Date of Interview: 24 July 2025
Interviewer: Caleb Lee
Interviewee: Lian Wilkinson
CALEB LEE
Could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with New Earth?
LIAN WILKINSON
So hi everyone. I am Lian Wilkinson and I say that I have known New Earth Theatre since autumn 2017 I think. So I was at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry at the time and was working on a show involved very much in the very beginnings of working on the show called Under the Umbrella, and was recommended that I spoke to Yellow Earth Theatre at the time because Under the Umbrella was about the marriage markets of China.
And Yellow Earth Theatre was the prominent East and Southeast Asian Company, and it made sense to ask Kumiko for recommendations of writers or creatives who could be interested in the show, but also get a sense of what is the landscape out there. Because I was still in and about my early career at the time, and that was a really fruitful discussion with Kumiko, and we ended up becoming co-producers, Yellow Earth Theatre and Belgrade Theatre Coventry.
When we toured the show in 2019, in March, and that was around the time that they were looking for an executive producer, I applied and started working for them in July 2019, and I’ve been there since. Firstly as an executive producer and then going on to be the executive director from 2024.
CALEB LEE
And what first drew you to the company, or do you think that it was just a kind of natural connection that you have with Kumiko?
LIAN WILKINSON
I think their identity and their USP was very unique, particularly when I met them in 2017. Firstly being one of very few NPOs, which is specifically for East and Southeast Asians, but also the scope of work that they were putting on.
So having their academies, having their productions, having schools workshops and James Robson at the Cutty Sark. So that felt like an interesting fit to me in terms of understanding that there was a community in theatre. I think what was more prominent at the time, and even though up to an extent I’d say is when we talked about diversity, there was a lot of black faces and brown faces, and there wasn’t an East Asian Southeast Asian presence that was keenly felt in the media or even in the regional speak, as it were.
So me being in Coventry, we had a black youth theatre, for example, and an Asian youth theatre, and I didn’t see East Asian, Southeast Asian particularly represented as well. And that was partly the impact that I had in that area, it was very much trying to kind of explore that. And what can the show that I was creating do to a difference, really, in terms of audience engagement, in terms of participant engagement and understanding how do you work with a community that hasn’t otherwise been served by the Belgrade Theatre at the time? And I guess that was something which was new to me. I hadn’t really thought about my own identity as a British East Asian. I’d certainly thought about it in terms of coming into a career as someone who is diverse, but particularly pinpointing my culture and really exploring that felt still quite separate to my work.
And so what New Earth Theatre really did for me was very much allowing my own kind of exploration of identity, being part of my work and part of my creative expression. So that felt like a really exciting kind of side to really reveal myself. And the excitement kind of built into applying for the job. And yeah, being grateful that I did get it.
CALEB LEE
From your perspective, how do you think the company has evolved over the years? I mean, you mentioned Yellow Earth Theatre, and now it’s become New Earth Theatre. could you share a little bit about that journey from your perspective?
LIAN WILKINSON
Yeah, I guess working with the company, I definitely have a sense of their journey right from the beginning.
We’ve said probably multiple times in various guises that the company was founded by five actors who did not see themselves being cast in the leading roles, did not see themselves on stage in the roles that they wanted. And so being able to create a company and having that confidence really, or that tenacity to create a company in order to make those roles for themselves and for others was groundbreaking at the time.
And I’d say we’re coming from a place that was very actor driven and very much changing the landscape of what we see on stage. That remit has certainly been expanded on over the years. I think with Kumiko taking over in 2011, there’s certainly an interest in education and training so that the next generation is uniquely served. And that ethos has really been nurtured over the years.
So the existence of the academies as they are right now has been such a journey and a privilege really, to be facilitating. So the first academy was in 2010, and it was one academy in London, and very much a way for BESEAs to get an experience of drama school and what we’ve got now, 8,9 academies all across the UK and in all disciplines.
So not only acting, but theatre making and so devising in general. We have had backstage skills Offstage Academy, we call it. And again, that itself has been both on the designing funds in 2021 to the actual engineering front, as it were, operating the sound desks and lighting boards and so forth. And that has been made possible by our partners at The New Vic in Stoke on Trent.
And we also have writing as well. So that’s come about in multiple forms. We’ve had Yellow Ink as it was called some years ago, but we then called it The Writer’s Academy in 2020 onwards. But we then also have our Professional Writer’s Programme, which is that step up from the academies where we had four writers in 2017 to 2019, and then 17 writers from 2020 to 2022, of which four got to make co-commissions with us.
So there’s definitely been much more focus on that talent development strands. And I think the growth as well of the shows that we’ve been making kind of reflects that, going from shows that felt quite pastiche is the wrong word, I guess, but I feel shows that still has a Western lens in some ways, to show that where we can explore the nuance and understand what that nuance is, it’s by no means being perfect.
Being able to explore that with other BESEAs has been a great journey to go on.
CALEB LEE
In your time in New Earth Theatre, are there any specific productions or initiatives that you feel particularly proud of?
LIAN WILKINSON
Offstage Academy, I have been speaking about it, is something which I feel particularly proud of. For me, coming from a background that had started in technical theatre. So stage management being my first port of call, and having been a technician in a venue.
It started in 2021, I believe, and that was still in the times of Covid, so we had an online version of Offstage Academy where we focused on lighting design, sound design, set design, very much the design aspects of it plus some prop making and some producing thrown in as well.
But the true unlocking of that key was getting a venue that was as committed and excited about developing the talents as we were, and so being able to have a hands-on academy felt like a massive boon, really, for our Academy strands. I think production wise, I’m going to be very biased and say Under the Umbrella. I think mainly as a creative producer that was the show that came from my heart and was a joy to see develop through the R&D process to production. And it was the first time working with New Earth Theatre as well. So that felt particularly special. And working with the writer Amy Ng, who is part of the professional programme at the time, was really exciting to see how her brain works with my seed of an idea and going from skeleton to creating these characters in Wei and Lucy.
Yeah, I think it has stuck with me for a while. And we’d documented it as you do for an archive. And as Covid hits, we then released that recording for a week, and being able to see that again was truly special.
CALEB LEE
I just want to tease out a little point you mentioned about the pandemic, and let us think about the challenges of the companies over the years. And I’m just wondering if you could share a little bit about how New Earth Theatre responded to key moments of change, for example, difficult conversations around representation and diversity?
LIAN WILKINSON
I think there have been some key points in New Earth’s time. Challenges as well as opportunities. I’d hasten to add. I’d say some of the key moments of representation have been, for example, in 2012 with the Orphan of Zhao at the RSC that felt like a key movement that New Earth was a part of alongside other BESEA artists to really fight for our representation.
It felt like a repeat in many ways in 2017, there was another production at The Fincham that also failed in many ways to hire BESEA actors and understanding that there are actors here and we should be paying attention to them. I think COVID’s hit all of us. I was working for New Earth Theatre for six months before it truly hit, as the lockdown came about. So I had a good six months part time of understanding what my role was, what senior management was, what running the company was, and suddenly that was, well, a good portion of that was then out of the window to then understand what this new normal was. What we thought was going to be a few months, which turned into years and we’re still feeling the repercussions in many ways.
And I think the opportunities in terms of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the focus on China, we definitely felt that in terms of engagements, particularly schools engagements, there were calls for companies like us to be showcasing culture, work and creativity around that time.
So we ended up working a lot with Esquire Schools to create Mandarin Through Drama, and I think definitely the Arts Council and arts funding in general has given us opportunities and challenges throughout the years. So again, in the early 2010s where we lost our regular funding, that was a turning point for the company. In order to reassess how we create work, how we’ve been reinventing ourselves.
And one of the first shows since then was Dim Sum Nights, where we had bite sized theatre acts at Chinese restaurants, and people were eating dim sum whilst feasting on stories, as it were. And what was intriguing is how it wasn’t used as an influence but it felt like a nice coming home when we then did Sonic Pho in 2022, which is an audio dining experience that centres around a bowl of Pho. And so the idea of coming together with foods has definitely been the signature trend in the years.
CALEB LEE
We are down to our last question. What excites you most about the future of New Earth Theatre?
LIAN WILKINSON
I think what’s exciting is that we’re always building on an even stronger base, so having the 30 years of work means that the number of actors from the BESEA community are getting stronger, and getting more connected really.
And so having that community to then create shows that can be larger. So having a company that has been focused on small to midscale touring, to then going on to consistent midscale feels exciting, especially under Ailin Conant who came from My Neighbour Totoro, and having had that experience of large scale theatre feels like something to bring to New Earth.
And from that comes new ideas. And actually what IP is out there that we could be exploring and understanding how that main scale theatre can really include us, which it hasn’t to up to a point.