ABOUT THE UNICORN THEATRE
The Unicorn is the UK’s leading professional theatre for young audiences, dedicated to inspiring and invigorating young people of all ages, perspectives and abilities, and empowering them to explore the world – on their own terms – through theatre.
OUR HISTORY
The Unicorn was founded by Caryl Jenner as a touring company in 1947 with a commitment to giving children a valuable and often first ever experience of quality theatre, and a philosophy that “the best of theatre for children should be judged on the same high standards of writing, directing, acting and design as the best of adult theatre.” Today, the Unicorn is the national home of theatre for children and young people, serving 65,000 audience members a year. Its purpose-built building at London Bridge contains two theatres, four floors of public spaces and two rehearsal studios dedicated to producing and presenting work for and about audiences aged 6 months to 21 years. Year-round, the Unicorn works with some of the world’s most exciting theatre-makers to produce, present and tour a surprising, innovative and broad range of work that is honest, refreshing and international in outlook.
OUR ETHOS
At the Unicorn, we believe in: • bringing art to young people and young people to art • pushing the boundaries of what theatre for young audiences can be • opening our doors to everyone • speaking to the audience of today, not just creating the audience of the future • diversity. Because the world is diverse. We strive to push the boundaries of imagination in everything that we do; welcoming families, schools, and young people for unforgettable theatrical experiences that will expand horizons, change perspectives, and challenge how we all see and understand each other.
OUR WORK
The Unicorn creates and presents high quality shows for young people. We often work with established and highly regarded artists, as well as supporting talented emerging artists and companies and commissioning new work for young audiences. We are passionate about giving our audiences, the young people and their families, teachers and carers, a sense of ownership over the Theatre. We have a Young Company, made up of 60 young people that meet weekly to create work to be presented on our stages, we offer in-depth learning opportunities for schools and have an access and community provision that is integral to the organisation.
147 Tooley Street, Southwark, London SE1 2HZ unicorntheatre.com Registered Charity No 225751
FURTHER INFORMATION “Wise and wondrous stuff...” The Times In Purni Morell’s first 18 months as Artistic Director (2012-13), the Unicorn • • • • •
has made 29 new pieces of work, commissioned 12 new writers, taken 7 productions out on tour to 82 English venues, hosted 18 international companies from the USA and Europe, co-produced with 10 specialist children’s companies (8 from outside London), • and employed 170 artists, of whom 45% have been women. In this period, we • extended our audience by 20% and Box Office income by 39%, • sold over 26,000 more tickets each year, • won 4 national theatre awards and been nominated for 5 more. “Under Purni Morell, the Unicorn is fast becoming a must-seeeverything venue. There isn’t a new writing theatre in the country wouldn’t envy the artists coming through its doors.” Matt Trueman, The Stage The Unicorn • distributes 10% of its tickets for free or at a heavily subsidised rate to schools and community groups. • runs a Schools Programme engaging with 4,000 pupils and 70 teachers a year, involving almost 50 schools across 19 London boroughs. • has achieved a 102% growth in media coverage and 32% growth in web hits (1.2 million pa) since 2011/12. • pioneered Relaxed Performances, now being implemented across the UK, and programmes over 20 further access performances a year. • has maintained its energy consumption at ‘11/12 levels despite hugely increased building operating hours. • has an active social media presence including a Twitter following of more than 5,500, plus 4,300 Facebook likes. You can find out more at
WWW.UNICORNTHEATRE.COM
147 Tooley Street, Southwark, London SE1 2HZ unicorntheatre.com Registered Charity No 225751