Artistic Policy
The Yard is about new ideas, new writing and the live event.
When we say “new ideas”, we’re talking about work that portrays contemporary visions of who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.
When we say “new writing”, we’re talking about work that prioritises specificity of the artistic voice, work that explores how text is written (and performed) and the eventual reception of that text by an audience.
When we say “live event”, we talking about work that in some way acknowledges that it is in a theatre with an audience.
We programme through a process of open submissions at particular points in the year. If you are interested in developing work at The Yard we’d strongly recommend that you come and see our work.
Please don’t send us unsolicited scripts or performance ideas at other times, but do invite us to see your work. Just email us at info@the-yard.co.uk. To find out when we are programming please join our mailing list.
Bringing People Together
We try to help sustain and create communities of people.
The Wider Community
All the work that is created for The Yard is made in local community centres.
We build partnerships with these local communities, offering free workshops in return for rehearsal space.
We facilitate conversations between those who rehearse at the centre and the members to whom it belongs. And then we encourage everyone who uses the centre, takes part in a workshop, observes a rehearsal, to come and see the resulting production at The Yard.
Watch a video of one of our workshops.
This year we are working with the following community centres:
Fellows Court Community Centre, E2 8LR
The Fellows Court Tenants and Residents Association supported four of our major shows during our 2012 season by providing rehearsal space for the artists. Hackney Youth and Catch22 are help us to devise the workshop program for participants.
Hackney Libraries
The Stoke Newington, Dalston and Homerton Libraries are providing The Yard with rehearsal space in exchange for workshops for children over the summer holidays. These workshops are being co-ordinated with the Library’s Children and Young People’s manager and will hopefully be rolled out over a few libraries.
Frampton Park Estate, E9 6QJ
Frampton Park has only recently reopened its youth centre after closing due to lack of trust and security on the estate. In the near future we will be working with Hackney Quest and the Frampton Park TRA to deliver a program of drama workshops for 8 to 19 year olds who have recently started attending sessions at the youth centre. In exchange we are being provided with rehearsal space for a number of our artists.
Springfield Club for Young People, E5 9HH
After establishing a relationship with the Springfield Club in 2011 The Yard was keen to develop the partnership in 2012, which resulted in a series of successful workshops for members of the club. We are very happy to be working with Springfield again in the 2013 season. You can watch a video from one of the workshops here
This process makes stronger the relationship between The Yard and those who live in the surrounding area. We want to help reduce the distance between the stage and those who may not regularly be in a position to visit a theatre. To help make this more possible, no ticket price at The Yard exceeds £10.
The Ensemble
Every season we create an ensemble of artists whom we ask to make and perform work at The Yard. Our aim is to foster a vibrant and active community of artists where debate, discussion and new work can flourish. We encourage ideas to grow collaboratively, enabling connections with fellow artists and the local area.
This year we will be holding salons for ensemble members, an opportunity to have structured discussions with peers and experts about things we find interesting in theatre and the world today.
Our first salon saw speakers Chris Goode, May Abdalla and Alecky Blythe and chair CJ Mitchell discuss documentary and storytelling in performance.
