Anti-Racism Statement

Metta aims to reflect the diversity of the voices, artists and audiences we serve. A truly diverse organisation must be diverse from the top down.

Celebrating diversity through our work is important but it isn't enough and we must do more. We’ve been listening and learning - dismantling systemic inequality is something we are all responsible for. We need to do better at listening to diverse voices and acting on what we hear. As a white led organisation we must do better at listening to black voices and understanding how to best act on what we hear, to galvanise and sustain an anti-racist culture inside and outside of our organisation.

ACTIONS

• Committing to increasing the diversity of the board within the next six months, including but not limited to black people.

• Interrogating our recruitment processes for all organisational roles and creating more opportunities for entry into our organisation and the wider industry.

• Annual anti-racist training for Trustees and all staff.

• Challenging racism wherever we meet it - with venue partners and other organisations, within our audiences and within ourselves. 

• Offering free mentoring to black and brown colleagues, especially around support with funding applications and pitching work, in the knowledge that our funding ecology currently reinforces the structural inequalities of wider society in terms of expectations about how language is used. 

• Interrogating how to better reach and serve diverse audiences and participants. 

• Recommitting to casting 50% performers of colour in our work, and working harder to make sure our creative teams and production staff similarly reflect the diversity of our performers.

• Recommitting to an intersectional approach, working with female artists, disabled artists, transgender artists, working class artists and anyone else who is underrepresented in our industry and our audiences. And remaining aware of and challenging how these intersectional processes create additional barriers for those collaborators.  

Commitment to diversity is a founding principle of Metta. We believe that everyone, regardless of their background, should be able to access bold, innovative and intelligent theatre and should be able to see themselves and their experiences reflected on our stages.

Anti-Ableism Statement

We believe that everyone, regardless of their background, should be able to access bold, innovative and intelligent theatre and should be able to see themselves and their experiences reflected on our stages. We continue to support anti-ableism by working to counteract disability erasure in our theatre spaces, challenging ableism when we see it, and creating more opportunities for entry into our organisation and the wider industry.

We follow and support the UK Disability Arts Alliance’s The Seven Inclusive Principles in how to best work with and support disabled people in the arts. We recognize that we still have work to do to offer truly diverse performances made up of a diverse production staff, creative team, and the actors on stage. So both to continue supporting the disabled community as best we can and to embed anti-ableism throughout our work we commit to:

• Providing for each full staged Metta production a minimum of 2 BSL interpreted performances (for BSL using deaf audiences) and where possible captioning for non-signing deaf audiences, 1 audio described performance (for blind and visually impaired audiences), 2 relaxed performances and accompanying support/info packs (for audiences with autism, learning disabilities, or sensory or communication disorders) 

• offering free companion tickets 

• Developing work featuring D/deaf, disabled, or neurodivergent characters, based on their own lived experiences. 

• Casting at least 20% D/deaf, disabled, or neurodivergent performers for each main production, and ensuring a similar balance in creative teams.

• Maintaining an intersectional approach by working with artists of all kinds; including, but not limited to, transgender artists, those from working class backgrounds, and those from the global majority.

Gender Equality Statement

We promote gender equality and freedom of expression, and ensure that everyone we collaborate with receives the same meaningful involvement and opportunities, irrespective of gender identity. 

It’s fundamental to our purpose to communicate powerful experiences that reflect the lives of the people that see and create our work, celebrating all gender identities in our audiences, actors, and creative teams. We strive to embody the definition of ‘metta’, devoting compassion and kindness in and through our work and those it may touch, and aiming to bring happiness to as many as we can. 

Aside from Committing to gender parity in our casting we also commit to the following actions:

• Always casting non-binary/trans/gender queer actors in non-binary/trans/gender queer roles

• Creating a diversely gendered company beyond casting 

• Developing work that reflects the authentic lived experience of non-binary and trans people.

• Maintaining an avowedly feminist agenda in the stories we tell and the way that we cast them, and ensuring that our work and working practices continue to challenge and dismantle the patriarchy.

• Maintaining an inclusive and safe atmosphere on stage and off for everyone we work with.