‘Great homegrown theatre at the heart of a changing community’

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is a vibrant regional theatre with a rich heritage, working in Outer East London, Essex and beyond, celebrating its 65th birthday in 2018. As the cultural hub of the region, over 200,000 people enjoy the programme each year, including the best in home grown theatre, visiting live entertainment and inspiring Learning and Participation projects. Behind the scenes, sets and costumes are lovingly created on-site by a highly skilled carpentry workshop, scenic artists, prop makers and wardrobe team. Audiences are guaranteed a warm welcome from a winner of UK Theatre’s Most Welcoming Theatre 2016, 2017 & 2018.

Here are some of the Theatre’s exciting aspirations around programming, participation, audiences and artist development:

Programme

• Become the theatre that celebrates fresh working-class stories of the south-east
• Offer a new home for developing popular theatre that reflects British Asian experience
• Inspire pride in local audiences through hit productions that live beyond Hornchurch
• Generate creative ideas inspired by the Outer East London-Essex identity
• Nurture new mainstream theatre with deaf and disabled performers at the heart
• Make and share classical drama with contemporary theatre-makers that speak for the here & now
• Create art that explodes the stories from the stage into digital spaces
• Support aspiring homegrown artists to create new theatre to be seen more widely
• Stage theatre outside the building in places where it can generate new engagement
• Foster the next generation of female lighting and sound designer
• Widen the breadth of the visiting programme for audiences that genuinely reflect the local community

Learning & Participation

• Produce more theatre where participants perform closely alongside professionals
• Shift towards work being co-created with participants
• Focus on projects with disadvantaged and changing communities
• Deepen the impact of activity in schools through strategic relationships

Audiences

• Forge deeper relationships through long-term projects
• Increase the number of younger people attending main stage work
• Reach more South Asian audiences through increasingly relevant programming
• Deliver activity that ensures older people retain access to theatre

Artist Development

The Queen’s Theatre has recently launched a fresh approach to talent development, titled Outer Limits, connecting with some local and regional professional artists for the first time, offering essential support that hasn’t previously existed. The theatre is ensuring that the next generation of theatre-makers are equipped to move from making work in studio spaces to the main stage, providing valuable commissions and directing and design opportunities.

Behind the scenes our highly skilled carpentry workshop, scenic artists and wardrobe department all lovingly create our sets and costumes on-site.

We also boast a warm and welcoming foyer with a café, bar with free wifi that’s open all hours and is ideal for meetings, a quiet place to work and a place to meet friends.

The Queen’s is a registered charity and receives regular funding from the London Borough of Havering and is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

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