Theatre Royal Stratford East

In The Guardian, Maddy Costa profiles the Theatre Royal Stratford East.

It's tempting to view the Theatre Royal as Britain's pre-eminent home to black theatre, but mention this to [Kerry] Michael's associate director, Dawn Reid, and she bristles. "We're not: we do black work, as well as Asian work, as well as everyone else. We do it not because we're told to, but because we think it's necessary. And we have a diverse audience that trusts us. Building trust takes time; it doesn't take the one-off black show for the season." What troubles Reid - particularly because she herself is black - is that such labels carry with them the potential to be overlooked. "The more I get labelled, the more I get made outcast," she says. "Why can't I go in the same pot with the mainstream?"