We make theatre
for the here & now
Our mission is to create live environments in unconventional spaces that forge deep connections between audience and performer.
About us
Here & Now is an independent production company specialising in making contemporary theatre in unconventional spaces.
The company started in 2019 when a group of friends sat around a kitchen table. We wanted to break free from traditional structures for making theatre. We wanted to be 100% independent, free to make work that prioritised what mattered to us: the direct connection between performer and audience, released from the distractions and constraints of conventional buildings and structures.
Five years on, our kitchen table has expanded a little: we have firmly established our first venue, The Shipwright, which the Guardian called “exquisite, ambitious and inquisitive” and we have plans to open our second venue in 2025.
We have found that unconventional spaces release our best work: all we need is the play, the audience and a vibrant channel of communication between them.
Joseph Winters
Artistic Director
Joseph has spent a decade working in the theatre, live music and performance industries as a writer, director and creative producer. He started his career working at the Almeida Theatre, Royal Opera House, English Touring Opera and throughout the West End, before founding a new venue in Deptford, The Shipwright, which two years later became a flagship venue for Lewisham's year as Borough of Culture. Since 2023 he has led the cultural programme at Peckham Levels, and is excited to make it a thriving meeting point for arts, enterprise and community action.
Emma Halstead
Executive Director
Emma has worked extensively across film, theatre and dance, nationally and internationally, leading as creative producer on projects ranging from Working Title’s Mary Queen of Scots opening gala night, The GLA’s London’s Borough of Culture to Birmingham’s annual European Festival. Emma is a Stage One London Producer graduate and has produced with companies including The Donmar Warehouse, The Barbican, Sadler’s Wells, The London Palladium, Birmingham REP and St Ann’s Warehouse in New York.