To uplift and enrich the nation’s cultural life

To establish the voices, stories and creativity of BESEA artists as an integral part of British society.

• We develop and produce high quality work that asks key questions of identity, culture and heritage, of the world we live in and our place in that world.
• We challenge perceptions around, provoke conversations about and promote understanding of the BESEA experience.
• We create new pathways and opportunities for BESEA artists on and off stage – with a particular focus for those outside of London, to engage, participate and grow their creativity and skills.

We celebrate and champion the work of our artists and communities

The company was renamed New Earth Theatre in 2020 to signal new beginnings, new growth and new possibilities. We adopt the following values to guide us on that journey.

• We place BESEA artists and communities at the heart of everything we do
• We believe to work in a collaborative way is to engage at the deepest level
• We work to create an open, safe and accessible working space with care and respect
• We place integrity and excellence as cornerstones of our work
• We listen, innovate and adapt to a changing world

We use the term BESEA to mean anyone from the following countries and their diasporas who live and work in Britain.

These countries make up an area that is known as East and South East Asia;
Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, North Korea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.

Everyone self identifies in their own way and that identity is not necessarily fixed. We currently use the term BESEA so that we can have collective power when making our case for the many artists from communities that continue to be severely underrepresented in our theatre industry.