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SO Stage Door is an Arts Council funded programme for the Southampton community run by us here at The Stage Door, as an independent venue in collaboration and partnership with local charities and organisations. We've been here for nearly 10 years now and our mission is to be a cultural hub for the city, supporting artists from all genres and appealing to a wide audience demographic. We're at a point where we feel that there is a real need for audience and artist development in Southampton, which is what led us to apply to the Arts Council for our 2024 SO stage Door Programme.

We're working with some fantastic partners to be able to deliver over 30 performances and events our partners are:

We're so happy to be collaborating with such a great mix of charities and organisations in Southampton, as we feel strongly that a collaborative city can best support artists and audiences to make the cultural offering as strong as possible. Artisitc Director at The Stage Door, Julianne Watling added:

"We're verylucky in Southampton that the cultural organisations are really linked up, and I think everyone has the same goal to increase arts engagement and create work and opportunities for artists living here as well as growing and developing audiencs for all art forms."

Watch our one-minute explainer video to learn more, here:

What to expect

The program will span a wide range of performances across four main strands:


Showtime - showcasing new musical theatre writers and performers in collaboration with Amy's and Clements and ACJ Productions and later in the year with Solent University >>>	Rising Stars - creating open micro-style performance opportunities with Southampton Music Hub, accompanied by our house band for school age children in the city >>>

Sessions - in collaboration with SoCo music project which will see a whole range of music nights with singers rappers DJs and bands spanning loads of music genres including hip hop and R&B >>>	Theatricals - in partnership with MAST Mayflower Studios, which supports new theatre writing with opportunities for writers to have new work performed and developed >>>

Join us for some networking and industry nights

As part of our 2024 SO Stage Door Programme we will also put on some industry nights that will give performers the opportunity to come along and learn more about how to home their professional careers. This will include Q&As with industry professionals within the music and performance industry. Details for all of these events will be shared in our SO Stage Door Programme listings.

It's so important we have good audiences for this programme to help us better understand how to deliver culture in Southampton and how best to support our artists and audiences in the city.

Checkout the full programme and show your support

Please show your support, whether that’s participating in the programme or coming along to watch the showcases and performances. This SO Stage Door 2024 Programme is truly about showings local artists and engaging local audiences in the arts, which is why some events are free and all of them are very low cost to attend. Please check out all the events in our listings, which will continually be updated, so you can come along and show your support or keep an eye on our socials for opportunities to apply and participate along the way.

"We're verylucky in Southampton that the cultural organisations are really linked up, and I think everyone has the same goal to increase arts engagement and create work and opportunities for artists living here as well as growing and developing audiencs for all art forms."

What to expect

Join us for some networking and industry nights

Checkout the full programme and show your support

VIEW FULL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS