Lyric Hammersmith Announce Line Up For Evolution Festival 2019

The Lyric Hammersmith will be bringing its Evolution festival back for a fourth year. Evolution showcases artists aged 18-25, celebrating the ground-breaking and exciting work being produced by young people in the capital. The multi-art form festival will run from Friday 1 March - Wednesday 13 March 2019.

This year, Evolution puts women in the spotlight and invites them to be bold, to be loud and to take up space, under the theme 'Who Run the World?'. The festival will be packed with activity led by the next generation of female artists with performances, scratches, workshops and networking opportunities. Evolution creates a safe and creative space for artists to share their work, represents the diverse and multi-cultural talent in London and allows artists to connect with a wider audience.

The festival features several projects developed by the Lyric including three shows Memories, Feels and Petroleuse; panel discussion I'm Not Bossy I'm The Boss; and scratch performances including 1381 by the Lyric Ensemble and Maybe She's Born With It. This year the festival welcomes Clean Break's young artists group, who present their production Belong, and The Performance Lab, whose Cut The Bakwaas offers a platform for artists to address the lack of representation of British Asians in arts and culture.

Evolution gives a platform to young artists currently underrepresented in the arts. In 2018 Evolution showcased 137 artists and performers between the ages 18-25. 60 artists were from BAME backgrounds and 88 of artists were female. Artists from last year's Evolution have gone on to create shows at the Lyric, the Vaults, the Bunker Theatre and the Young Vic.

The Lyric Hammersmith is also delighted to have been selected as the recipient organisation for the newly established Bill Cashmore Award which has been set up in Bill's memory by his family and friends to support an emerging artist. The annual award will provide £10,000 per year over the next 3 years to support the professional development of a young artist and the rehearsal and development of a 'scratch' idea into a show to headline future Evolution festivals from 2020.

The Award will be supporting not just the lead artist, but all the young artists, creatives and technicians involved in the production.

Following the success of the 2018 Lyric Ensemble, whose show Abandon sold out its run, received critical acclaim and saw Kate Marlais nominated for a 2018 Stage Debut Award for Best Composer or Lyricist, the 2019 Lyric Ensemble show is announced for 19 - 29 June. Tickets go on sale today.

The Lyric Ensemble is a group of 15 actors aged 18 - 25 who haven't previously accessed formal training, working and training two nights a week over nine months with under the leadership of the Lyric Ensemble's Director, Holly Race Roughan; the Lyric's Director of Young People Nicholai La Barrie and the Lyric's Artistic Associates. Over the nine months they work together to create a show, which they will perform in June 2019 following scratch performances as part of Evolution in March.

The Director for the 2019 Lyric Ensemble is Holly Race Roughan, currently Associate Director for arts in prison charity KESTREL. Holly was also the associate director for People, Places & Things (National Theatre and West End) and has worked as a director for many theatres and theatre companies across the UK, including the Royal Exchange Manchester and Gate Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and Theatre 503 in London.

The 2019 Lyric Ensemble includes: Johnson Adebayo, Bashie Baptiste, Wesley Bozonga, Ella Dacres, Marvell Fayosa, Kane Feagan, Niamh Granville, Savas Hutchinson-Fuat, Gavin Joseph, Ele Mc Kenzie, Roseanna Musgrove, Priyanka Patel, Danielle Tama, Kamram Vahabi and Joseph Vaiana.