“Unfolding Theatre is one of the North East’s most precious cultural assets, making eclectic big-hearted performance work rooted in community participation and co-production.” North East Bylines
Unfolding Theatre inspires people through big-hearted, responsive and impactful theatre and community-based creative projects. Since 2008, we have won awards for our work with under-served communities (NCCPE Engaging Young People Award 2014, Journal Culture Awards: Performance of the Year 2010/2017, Arts and Business Partnerships 2019).
Our mission is to bring together surprising combinations of people who are representative of the world we live in. This enables us to generate remarkable theatre for national audiences, reflecting the stories of people from a range of communities.
Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Unfolding Theatre became a charity in 2016. Our vision has three core aims: 1) more people are leading happier, more creatively fulfilled lives, 2) mainstream theatre better reflects England’s diversity and drives excellence and 3) people with different life experiences are better connected.
We aim to reach people of all ages and backgrounds and specialise in engaging with people that do not typically engage with theatre and the arts. Our current programme of work engages older people (50+), children and young people (including many of whom are neuro-diverse and/or d/Deaf), schoolchildren, adults living in areas of low arts engagement and socio-economic disadvantage, families and antenatal mothers.
Since 2018, we have carried out 8,600 creative engagements with over 3,500+ participants through 645 community-based activities, workshops and sessions. We have reached 31,500+ live audiences and 23,000+ digital audiences.
