The company celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
New Earth Theatre’s new Artistic Director Ailin Conant and Executive Director Lian Wilkinson has announced details of the company’s 2025 season. Highlights of the season will include a Climate Justice Festival, a Twisted Roots Festival of new BESEA work, and a year long Living Archive Project to document the company’s history and highlight its impact on the wider sector.
The season will begin with a daylong Climate Justice Festival, co-produced with Kali Theatre and Tara Theatre. Aiming to raise awareness of of the impact of climate change in the Global South. Taking place on the 29th March at Tara Theatre, the festival will involve devised performances, script readings and workshops.
Meanwhile to celebrate its 30th anniversary, the company opens a callout to British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) artists interested in exploring traditional ESEA art forms updated for a contemporary British theatre context. New Earth have partnered with six venues to offer six residencies for BESEA artists and companies as part of their Artist Incubator programme in 2025. The successful applicants will receive a £2000 seed commission each, mentoring support and a residency at either Camden People’s Theatre, Contact Manchester, New Diorama, The Pleasance, Sheffield Theatres or Theatre in the Mill. Additional artists selected from New Earth’s Midlands and North-based Academy Plus programme will be supported through the Artist Incubator. The aim of the programme is to aid artists with the skills and knowledge to create their own work, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
The incubator will culminate into a showcase as part of New Earth’s 30th anniversary festival, Twisted Roots. Alongside the Artists Incubator projects, the festival will feature extracts of New Earth’s work-in-development for 2026 and beyond, including The Body Fisher, a new play by Amy Ng co-commissioned with dance company Feng Ling Productions; Olivier-nominated writer and director AJ Yi and Emily Ling Wiliams, whose new play based on The Ballad of Mulan has been co-commissioned by New Earth Theatre and Headlong Theatre;and an exploration of Shakespeare’s text developed with Taiko drummer and composer Nao Masuda. The festival will take place in London and Leeds in September 2025.
Over the course of this year, New Earth Theatre will also mark their milestone year by spearheading a brand-new Living Archive Project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project will be the first comprehensive resource to capture and reflect a BESEA perspective to the changing UK arts landscape, by chronicling the company’s 30 years of history through oral testimonies, scriptwriting and performance.
Alongside this, New Earth Theatre will continue to offer workshops, digital installations and character performances including their James Robson Character Encounter, an interactive, promenade experience which takes place at the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum on various dates throughout the year. Other works in development include a new co-commissioned play by Jude Christian with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse as part of New Earth Theatre’s associateship, and an NHS-funded project with curious directive.
Talking about the news, Ailin Conant said: “In 2025 we will celebrate the legacy of the past 30 years, while planting the seeds for the best BESEA theatre work of the next 30. I’m so excited by the breadth and calibre of the artists and organisations who we are partnering with to deliver this milestone season.”
To find out more visit: https://www.newearththeatre.org.uk/