First Draft is a place for new things. A place to try out new work, somewhere to find a new favourite performer, and a place for performers to reach a new audience. In 2016, First Draft hosted our first events at The People’s History Museum and Chetham’s Library whilst our stage at The Castle Hotel was saw a host of new performers. For First Draft, 2016 was great but, yes, lets get on that bandwagon and say that in general last year was a little gnarly, like someone didn’t develop the film properly and left us with a terrifying almost-world to work with in 2017.

So let’s do something special in 2017 to illuminate this dark situation we’ve found ourselves in; let’s craft all the pieces we’ve been left with and put them together to make something brilliant. That all starts with discovering new things, finding new ways of seeing and new ways of doing.

In this spirit, we’re making our first First Draft of 2017 a night of performers that are entirely new to our cabaret nights. New voices for a new year. We’ve seen some great performers at other events around the city, and beyond, that we’ll be inviting and we hope that we can coax those of you that have made a resolution to perform onto our stage. This is a night that we hope with be the first flames for a beacon that will light up our 2017.

New Year. All New First Draft.

Here’s to an awesome 2017!