Our Aims

Business Aims 2022-23

Executive Summary

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is emerging from a difficult and challenging period for the entire theatre industry. Thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund Grants received, the trusts, individuals and corporates who have continued to support activity and a streamlining of expenditure, the Lyric has weathered this period remaining financially stable and artistically ambitious, dedicated to delivering its mission.

This next year will be a period of development and transition, as the Lyric looks to build back audience confidence and income streams, expand and clarify the vital work we do with young people and the nurturing of tomorrow’s artists. We will be embedding the Arts Council’s investment principles across all activity.

As we look to 2022/23 we do so knowing the significant role we play in West London’s economic and social recovery. We have a strategic role in our local community with an opportunity to deliver on the Art’s Council’s ‘Let’s Create’ outcomes.

Key Business Aims 2022 – 2023

AIM ONE: To work with the UK’s leading artists to develop and present world-class theatre from the heart of Hammersmith that speaks to existing and new audiences.

The Lyric is a unique theatre. We are a local theatre serving the West London community for 125 years with a national impact; with the ambition and quality of a world-class producing theatre. We combine the audience and artistic experience of performance within an original Frank Matcham designed auditorium with the contemporary atmosphere and modern facilities within our building. This combination of new and old, local and national, allows us to embrace both tradition and innovation; to allow artists the chance to explore and reimagine classical texts and write new plays for a thrilling space, while giving our audiences a theatrical experience equivalent to the grandeur of the West End houses.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Produce a balanced programme of seven Main House productions of big stories that talk to the communities within West London and provide an excellent artistic experience, delivering against the Arts Council’s Ambition & Quality investment principle and effectively manages our internal resources.
Work with established and excellent artists including Artri Banerjee, Mike Bartlett, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Roy Williams. Develop new work and ideas to ensure the artistically ambitious future of the Lyric.
Forming new partnerships, including research and development for two large-scale productions working with Talawa Theatre Company and Tanika Gupta/the Ringham Brothers.
Continuing our commitment to serving our family audiences that we know from 2020/21 are eager to return to the theatre, with our Little Lyric season and family Panto.

AIM TWO: To provide clear and sustainable pathways into the theatre industry for young people from all backgrounds in West London, supporting tomorrow’s artists.

The Lyric has a long and successful history in supporting and nurturing the industry’s future artists, working closely with young people from all backgrounds from West London. This area of work has continued and flourished despite our periods of closure over the last 18 months and we have used this time to evaluate our existing programmes and consider what we can do to respond the current barriers young people face and the continued lack of representation within our industry.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Begin the pilot of our innovative programme, Springboard: Theatre’s Future Now, which will provide an industry case study in a new way of supporting young people into sustainable theatre careers. This is a unique idea in the industry. We will be breaking new ground, and expanding our role in this area of proven expertise.
Strengthen our pathways into the industry across all areas, specifically addressing equality and inclusion.
Evaluate our programme of work within Young Lyric to ensure we are delivering against the Arts Council strategic outcomes.

AIM THREE: To deliver and build on our Commitment to Change Action Plan and further build our work in inclusivity and diversity.

We have committed to being an actively anti-racist organisation, through 2020 and 2021 we have built on our work in inclusivity and diversity with our Commitment to Change. Becoming ally partners of Inc Arts in 2021 and the first theatre to trial their ‘Act Against Racism’ campaign on our opening production of Out West, we are committed to finding new ways to diversify the Lyric and the theatre industry through our work on stage, the way we run the Lyric and our work with young people.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Continue to develop and build on our action plan for change working in consultation with our staff, artists and partners. Work closely with Inc Arts as consultants creating our 3-5 year anti-racist action plan.
Commit to further diversifying our work force across all areas and providing staff training and development for all contract types to ensure we remain at the forefront of best practice.
We will use the data from the 2021 Census to create a West London ward tracker that identifies the top wards of multiple deprivation within the 10 boroughs of West London, this data will help us to better understand our local community and demographic. The data will be used to inform our targeted community engagement and participatory offers, in reaching those under –served.
We recently produced our first large scale intergenerational community show and will continue the relationship with disabled adults in the production so that provision continues in 22/23 through the Lyric and our partner organisations.
We will work with our Young Lyric Partners, Amici Dace Theatre, to present their 40^th anniversary production and celebrations on our main stage and across the building.
We will commit to our annual Lyric artistic residency programme that offers free space and development to a minimum of 6 ethnically diverse theatre makers from West London – piloted in 2021.
Through our teaching partnership with Backstage Niche we will improve the representation of those leading technical theatre workshops to young people.

AIM FOUR: To provide greater access to our work on stage by making incisive connections to our projects and activity with young people; utilising the impact of excellence to inspire creativity and empower future audiences and theatre makers.

We know the benefits of creating new clear connections between our work with young people and work on stage. It provides young people with access to excellence, sparks inspiration and helps them to see the pathway and opportunities potentially open to them through seeing professionals at work; not only on stage but through our additional backstage work. Through 2022/23 we will build on this area of work ensuring clearer pathways and connections between these two areas of our work. We will embed our Action Plan for Change across all this area of work.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Our new position of Producer (Inclusion and Outreach) will conceive and create a minimum of two new initiatives a year for groups from West London that are underrepresented within the theatre industry , building closer connections with our community of young people to our work on stage/artistic work
The Lyric will provide up to two bursary placements for each Young Lyric class over the 22/23 financial year, targeting these specifically at those on benefits or who receive free school meals.
Eight of our Young Lyric partners have committed to ensuring that a minimum of 50% of their delivery team across Young Lyric classes are from the Global Majority from September 2022. The Lyric will monitor and track this data across the year.
We will continue to deliver our flagship START programme for NEET young people aged 16 – 25 from West London, engaging them in arts and employment to diversify the talent pipeline
We will continue to develop our partnership with the three pupil referral units in our borough through our REWIND programme, engaging those who are deemed most vulnerable or at risk of exclusion.
We will develop a new partnership with LBHF youth offending team, introducing arts engagement for those who within the criminal justice system.

AIM FIVE: To ensure the Lyric is resilient, dynamic and stable to face the challenges of the future without impacting our mission.

The impact of the pandemic has shown how dynamism is more essential than ever. The Lyric has been at the heart of Hammersmith for 125 years and has survived many challenges during its history, we will ensure that the theatre can withstand and respond to the challenges and opportunities that the next decade will bring.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Interrogate our business model to ensure it is flexible, but structured and fully supporting our ambition and mission as a theatre.
Ensure we are utilising all opportunities to us within our development and commercial activity, creating 3-5 year plans for both these areas to ensure we are fully utilising our resources and developing new income streams.
Finalising and putting in place our space strategy to ensure we have a clear strategic approach to way we use our building and resources.
Following our training needs analysis from 2021, ensuring this is implemented and remains up to date so our staff are continuing to build their skills and knowledge
Auditing our IT infrastructure, making any required improvements, with regular updates and reviews.

AIM SIX: To take the steps to ensure the Arts Council investment principles are embedded in all our activity from 2023+

In preparation for 2022/23 we have begun the internal process of understanding the steps we need to take to ensure the investment principles are fully embedded across the Lyric from 2023. In this transition year, we will develop and establish our actions for each investment principle, identifying the work that delivered on these principles and the key areas of development needed alongside the data sources we will use and the people we will consult.

In 2022/2023 we will:

Work with our Board and staff team in a series of sessions to create clear objectives and deliverable actions against each investment principle.
Review our staff structure and resources to ensure it aligns with our culture and long term needs.
Form and/or strengthen partnerships that support the delivery of the investment principles.
Audit our activity across the organisation to ensure they are focused and connected to the investment principles and deliver on the Let’s Create outcomes