a memorial to slave trade victims, at West India Quay in Docklands. “It is vital that our public spaces reflect the heritage of our great city - in all its diversity and complexity,” said Mayor Sadiq Khan. City Hall will allocate £500,000 and other contributions will be sought. A public consultation will be followed by a competition for the artist. Unveiling is scheduled for 2026.

* Citizens of the World, a choir that grew out of the Calais “Jungle” and now has 50 members from 30 countries, says it welcomes new members (and bookings!). It rehearses in Blackheath in south-east London on Wednesday evenings. Details on the website

Thanks to volunteer Daniel Nelson (editor of Eventslondon.org) for compiling this list.