COVID-19 update from Tara Arts

Founder of Tara Arts, Jatinder Verma MBE, is to step down as Artistic Director, forty years after founding the ground-breaking company.

Renowned stage actress Eileen Page has won the ‘Best Actress’ Silver award for her one-woman performance as Eleanor of Aquitaine: Mother of the Pride, in the audio drama production of the late Catherine Muschamps’ play of the same name.

As audiences who caught this astonishing play at Tara Theatre will know, it showcases a remarkable one-woman performance by veteran actress Eileen Page, who brings to life a formidable woman, far ahead of her time. A woman of extraordinary courage, beauty and iron will – uniquely Queen of France then Queen of England and mother of two English Kings – Eleanor of Aquitaine’s name was legendary even before her death.

13th of April marks 100 years of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, north India. 

In 1980, Tara's production - INKALAAB 1919 - presented the story of this massacre in a garden. As its principal character, General Dyer, commented: "Our integrity is at stake here - the whole foundation of what we mean by duty to Empire rests on what we do now."

Tara's interim Executive Director, Jonathan Kennedy, has been appointed as the British Council's next Director of Arts, India.

We are delighted that another Patron of Tara, musician Nitin Sawhney, has been made it into the New Year's Honours List - congratulations to Nitin Sawhney CBE!

Tara Arts is delighted to announce a new Award made possible through a generous donation.

We are delighted to announce Tara Arts and Black Theatre Live has partnered up with Digital Theatre to enable access to the archive recordings of our previous national tours recorded as live with Pilot Theatre including Tara Arts' Macbeth directed by Jatinder Verma filmed at Stratford Circus Arts Centre in 2015 and the UK's first all-Black production of Hamlet directed by Jeffery Kissoon filmed  at Tara Theatre in 2016

We Are the Lions, Mr Manager! was voted by Guardian Reader Noel Hannon as one of their favourite shows - at Tara Theatre! See what he says:

Tara Theatre, London

A tiny production with a cast of just two. It reminded those of us who were there at the time of the Grunwick dispute and it enthused those who were hearing about this bit of trade union history for the first time. It’s on tour until next April. Highly recommend. Noel Hannon

Tara Theatre has been shortlisted for the LONDON NEW ARCHITECTURE AWARDS & PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS!

In 1976 Naseem Khan's report, The Arts Britain Ignores, was published. Commissioned by the Arts Council of Great Britain, the report changed the face of Britain's arts landscape forever and was instrumental in shaping arts policy for the future. 

Tara Arts artistic director Jatinder Verma took home the top prize at the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards (ACTAs) on Sunday 21 May, gaining recognition for his four decades long contribution to British theatre.

The award was for his "Outstanding Contribution to the Arts".

Marking the 70th anniversary of India & Pakistan's independence from Britain, the UK-India Year of Culture was launched by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Monday 27th February.

Jatinder Verma attended the reception along with many other artists. Tara Theatre is marking this anniversary with its unique programme of 70 events over the course of the year, featuring plays, music, dance, talks...and gardens. 

Tara Arts Artistic Director Jatinder Verma was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours list, for 'Tara Arts and services to diversity in the Arts'.

New report from Andrew Lloyd Webber

A wonderful day was had by all yesterday at the opening of our beautiful and unique Tara Theatre, with speeches from Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Richard Field and Joyce Wilson from Arts Council England.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, officially opens Tara Theatre, a new state of the art home in South London for the acclaimed Tara Arts, the oldest diverse multicultural theatre company in the UK, today, Thursday 1 September 2016.

Frustrated by a shortage of touring opportunities for black and Asian theatre, Jatinder Verma and Jonathan Kennedy made it their mission to change the hearts and minds of artistic directors and inspire audiences across the country.

Click here to read our article on Black Theatre Live in Arts Proffesional. 

As part of The Guardian's 'How We Staged Shakespeare' series they asked our Artistic Director, Jatinder Verma, to write about Tara Arts' Troilus & Cressida.

Jatinder discusses the production's reference to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and how the delivery of Shakespeare’s words is still bedevilled by conventions.

Read the article here.

On Sunday 22 November at 6.45pm, BBC Radio 3 our Artistic Director, Jatinder Verma, featured in Making an Entrance – Asian Theatre in Britain.

In the programme, Sarfraz Manzoor charts the history of Asian theatre in Britain, a tale which ranges from The Bayaderes, 'Priestesses of Pondicherry' - temple dancers who came to London from India in the 1830s, through to the current generation of actors, directors and writers.

Sarfraz examines how political and social unrest in the 1970s sparked the founding of the first high-profile Asian theatre company in Britain, and looks at how the 21st century has seen an increasingly wide range of work? From controversial plays and new, sometimes radical versions of classic texts to Bollywood-inspired musicals.

Other contributors include Hanif Kureishi, Tanika Gupta, Ayub Khan-Din, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and Sudha Bhuchar.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AGAIN!

#BBCOnStage