Old Vic New Voices

Old Vic New Voices (OVNV) is The Old Vic’s Education, Community and Emerging Talent programme.

Old Vic New Voices aims to nurture talent, inspire young people and open up the theatre to everyone. They develop the next generation of theatre practitioners, many of whom go on to get major commissions, directing posts, senior management positions and become household names; they offer access and insights into theatre making for all ages and experiences; and create ambitious, innovative productions for the community. The programme was founded in 2001 by Kate Packenham, then an associate producer to Sally Greene, The Old Vic’s Chief Executive. Steve Winter took over as Director in 2004 and ran the programme until March 2014. He was replaced by Alexander Ferris.

OVNV offers emerging theatre makers space and funding for creative projects, ongoing professional development and invaluable networking opportunities with peer and industry mentors.

Introduced by Matthew Warchus' during his first season as artistic director, The Old Vic 12 offers twelve emerging artists from a variety of disciplines opportunities to expand networks, receive first class mentorship and benefit from the prestigious association with The Old Vic through a year-long attachment. In 2015, the first twelve were announced as Zoe Lafferty, Caitlin McLeod, Edward Stambollouian, Sarah Georgeson, Paul Jellis, Martha Rose Wilson, Sarah Beaton, Lanre Malaolu, Harry Blake, Samuel Bailey, Sonali Bhattacharyya and Steven Hevey. The twelve creatives are set to work alongside each other to develop their skills and present a work in progress to an industry audience.

The OVNV Workrooms is a rehearsal facility open six days a week, and designed to be a place to meet, devise, chat and collaborate free of charge. In its first two months, The OVNV Lab helped develop around 40 projects using The Workrooms facility.

Alumni from OVNV Talent projects include:

OVNV has worked with over 60,000 students from schools across London through their Education programme. The education projects give schools access to free theatre tickets to every Old Vic production, alongside bespoke learning experiences at the theatre, in the classroom and online, thanks to funding all of these projects are delivered for free.

The flagship education project Schools’ Club works with 40 specially selected schools from across London for a full academic year. Each of the chosen schools selects up to 30 students from years 9-13 to participate; this can be a pre-existing or new group. These 1,200 students are given the opportunity to take part in four exclusive pre-show workshops during the year before attending every production in The Old Vic season. The workshops are delivered by carefully trained professional theatre facilitators and prepare the students for each play by exploring the characters, plot and themes, as well as developing confidence and interpersonal skills. Schools also receive a Teachers’ Pack; teacher training sessions throughout the year and backstage tours.

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