An opportunity for you to meet members of the New Earth Team and be part of a small focus group to share your experiences.

Community Feedback Session

Be led through the nuts and bolts of a TV sitcom writing room experience demystifying the process in this fun, hands on, free writing workshop.

TV Writing Workshop with Ins Choi

New Earth Theatre today announces the appointment of Ailin Conant as the company’s new Artistic Director who will officially take up the post later this month.

New Earth Theatre announces Ailin Conant as new Artistic Director

Culturally Specific Performance Practice and British East and South East Asian Representation in collaboration with The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and New Earth Theatre.

Collaborative Doctoral Award with The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Kumiko Mendl today announces her decision to step down from her role as Artistic Director after 11 years, leaving the company in 2024.

Kumiko Mendl steps down as Artistic director of New Earth Theatre

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of one of our founder members, Veronica Needa.

Remembering Veronica Needa

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and New Earth Theatre are pleased to announce a new associateship.

Central and New Earth Theatre Announce Associateship

Jude Christian becomes New Earth Theatre’s first Fellow. Our Fellowship sets out to build on from our successful Professional Writers Programme.

Jude Christian becomes New Earth Theatre’s first Fellow

My original urge to write this story was simply to entertain and engage. It was a bizarre thing that happened in my life and I thought it'd be funny.

Writing WORTH

It is with disappointment that we announce that our upcoming production of WORTH will not be coming to the Crucible in June 2023

Sheffield Statement

The sadness, the fear and the anger felt in our community cannot go unheard. The discussions around the model minority complex, the hypersexualisation of Asian females and the sinocentric attitudes towards the ESEA diaspora need to be listened to outside of our own circles.

Stop Asian Hate

Our first podcast Earth 2 Air aims to further amplify and champion stories of East and South East Asians in the UK.

Earth 2 Air

In 2020, for the first time, Yellow Earth offered a Performers Academy in Manchester for young British East/South East Asians* based in the North West.

With the challenges that came about due to the Coronovirus, we decided to innovate the framework of the course. Instead of the one-week course as originally planned, we hosted bi-weekly online classes from 12 May-17 July. 

The course was led by performance artist Stacy Makishi alongside sessions in voice, movement and clowning and weekly lunchtime Q and A’s on a range of topics with industry professionals.

Course tutors: Live Art Social (Distancing) Club: Stacy Makishi, Movement: Jennifer Jackson, Voice: Gary Horner, Voice: Sam Malone, Clowning: Georgia Murphy

This course was delivered in partnership with: Contact, HOME, Manchester International Festival (MIF) Royal Exchange Theatre, Sustained Theatre Up North (STUN) and The Lowry.

Performers Academy: Manchester 2020

Borderlands: As Above, So Below invites a discussion to create a counter-language to the hostile environment.

by Rogelio Braga

Borderlands: As Above, So Below

Kumiko Mendl

Applications for London have now closed. Follow us on social media for news on the academy, opportunities and upcoming productions.

Inspired by true events, WORTH takes a darkly comic look at family loss and sibling rivalry.

by Joanne Lau

WORTH

Ailin Conant

Three women’s lives intertwine as they campaign for the truth against those who would rather it remain forgotten.

by Kyo Choi

The Apology

Lian Wilkinson

A unique audio experience, bringing food and stories from Lewisham’s Vietnamese community together.

The Audio Dining Experience

Sonic Phở

Tammie Rhee

Interviews. Exhibition. Live. Uncovering the lives of Japanese women in the UK since 1945.

Tsunagu/Connect

Jordan Blake-Klein

What starts as a game descends into a fight for survival as sex, power, money and race collide on a hot night in the Pearl River Delta.

Adapted by Amy Ng

Miss Julie

Yuyu Wang

Bayanihan with Love is a project made in response to the adverse effects of the pandemic on the Filipino community in the UK.

Bayanihan With Love

Naomi Sumner Chan

Using puppetry, music and striptease, this is a show about diaspora, assimilation, and siblinghood.

by Tobi Poster-Su

Chang and Eng and Me (and Me)

Pamela Carter's new film explores family and heritage through the lives of her grandmothers, one in Singapore, the other in England.

by Pamela Carter

Duck Rabbit

A British East and South East Asian guide to Manchester’s Past, Present & Future

Signal Fires: Beyond Chinatown

Triptych is a new trio of short films by Quang Kien Van reflecting on experiences of Lockdown, Quarantine and Isolation.

Online

Triptych

A digital short play festival. Streaming 17 new plays from 17 British East and South East Asian playwrights.

New Stories

Dark and unsettling, Fix is the debut psychological thriller by Bruntwood Prize longlisted writer, Julie Tsang.

by Julie Tsang

Fix 懼

Caught between the conflicting expectations of her family and friends, Wei must revisit her family’s past in order to make important decisions about her future.

by Amy Ng

Under the Umbrella

Big Dog struggles to overcome opium addiction and for Eunuch Lin, the fall of the Imperial Dynasty couldn’t have come at a worse time.

by Daniel York Loh

Forgotten 遗忘

Helen has grown up in the UK, but always felt a piece of her story was missing. Amidst the skyscrapers and bustling streets of Hong Kong, she meets her grandmother, Lily Kwok.

by In-Sook Chappell

Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok

The story of a lowly shepherd who rises the power and conquers half the world through sheer brutality and self-belief.

Adapted by Ng Choon Ping

Tamburlaine

It started in Limehouse in 1958 when the local council was planning to bulldoze the last remnants of Limehouse Chinatown.

by Jeremy Tiang

The Last Days of Limehouse

The story of Yeh Shen first appeared in 9th Century China, over 1,000 years before the first European Cinderella story.

by Vicky Ireland

Yeh Shen: The World's First Cinderella Story from China

Dim Sum Nights was back in October/November 2013 by popular demand. Brand new and fresh bite sized pieces of theatre were served up with a taste of Dim Sum and Chinese tea.

Dim Sum Nights 2013

Dim Sum Nights, our unique show that delivered fresh tasty bite sized theatre along side a taste of Chinese Dim Sum completed a tour in Autumn 2012.

Dim Sum Nights On Tour

The company's first ever Dim Sum Nights. Bringing Yellow Ink, Yellow Stages and Yellow Academy together, a wide variety of short 10 minute pieces of theatre were served up in a restaurant with Dim Sum and tea. A total of 16 new pieces were presented across four performances.

Dim Sum Nights 2010

This delightful show for families toured to schools and theatre venues for two months.

by Carey English

Why the Lion Danced 2011

wAve was created and toured with Boom for Yellow Earth’s Autumn 2009 Tour. Two very different plays by two exciting and talented East Asian writers: Boom by Jean Tay and wAve by Sung Rno.

by Sung Rno

wAve

Boom was created and toured with wAve for Yellow Earth’s Autumn 2009 Tour. Two very different plays by two exciting and talented East Asian writers: Boom by Jean Tay and wAve by Sung Rno.

by Jean Tay

Boom

An exciting new piece of outdoor theatre suitable for all the family, created to celebrate the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

by David KS Tse

Pangu and Nüwa, Creators of the World

Exhilarating, refreshing and richly visual, Running the Silk Road blends East and West, telling a modern story mixed with Chinese myths.

by Paul Sirett

Running the Silk Road

This bold UK premiere of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy is given an exciting modern spin with Britain’s award winning YET and China’s contemporary SDAC, featuring Chinese movie star Zhou Yemang as Lear.

adapted by David KS Tse

King Lear

A visually exciting production of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Nightingale for family audiences using dance, music and video. Developed in association with Half Moon Young People’s Theatre and co-produced by Hong Kong Arts Festival in association with Chung Ying Theatre Company, in partnership with the British Council Hong Kong.

by Hans Christian Andersen

The Nightingale

A new play about numbers, immigration and luck. Produced in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Leicester Haymarket Theatre and The Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury.

by Philippe Cherbonnier and David KS Tse

A glimpse into the dark underbelly of modern life in Japan. The estranged members of a working class Japanese family gather for the youngest son’s funeral. His diary reveals a deeply scarring Oedipal experience.

by Yu Miri

Festival for the Fish

What happened to the three daughters of King Lear before they made their entrances in Shakespeare’s classic?

by the Women's Theatre Group and Elaine Fenstein

Lear's Daughters

A bittersweet Vietnamese comedy of mistaken identity, The Butcher’s Skin tells the story of Truong Ba, a gentle gardener accidentally struck off the Book of Life by careless gods.

by Luu Quang Vu

The Butcher's Skin

FACE was commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Centre for their FESTIVAL NOW in 1998. It was first developed in English with director Chris Harris in Bristol, and then reworked in Cantonese with director Shu-wing Tang, premiering in Hong Kong with great success.

by Veronica Needa

Face

Inspired by Kurosawa’s film and Akutagawa’s original story, Yellow Earth’s production of this classic Japanese “whodunnit” is a dynamic modern version.

by Philippe Cherbonnier

Rashomon

Play To Win is a contemporary, accessible and thought-provoking story which shows the temptations and perils every adolescent faces in school today.

Play to Win

Innocent nostalgia is shattered in a playfully anarchic staging of Potter’s classic tale. Performed by a multiracial ensemble in a highly physical European style on a set of old, discarded mattresses

by Dennis Potter

Blue Remembered Hills

Commedia meets Beijing Opera style in a strong piece of stylised storytelling.

The Whisper Of A Leaf Falling

Multi-media exploration of the British Chinese diaspora during the 1997 Hong Kong handover back to China.

Behind the Chinese Take Away

Bittersweet rites-of-passage story following the progress of a teenager from rural Hong Kong to public school in England.

New Territories

Birmingham
Course Dates: Monday 10 July - Saturday 15 July 2023
Course Leader: Andy Yau
Location: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham Hippodrome

London
Course Dates: Monday 17 July - Friday 21 July 2023
Course Leader: Jeni Seo
Location: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Leeds
Course Dates: Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August 2023
Course Leader: Sameena Hussain
Location: Leeds Playhouse

1943 in the Forest of Dean and a gang of seven year olds, played by adult actors, act out their fears, hostilities and rivalries. 

By satirising authority, Luu Quang Vu has given this classic Vietnamese story a contemporary twist. With Vietnamese music and puppetry, the play will be brought to life in Yellow Earth’s inimitable style.

2005 is the bicentenary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, one of the world’s favourite children’s authors. Born in Odense, Denmark, Andersen wrote stories such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s New Clothes, which have charmed and delighted children and adults around the world. This exciting new version of The Nightingale offered a unique opportunity for UK and Hong Kong Asian artist, actors and Chung Ying Theatre to collaborate on this timeless classic for family audiences.

Shouson Theatre
Hong Kong Arts Centre
2 Harbour Rd
Wan Chai
Hong Kong

UK Tour Dates: September - November

Writer: Dennis Potter
Director: David Glass

Borderlands: As Above, So Below brings together extracts from Rogelio Braga’s story of two powerful transpinay mambabarang (sorceresses) living in London with material charting the rise of fascism in the Philippines and the hostile environment in Britain. Deploying the Filipino concepts of paglublob at pakikisangkot (to plunge and to engage), the evening invites a discussion – between migrants, non-migrants, and activist and labour organisations – to create a counter-language to the hostile environment.

A panel discussion will follow the performance of Borderlands: As Above, So Below.

Unbeknownst to Wei, her grandmother pushes her mother into helping the search. Affixing Wei’s dating profile onto an umbrella, they join the hundreds of parents at the Marriage Market of Guangzhou. Here there’s only one successful transaction: a first date for your child.

When Wei learns of her family’s interventions, she finds herself asking whether being single is just too much hassle.

Under the Umbrella is an IGNITE production created with support from Arts Council England under the Sustained Theatre Programme.

Running Time: Approx 120 mins (including interval)
Age Guidance: 14+
Content warning: Contains some strong language and adult themes

Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS

21 – 23 March 2019
Liverpool Unity
1 Hope Place,
Liverpool L1 9BG

26 – 30 March 2019
Tara Theatre
356 Garratt Lane,
London SW18 4ES

Rogelio Braga

Andrea Ling

Harris Albar

Amihan Hilaga

Writer: Amy Ng
Director: Justine Themen
Designer: Moi Tran
Creative Producer: Lian Wilkinson
Dramaturg: Ola Animashawun
Composer and Sound Designer: Arun Ghosh
Lighting Designer: Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson
Movement Director: Chi-San Howard
Trainee Assistant Director: Tian Brown-Sampson

Andrea Gatchalian

Production Manager: Adrian Sweeney
Company Stage Manager: Steve Cressy
Deputy Stage Manager: Alexandra Kataigida
Touring Production Manager: Chris Corner
Set built by Belgrade Production Services

Kirsten Foster

Nigel Betts

Based on an original concept by Lian Wilkinson. Under the Umbrella is an IGNITE production created with support from the Arts Council England under the Sustained Theatre programme. We are pleased to be offering Simplified Chinese subtitles for Under the Umbrella using The Difference Engine, created by Talking Birds and translated by Shihui Weng.

Past projects

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We offer a range of stand alone workshops for schools keen to introduce students to East and South East Asian culture and arts.

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We’re taking part in The Big Give Arts For Impact Campaign to raise money for our 30th Anniversary.

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New Earth Theatre
The Albany 
Douglas Way 
Deptford 
London 
SE8 4AG

+44(0) 20  8694 6631
admin@newearththeatre.org.uk

New Earth Theatre is a national touring theatre company that places British East and South East Asian artists and communities at the heart of all our work.