National Theatre Releases Annual Review For 2017-18

The National Theatre has released its annual review for 2017-18. Read it below:

65% of UK audiences were from outside of London, the highest proportion ever due to the NT's extensive touring activity.

3.3 million tickets were sold worldwide for our productions and NT Live broadcasts.

Global audience of 8 million combining live theatre, broadcasts, free work, learning and participation activity, and engagements with in-depth digital content like podcasts and short films.

On the South Bank...

Programme balanced bold new writing and landmark productions of classic stories that pushed technical and creative boundaries, including: Angels in America, Barber Shop Chronicles, Beginning, Consent, Follies, Mosquitoes and Network.

91% full in our theatres on the South Bank.

30% of our tickets on the South Bank cost £20 or less.

...and beyond

10 NT Productions toured into theatres and schools across the UK for a total of 115 touring weeks

• 86 tour stops in theatres and 46 stops in schools
• Toured to 44 towns and cities across the UK
• Reached audiences of 670,000 people across the UK, from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

We launched Theatre Nation Partnerships, our touring and audience development programme with partners in Doncaster, Greater Manchester, outer East London, Sunderland, Wakefield and Wolverhampton.

200,000 engagements with our Learning programme, with several new schemes:

• Public Acts, our new theatre and community initiative
• Let's Play, a new performance and teacher CPD programme for primary schools
• Young Technicians, our technical theatre course for 14-18 year olds

58% of UK state secondary schools are now signed up to use On Demand. In Schools, our free streaming service.

International openings of People, Places & Things (St Ann's Warehouse), Angels in America (Neil Simon Theatre) in New York, and the US national and international tours of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Lisa Burger, Executive Director of the National Theatre said:

"We're proud to have toured more work than ever before in the last financial year. We want the NT to be a theatre for everyone, to be truly national, and that means making sure that audiences across the UK can see high-quality work by the National Theatre in their schools, home towns and cities.

Touring drama is financially harder than ever, but we're able to stay on the road thanks to our Arts Council funding, the generosity of many donors, and our colleagues at venues up and down the country. The year has shown that the demand for quality drama is there, we hope to remain in a position where we can continue our commitment to touring over the coming years."

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At the National Theatre, we make world-class theatre that is entertaining, challenging and inspiring. And we make it for everyone.

We aim to create work for the widest possible audiences with new plays, musicals, re-imagined classics and new work for young audiences. Our productions are seen in the West End, on tour throughout the UK, on Broadway, internationally, and in collaborations and co-productions with partners around the world. Through NT Live, we broadcast some of the best of British theatre to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries.

In 2017-2018, the we opened 20 productions in our three theatres on London's South Bank. On top of that, we toured more work across the UK than at any other point in our history, with 7 productions visiting 36 towns and cities. Worldwide, 3.3 million people bought tickets to our award-winning productions, and a further 4.7 million people engaged with us through our free work, learning and participation activity, and in-depth digital content.

Our extensive learning and participation programme opens up theatre to adults, families and young people across the UK. We support drama and creative education in schools through our performance and writing programmes like Connections, New Views and Let's Play. Over 58% of UK state secondary schools have signed up to our free streaming service, On Demand In Schools since launching in 2015. Public Acts, our new initiative to create extraordinary acts of theatre and community, launched in 2017 in partnership with eight visionary community organisations and the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch.

The National Theatre is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

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