From the outside, The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick doesn’t look like anything special. It doesn’t even look like a theatre. Nestled among run-down warehouses, it seems more like a disused building site. But it was the neglected feel of the area that made Jay Miller, The Yard’s founder and artistic director, decide that this was the place he wanted to start his theatre.
“I kind of think it’s beautiful, the industrial-ness. It’s a relic of what Britain once looked like, the kind of beauty in that nostalgia”, he says. “Also it’s a place of profound change in East London and the rate of change is kind of ridiculous. And whenever art is made in a place that’s radically changing it tends to be exciting.”
The Yard is definitely not boring. Cobbled together from recycled and reclaimed materials, its amphitheatre-style architecture is central to Miller’s vision. At this theatre the audience aren’t just spectators; they’re members of the cast. If you want a play where you can passively sit back and soak it all in, The Yard probably isn’t for you.
For Miller, theatre is about the experience, and plays should acknowledge that an audience is present. “When you’re part of the audience at The Yard you’re enclosed by the space so that it really feels like you’re with those performers who are on stage.
“I think that in the future theatre will be more and more about its life-ness and about its impact on an audience, because that’s simply something that you can’t get in front of a screen, whether it be TV or cinema, and it’s why theatre’s better.”
Giving young artists the chance to showcase their talents
A playwright himself, Miller, 29, founded The Yard in 2011. Since then it has supported over 100 small-scale productions and welcomed more than 20,000 writers, performers and audience members. A recent graduate at the time, The Yard was born from Miller’s desire to give young artists who had never made work before the chance to showcase their talents, promoting “new ideas, new writing and the live event”.
“I wanted to start The Yard because after the financial crash there wasn’t that much opportunity for young artists and they couldn’t do their work because funding was drying up. Also because of my growing frustration I guess, and that frustration boiled over into designing The Yard.
“I was frustrated by the fact that doors were being closed because people were suffering financial hardship. It’s hard to remember during those difficult times to retain a sense of openness and a desire to explore and experiment with who we are and what our world is that we live in. I just wanted to continue that philosophy despite the financial constraints that we were suffering at the time.”
But it’s not just a small community of hipsters who have cottoned on to what The Yard is doing. Despite having been in action for less than three years, the theatre has won multiple awards, including the Dan Crawford Award for Innovation at the Empty Space Awards, named after the founder of The King’s Head Theatre in Islington, and most recently the Special Panel title in the Off West End Awards on 2 March.
In November, Miller was named in The Hospital Club 100 list alongside the likes of Helen Mirren, as one of the most innovative and influential people in the creative industries.
He cites the award, which is presented in association with The Guardian’s Culture Professionals Network, as a group achievement rather than a personal one. “It was a really nice validation of what we’ve achieved here,” he says. “Although it’s my name on the list I think it goes without saying that there have been a huge number of people who have contributed to The Yard’s success, and I think it’s important that it’s not just me who’s recognised, that it’s “The Yard”.”
He pauses. “The Yard is a place where people all come together; whether that be people who work for the organisation or play in the organisation on the stage or just kind of watch, and my job is simply to facilitate that happening.”
The Yard is currently showing a series called ‘N.O.W 14: A Kaleidoscope of Current Affairs’, a collection of work from 20 emerging artists and companies running until April 12. For more information visit www.theyardtheatre.co.uk
