Anthony Biggs on theatre’s potential for change

Quote of the day: “The bigger civic theatres have traditionally had greater resources and wider reach, but at this pivotal time it is smaller companies, plugged directly into their communities, that can affect real change. This is theatre as crucible, where people are put first, where ideas can be formed and challenged, where emerging artists will find their voices, and where tolerance and empathy can be nurtured. To be civic is to be an active and responsible citizen. The latest ten-year plan from Arts Council England — Let’s Create — promises to be a radical shift in ideology, proposing to put our citizens in the driving seat, and it will be the creatively and structurally nimble organisations, our truly civic theatres, that can be the vehicle for this change.” (Anthony Biggs, ‘Public Engagement: A Renewed Civic Role for Theatre’)

Anthony Biggs Arts Council arts funding British theatre citizenship community coronavirus creativity Let’s Create subsidy theatre theatre-makers