Anti-Racism Statement April 2023
We would like to make the following pledges to reflect our continued desire for Mikron to be actively anti-racist and by using our influence to be responsive and supportive allies of anti-racism in the society in which we live.
We will continue to action our pledges as far and as fast as we can and invite everyone to hold us to them.
We confirm our commitment to equality. We stand against racism and prejudice in order to help create a richer, more diverse and inclusive society where people’s differing needs are all recognised.
We are open to and welcome change and challenge.
As a small company we will use our size to be responsive and implement change quickly, resisting the urge to stick with the safety of what we know and are familiar with.
We won’t use our size to excuse a lack of diversity in our team or in our audiences.
We want to fill the whole potential of ‘theatre anywhere for everyone’, or at least as much as we possibly can.
This is what we’ve done so far:
• incorporated equality principles of inclusivity and relevance as core to our business plan
• appointed four new trustees to broaden the diversity of our board
• appointed an Equality Champion on our board
• created an Inclusivity and Relevance sub-committee of our board and staff
• removed financial barriers from our audition process by holding zoom auditions and paying expenses for the recalls
• widened our pool of underrepresented artists
• ensured 50% of our non-acting creative team are new to Mikron in 2023/4
• approached auditions in a more creative way by introducing an online first round and making a contribution towards recall costs to remove financial barriers for actors
This is what more we’d like to do and have started on:
• continue to help break down barriers in recruitment, casting, writing and directing
• continue to increase awareness of Mikron on the circuit and engage with more artists as our AD and MD broaden the scope of the showcases and events they attend
• continue to cast the net wider to create more opportunities for diversity on our board and in creative roles
• monitor our pledges in our board meetings
• get better at collecting and analysing audience data in relation to diversity to gain a greater understanding of barriers and how to tackle them
• increase our reach to audiences and artists with protected characteristics in a strategic and a timely way
• explore new approaches to commissioning, curation and casting
We will update this statement regularly so that everyone can see our progress.