Talawa Theatre Company celebrated its twenty first anniversary in February of this year and is the UK's foremost Black theatre company. We've produced more than forty plays, including African, Caribbean and British classics alongside exciting new writing. Through our weekly Noticeboard, monthly salons, and annual summer school we contribute to the development of theatre practitioners in all areas of the theatre. We are passionate about making and documenting our contribution to British theatre.
We are currently led by Artistic Director Patricia Cumper and Executive Director Deborah Sawyerr. Over the years, as more Black work is produced by mainstream theatres and more Black practitioners make successful careers, we have continued to refine our vision and purpose so that today we are proud to focus on Black British work. Our mission statement says:
Talawa Theatre Company is Britain's foremost Black led Theatre Company. We give voice to the Black British experience and we nurture, develop and support talent. We cultivate Black audiences and audiences for Black work. In so doing, we enrich British theatre.
We tell the iconic stories of the Black British experience and invest in the development of the practitioners who bring those stories to the stage. We therefore produce predominantly
new writing and
work with practitioners throughout the UK.
We strive to produce consistently challenging, innovative and entertaining work. We continue to nurture the writers, directors, designers, administrators and marketers of the future. But most of all, we extend to both practitioners and audiences alike the warmth of a Talawa welcome because we are proud that Talawa Theatre Company is a creative space in which artists of all backgrounds are free to tell the stories that enrich the world in which we all must live.
