Last August James Pidgeon headed to the Edinburgh Fringe in search of innovative, pefect-match pieces for Shoreditch Town Hall, East London’s up-and-coming venue where he is the Programme Manager. Almost a year later, four performances are on their way to London, ready to provide the foundation of the venue’s offering over the next two months. Grief and loss, life on Mars, autobiographical VHS tapes and charismatic serial killers will all be covered – making for a tematically diverse season.

When he’s not scouting for touring performances, Pidgeon is busy making sure Shoreditch Town Hall actively engages in artist development, building long-term collaborations that don’t obsess with immediate output. We talked to him about the venue’s approach to forging strong ties with makers, how producers navigate the Fringe catalogue, and what to expect once the Assembly Hall’s capacity goes up to 750.

Run Riot: You’ve been at Shoreditch Town Hall for over two years, helping it grow into a major venue. What has the experience been like?

James Pidgeon: I’ve had the most brilliant time at Shoreditch Town Hall so far. It’s been an honour working with such a great team, getting the building to what it is today. It hasn’t necessarily always been easy – a lot of hard work and long hours have been put in by a lot of people – but it has always been hugely enjoyable. Watching that building come alive again has been so exciting but there’s still a long way to go – we’re only just getting started!

Run Riot: How do you approach building a long-term relationship with artists? What do you see as your role in artist development?

James Pidgeon: Forging long-term relationships with artists is key to our development at Shoreditch Town Hall, with mutual trust, collaboration and respect for each other’s work sitting at the heart of those relationships. We work with interesting, exciting and inventive artists in a number of different ways, presenting, commissioning, producing and/or developing work across our incredibly diverse spaces, however these relationships aren’t necessarily visible to the public straightaway. Relationships evolve over time and are completely bespoke based on the needs of the artist and the Town Hall’s programming priorities. For instance, Greg Wohead is only presenting in the building for the first time this May (with The Ted Bundy Project) but he’s actually been developing work in the building for nearly two years now.

Our biggest area of artist development is through artistic residencies where artists spend time in the building to research and develop new ideas and, if appropriate, present these ideas to audiences through work-in-progress sharings. My role is to facilitate the administrative, budgeting and operational aspects of this but also to be the first point of contact for any artist in the building on anything relating to their creative process. I see my role as nurturing, championing and providing dedicated support to both new and existing artists and managing the necessary resources to bring their work to a range of audiences.

Run Riot: Next up at the Shoreditch Town Hall is a mini-Edinburgh season, handpicked from last year’s festival. How do you go about navigating the Fringe? What made these shows the right match for the venue, and how do they fit together?

James Pidgeon: Navigating the Fringe can be really tricky as there’s a lot of stuff to get through! But there’s really no right or wrong way about it. I will always study the Fringe brochure religiously, picking out a long list of everything I want to see whether it’s theatre, dance, cabaret, comedy, spoken word, it doesn’t matter. Then I schedule as much as possible from there. I also always try and see new work from artists who I admire, take recommendations from trusted colleagues, and of course have my favourite venues who I trust will programme good work – places like Summerhall, Northern Stage, Underbelly, Forest Fringe etc.

Having seen all the work in Edinburgh, these shows were put together in an Shoreditch Town Hall season because we wanted to champion what we believe to be really quality, inventive and ambitious work from the Fringe made by really great artists who are at the beginning or early stages of their careers. It’s all brilliantly bold and engaging work which is what makes us tick!

Run Riot: The Fringe First winner Pioneer is a futuristic exploration, developed in collaboration with a UCL astrobiologist who holds a PhD on the possibility of life on Mars: that’s not something we get to say every day. How would you introduce our readers to the performance and the company behind it?

James Pidgeon: This is the largest piece that curious directive have made to date and it’s really exciting as there’s generally not that much mid-scale touring devised theatre out there at the moment. To date curious directive have been known for their relatively small-scale although no less ambitious works centred on the exploration of science. Now, they’ve decided it’s time to up their scale and they’ve completely pulled it off having created a real sensory feast in Pioneer. There’s a sharp story centred around space travel, the digital and multimedia elements are superb, the acting is incredibly strong, and in our Council Chamber space the audience will experience a real epic intimacy, up close and personal to the action.

Run Riot: So It Goes is perhaps a contrast to Pioneer - an intimate (if universal) story. Could you tell us (a tiny bit) about the piece and how it treats language and verbal expression?

James Pidgeon: This is an incredible debut performance by On the Run and I’m immensely excited about the company’s future. So It Goes is touchingly beautiful and full of hope – a show that will make you laugh, cry and marvel at the inventiveness of this superb company. They treat language and verbal expression in a way that an audience won’t necessarily expect, but it’s an incredibly rewarding and enriching experience for an audience because you’re given the time to absorb, reflect and make personal connections that can only be relevant to you. That’s what makes this piece so moving – it’s a universal story that anyone can relate to in some way.

Run Riot: What should we expect to see from the Shoreditch Town Hall in the future - especially once the new main space has opened?

James Pidgeon: The Assembly Hall will be operating at its new capacity of 750 from the autumn which is really very exciting and a bit of a game-changer for us in terms of programming as our live music and comedy output will increase as well as our capacity to host larger artistic work. We’re particularly excited to be welcoming the incomparable Kneehigh into this space with Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) in December, for instance, and this will undoubtedly be the start of a new type and scale of work you’ll be able to see at the Town Hall.

However at the same time we won’t be losing focus on working with new and emerging artists and small- to mid-scale productions like we have been to date. What’s really exciting though is that our capacity to host multiple events and productions at any one time – something we’ve only done a little bit of to date – will increase, so whilst you’re watching a large-scale piece of work in the Assembly Hall, an experimental promenade piece might also be taking place downstairs in our basement spaces, The Ditch, whilst an artist works in one of our rehearsal spaces on developing a new show for 12 months’ time... All of this diverse activity under one roof at the same time will be electric. Watch this space.

Spring season at the Shoreditch Town Hall

On The Run: So It Goes  8 -18 April

curious directive: Pioneer 9-22 April

Ross Sutherland: Standby for Tape Back-up 28 April  - 2 May

Greg Wohead: The Ted Bundy Project 6-9 May