WHAT WE DO

 

Tonic supports theatre and the arts to achieve greater gender equality, diversity and inclusion. Since 2011 we have been driving tangible change across theatre and the wider performing arts and creative industries. Through a range of programmes, resources, training, tools and events Tonic has demonstrated that meaningful sustained change can happen. The uniqueness and effectiveness of our approach have led to our services being utilised by a broad spectrum of organisations across the UK and beyond.

OUR APPROACH

 

Tonic’s approach involves getting to grips with the principles that lie beneath how our industries functions – our working methods, decision-making processes, and organisational structures – and identifying how, in their current form, these can create barriers. Once we have done that, we devise practical yet imaginative alternative approaches and work with our partners to trial and deliver them. In addition to our work with organisations, we empower individuals to drive change within their own contexts and deliver ambitious cross-sectoral initiatives.

Our Work

Our Recent Partners

WE ARE PROUD TO BE AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF CHANGE-MAKING IN THE CULTURAL SECTOR


what we do

We Support Organisations

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We Empower Individuals

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We Drive Change Across the Sector

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We Support Organisations to Change

We offer performing arts and cultural organisations the practical support and guidance they need to move from where they are now to where they want to be

Training

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Consultancy

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Toolkits and resources

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We Empower Individuals

At Tonic our philosophy is that everyone can be part of making change happen

Tonic Awards

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Tonic Events

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Empowering Young People

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We Drive Change Across the Sector

Tonic is the catalyst for change that is broad, deep, and long-lasting

Advance

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Advocacy

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  • “One of the most empowering and significant exercises in looking at equality that I have experienced”
    Erica Whyman, Royal Shakespeare Company Deputy Artistic Director on Tonic's Advance
  • “Platform feels like something that could genuinely change the world. I was desperate for the opportunity to be a part of such a logical, practical and hopeful artistic project that can so clearly and directly impact not solely on gender-equality on stage, but equality worldwide.”
    Playwright Joel Horwood, whose play This Changes Everything is part of the Platform series
  • “I just wanted to say a massive thank you for Tonic’s Platform plays. As a youth theatre of over 300, we constantly come up against the gender issue, and it is really refreshing to have plays that cater for mostly female casts, especially ones that are good. And they really are.”
    Kate Plumb, Youth Theatre Director, York Theatre Royal
  • “essential… impressive scope and sweep… exhilarating. With luck, theatres will take note and playwrights will be inspired.”
    Times Literary Supplement on 100 Great Plays for Women
  • “A gem of a book… Lucy Kerbel has done hard-working directors and artistic directors, of spaces large and small, a great service.”
    Kate Mosse, from her foreword to 100 Great Plays for Women
  • “Lucy Kerbel’s work has become increasingly pivotal in helping the entire industry raise its game… this illuminating book answers the cynic, informs the impartial, converts the supporter into an activist and equips them all; not in a rallying cry of anger-fuelled idealism, but in a calm, pragmatic and clear-eyed way.”
    Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre from his foreword to All Change Please
  • “Deep gratitude. Excellent event, outstanding speakers and masses of practical examples not theory.”
    Attendee, Tonic Advance Network event
  • “It was really insightful and backed up by easy to understand examples. A good amount of personal reflection and group discussion.”
    Participant, Unconscious Bias training session
  • “I can’t tell you how wonderful I thought your awards were. So refreshing and inspiring- I genuinely left feeling more like a member of a community than I’ve ever felt in the theatre before- ever!”
    Guest at the Tonic Awards
  • “That was an extraordinary evening.  Everyone I spoke to was trying, as was I, to articulate why and how it felt so beautiful and important and grounded and true.”
    Guest at the Tonic Awards
  • “After the Empower sessions I feel I have gained the tools to navigate my way through difficult situations in the industry. Being able to communicate assertively and stand by my morals is absolutely necessary practice not just for work, but life.”
    Third-year Acting student, after participating in Empower
  • “I think this was really useful for us all to take stock and look at the way we teach and how that can affect the students not only whilst in our lessons but also for the rest of their lives.”
    Drama school tutor, after particpating in Empower

Who We Are

Meet the Team

Trustees

Tonic Trustees

Tonic’s Trustees are Craig Bennett, Moira Buffini, Eleanor Lang, Sita McIntosh (Chair), Sabina Mohideen, Mee-Ling Skeffington and Kirsty Starkey.

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Lucy Kerbel

Director

Prior to founding Tonic, Lucy was an award-winning theatre director. It was while directing around the UK that Lucy became interested in the question of gender equality in theatre. She recognised the industry would need better support if it were to achieve greater gender balance in its workforces and repertoires and so in 2011 she founded Tonic to go some way towards achieving this.

She now heads Tonic’s work across theatre, the performing arts and wider creative industries.

Lucy is the author of two books: 100 Great Plays for Women and All Change Please – A Practical Guide to Achieving Gender Equality in Theatre, both published by Nick Hern Books. She is a regular speaker on women in the arts and is on the board of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for women playwrights.

Helen Marriage

Commercial Manager

Helen’s first job in theatre was in the marketing department at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Since then she has enjoyed a varied career in both theatre and publishing, working for some of the UK’s leading publishers across marketing, publicity and sales.

Helen thrives in creative environments with an inspiring mission at their core.

Vicky Long

Tonic Associate

Vicky is a consultant and producer, working across the arts. She tends to be involved in projects that aim at some kind of cultural shift. She has extensive experience of working with artists and arts organisations on the subject of climate change.

Other projects have focused on people and place, together with processes of cultural and environmental transformation. Over recent years she has worked with the Eden Project, Open University, Sheffield University, Ashden Trust, BBC, Siobhan Davies Dance, Southbank Centre, Forma and What Next?

Vicky also works as a facilitator, looking with clients within and beyond the cultural sector at matters of organisational change.

CONTACT

General Enquiries
info@tonictheatre.co.uk

Lucy Kerbel, Director
lucy@tonictheatre.co.uk

Helen Marriage, Commercial Manager
helen@tonictheatre.co.uk

Tonic Theatre
c/o National Theatre,
Upper Ground, South Bank
London, SE1 9PX

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