Theatre Royal Stratford East receives Olivier award
Theatre Royal Stratford East has been awarded a Laurence Olivier award for its production of ‘Roadkill’.
The award was given for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate theatre at the awards ceremony on 15 April at the Royal Opera House, London.
The production, which ran from 28 October to 20 November 2011, in partnership with the Barbican, took audiences to a house in a secret location in East London to tell the story of the complexities of human trafficking, based on real life experiences. It combined powerful performances with video and animation to portray the life of a young woman suffering from the implications of human trafficking.
Artistic Director Kerry Michael said: “We are delighted to have received this award that recognises the quality and relevance of this work that Stratford East is presenting … Theatre Royal Stratford East is committed to developing new work, political work that gives a voice to those rarely heard.”
The current programming at Stratford East theatre is being delivered in a unique way with support from the PHF Arts programme. In 2010/11, the Arts programme awarded the theatre £97,400 over 39 months for its headline project, Open Stage. The scheme engages with local communities to enable them to curate the theatre’s production, in the six months leading up to the Olympic Games.
The project involved the recruitment and training of local volunteers, from across East London, as ambassadors for the project. The volunteers created questionnaires to engage the public on the street, as well as a website and social networking sites which allow public contribution.