OPPORTUNITY FOR EMERGING THEATRE-MAKERS AT THE MARKET THEATRE LABORATORY!
Applications for The Market Theatre Laboratory’s renowned Theatre and Performance full-time course open from 1 August – 30 September 2025, for study in 2026. We are looking for talented, determined young people who are passionate about the performing arts to become part of the next generation of artistic innovators, change-makers and storytellers.
The Market Lab is a multi-award-winning arts incubator, with a reputation for facilitating the development of exceptional young theatre-makers, facilitators, actors, writers and directors, and for creating innovative and relevant new plays. Our students have the opportunity to work and learn with some of the country’s most iconic theatre practitioners, while creating a diverse range of work both individually and within an ensemble. With multiple local, African and global partners, The Lab strives to create enriching experiences that contribute to the personal and artistic growth of each person who participates in our programmes. Alumni have gone on to excel on stage and screen, from established stalwarts such as Warren Masemola, to relative newcomers such as Lebohang Lephatsoana.
The theatre contributions made by Lab Alumni have been acknowledged significantly by the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards, boasting 2023 winners Theatre Duo (Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana) for theatre. Others have chosen to apply their skills in several other industries, including publishing, radio, event management and marketing. Many are playing leadership roles in arts institutions and other contexts and remain committed to working in the communities that nurtured their growth as young artists.
The Market Lab’s full-time theatre and performance course, which runs from January to November each year, offers intensive training in a laboratory environment for emerging theatre practitioners to develop to a professional standard. The programme focuses on practical experience, and learning through experimentation, exchange, research and making. Each year, twenty students are selected, a small group that allows for each students’ creative journey to be mentored. The Lab invests in ensuring that the curriculum continues to serve the interests and needs of young creatives in a rapidly evolving industry. Most importantly, we teach young artists to adapt, to experiment, and to think of themselves as entrepreneurs. In these challenging times, we aim to think expansively about the relevance of theatre and live performance, and to find language that articulates what theatre-makers know how to do and where the current need for these skills is situated. The ways in which theatre-making skills help make sense of being human, teach us how to be with people, how to hold space, how to participate in community, how to approach change, and how to solve problems creatively, are needed now more than ever.
The high quality of artistic engagement between students, collaborators, audiences and theatre practitioners happening in the space is evident in the impressive array of awards that the productions created through or with The Market Theatre Laboratory have won. This year, The Market Lab received a Standard Bank Gold Ovation Award for their production Afropocalypse, directed by Daniel Buckland, presented at the National Arts Festival 2025.
When the Market Theatre Laboratory opened its doors in 1989, the intention of its founders, Vanessa Cooke, Dr John Kani and Barney Simon, was to provide opportunities to talented youth from disadvantaged backgrounds who would not otherwise be able to pursue their passion for the arts or study further. This remains an integral part of The Lab’s purpose, along with a determination to assist young artists to build sustainable careers, and to create space and visibility for subaltern experiences, voices and identities.
Applications open on the 1st of August 2025 for study in 2026 and can be found through our website: https://www.marketlab.co.za/
CLOSING DATE for submission of applications forms: 30th of September 2025.
*No late applications will be considered.
For Queries contact:
Email: courses@marketlab.co.za
WhatsApp: 072 237 9647
Call: 011 838 7498
Instagram: marketlaboratory
Facebook: The Market Theatre Laboratory
ENDS
The Market Theatre Laboratory is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.
For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.
