Previous and ongoing partnerships and projects

Over the years, Curve has partnered with Kali Theatre to launch its DISCOVERY Programme, searching for talented new South Asian women playwrights from the East Midlands, West Midlands and London.

Kali Theatre inspires, supports and presents ground breaking new plays by female South Asian writers. In the past 20 years Kali have discovered, nurtured and presented work by over 50 writers. Through DISCOVERY Kali found and nurtured the next generation of talented female writers – who are hugely underrepresented – to bring rich and diverse voices to UK theatre.

Are you a d/Deaf, hard-of-hearing or Disabled artist that wants to be part of the changing landscape of theatre in England?

Are you a passionate artist who wants to create live performance, develop an idea, find new collaborations, be seen & heard, but cannot get beyond barriers to developing or continuing your practice?

BEYOND is designed to transform the careers of d/Deaf, hard-of-hearing and Disabled artists, supporting new connections to artistic development opportunities and offering advice, training, mentoring and creative spaces within a national network of theatres.

We are proud to work with the Pleasance Theatre as part of their Edinburgh National Partnerships programme to support one Midlands artist or company who want to take work to Edinburgh Fringe. 

In 2018, Curve, Bristol Old Vic Fement and The Lowry, Salford joined forces to offer three seed commissions of £2k each to three Artists of Colour (theatre makers or companies led by a majority of POC) to create ambitious new work for our theatres and beyond.

The commissions were named in memory of Naseem Khan OBE, author of the first ever Government inquiry into diversity in British culture (The Arts Britain Ignores, 1976); and lifelong champion of inclusion in theatre.

The commissioned artists were Trina Haldar (Founder and Artistic Director of Mashi Theatre), Madeline Shann (theatre-maker, writer, choreographer and performer) and Tribe Arts (a philosophically inspired, radical-political theatre company).

Throughout 2018, we ran New Theatre Talent, a training programme for people from Leicester aged 18 to 25 who wanted to pursue an acting career. The programme was supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and featured sessions on text, movement, singing and stage combat.

The course concluded with performances of Ché Walker‘s The Frontline as part of our Inside Out Festival 2018.