Author: Grace Coppin

2022 was another brilliant year for Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, with huge thanks to all of the artists, audiences, participants, staff, board, donors and stakeholders who made all these life-changing moments possible.

1. The Theatre was Grade II listed, in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, one of only six sites nationally and the only site in London listed for this historic occasion. 
 
2. We received 10 Offie award nominations and a UK Theatre award nomination in recognition of the quality of the work produced in Hornchurch, which included 9 new main stage productions, 4 of which were world premieres. 
 
3. The Blueprint Festival of 12 new works was our biggest talent development project so far, supporting 60+ diverse creative practitioners. It included our largest offer of free theatre and reached 48% new bookers. 
 
4. Our regional premiere co-production of Kinky Boots was the 2nd best-selling production in our history (pantomimes aside) and seen by more than 18,600 people. 
 
5. Our world premiere production of QYouth Theatre musical Never Never saw 180 extraordinary young people performing on stage. 
 
6. We established new projects with our communities, including a Memory Cafe for people living with dementia; a year round programme with students from New City College; Speak Up, a 3 year national programme made with young people; and a Creative Health partnership for Havering.
 
7. We helped tour the National Theatre into secondary schools in Havering, showcased Essex artists at The Bush in West London, and took Black Essex stories by Mia Jerome and Anne Odeke into community venues across South Essex and Havering. Our co-productions were seen in Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester and Derby. 
 
8. In the most competitive Arts Council England round to date, we secured a historic 71% funding increase, much-needed extra support to help us reach 1.1m+ underserved people in Outer East London and South Essex. Our part in the Theatre Nation partnership was recognised as it was awarded a £1.25m investment over 3 years. Our 36 month international Future Laboratory project, in which we’re the UK partner, received 1m euros of Creative Europe funding. 
 

Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to an equally exciting 2023.

Photo Credit: Hannah Davies