UK Theatre Announces Five New Board Members To Address Skills Gap and Improve Representation

UK Theatre has announced five new appointments to its Board, following an extensive Board recruitment process to address a skills gap and under-representation of some demographics in the current Board. These appointments better equip the organisation to fully represent its large and diverse membership in today's cultural landscape, and to better represent the UK population.

Four new appointments are Co-opted Board members; Carolyn ML Forsyth (Executive Director & Joint CEO, Talawa Theatre Company), Colin Marr (Theatre Director, Edinburgh Playhouse), Louise Miles-Payne (Director, Creu Cymru) and Michelle Rolfe (Producer, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company). Joining them is Samir Bhamra (Founder and Artistic Director of Phizzical Productions) who becomes UK Theatre's new Subscriber Board member following a recent election.

The announcement of these new additions to the Board is the result of an Extraordinary General Meeting in June, at which the UK Theatre membership voted overwhelmingly to adopt new Articles of Association, giving the organisation more flexibility to recruit more widely and diversify its board.

Stephanie Sirr, UK Theatre President, said:

'As we emerge from the pandemic, we need more than ever to broaden our thinking and respond creatively to some of the challenges the industry is facing. Having a diverse Board strengthens our governance ability and will enable us to be increasingly innovative and relevant. The new Board members joining us all have significant knowledge and experience. We cannot wait to welcome them to the UK Theatre Board, working with them to guide our future direction'.

UK Theatre has previously worked to improve gender representation at Board level, as well as ensuring there was a diverse mix of Board members from across the UK's nations and regions, and from different roles and organisation types. This latest process, which follows a skills and demographic audit of existing Board members, has addressed additional areas of under-representation including ethnicity, disability, and religion. This recruitment process will continue in the coming months, as current Board members leave, and more information on this will follow in due course.

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