New Ideas
We are always seeking new partnerships. If you are an artist with an idea for an innovative show for children, or a company making exceptional work for young audiences, we’d love to hear from you.
We value diversity in our artistic programme and encourage contact from artists of all backgrounds.
Please email our Senior Producer, Kate Bradshaw to start a conversation.
Artist Development
We are reviewing and redeveloping our Artist Development offer – watch this space for further updates in 2024.
Polka’s current programme PolkaLAB has supported
PolkaLAB artists:
CO-PRODUCERS
We frequently work with other companies, venues and producers to create new work. This enables us to continually challenge ourselves, the way we work and the sort of work we are making but also allows us to share our knowledge of making work for our specific age range.
Please email Kate Bradshaw to start a conversation.
Recent Polka Co-Producing Partners include
Spring 2023 we co-produced ‘The Lost Spells’, adapted from the best-selling Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris book, with Goblin Theatre, Watford Palace and Theatre By The Lake.
During closure for our redevelopment, we co-produced ‘I’ll Take you to Mrs Cole’ with internationally renowned theatre company Complicité
RESEARCH
Many of our productions aim to portray and enhance how Polka reflects current child development research. Over the years we have worked with a number of academics. During our Festival of Childhood (Brainwaves 2016, Techtopia 2018) we stepped outside of our usual output to reach a wider audience and explored issues and themes that reflected on contemporary childhood, underpinned by expertise from outside of our usual circles.
Previous Academics and their work have included:
ACCESS
We are committed to removing barriers to anyone with access needs. Most areas of our building are accessible, including our rehearsal room, meeting rooms and stage.
We have an accessible dressing room and an accessible toilet backstage. Both our stages are accessible via level access and a lift.
We are continuing to work on improving our access across the building wherever possible and will always do our best to accommodate anyone who works with us. If you can’t find what you need, please ask.