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Made in Margate: Theatre Royal Margate

Theatre Royal Margate, the second oldest theatre in the country, has been awarded £150,000 through Grants for the arts for a two-year development project that puts the local people and …

Theatre Policy

Our policy summarises the context for theatre and the Arts Council’s role. It sets out our vision for theatre and the priorities we have set to help us deliver it.

We recently completed a Theatre Assessment which we are using as a basis for the development of future plans.

The Young People's Participatory Theatre project (YPPT) was a three-year DCMS-funded initiative to develop youth and participatory theatre in England 2005/06–2008/09.

England’s theatre is admired throughout the world: we have access to an astonishing variety of theatre, from classical plays and new texts to experimental work, live art and dramatic work with no text at all.  Street arts and circus are also included in our theatre portfolio.

Each year Arts Council England invests over £100 million into regularly funded theatre organisations and more than £11 million on all kinds of theatre through Grants for the arts. However, subsidised theatre exists alongside both commercial theatre, which contributes over £2.5 billion a year to the UK’s economy, and amateur theatre.

These three sectors are mutually interdependent and it is our ambition that theatre of all kinds should thrive, providing as many opportunities as possible for people to experience a wide range of enjoyable, exciting and stimulating work.

Theatre initiatives

Investigations into new theatre writing in England

We commissioned two investigations into new writing in theatre in England in order to examine this important area of work more closely than was possible in our theatre assessment. Our two investigations looked at different aspects of new writing between 2003 and 2008/9.

Sustained Theatre

Sustained Theatre ensures artists transform the future of our national arts landscape to reflect the diverse, rich and vibrant talent that exists in British society.

Related documents

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Kate Atkinson - Started Early, Took My Dog

In her much anticipated new novel, Kate Atkinson weaves together the lives of security chief Tracy Waterhouse, fading actress Tilly and police detective Jackson Brodie with a maltreated dog in tow. Over a series of peculiar predicaments, larger problems loom and all three learn that the past cannot be escaped.