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The Lyric is a hotbed of artistic experimentation, offering performing artists a creation space with opportunities to take risks, make and show work, and for the local community to get involved with high quality participation.

We are a hub for creatives, offering artist residencies, rehearsal space and mentoring, plus artist masterclasses for professional and community participants to learn or develop skills, take risks and co-create. Alongside this we present an occasional performance programme of work-in-development and more fully fledged productions.

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What’s behind those magnificent doors?

What's Behind The Lyric's doors

Firstly – thank you for your support during the pandemic. Your encouragement for all our outreach projects over the last 2 years has been heart-warming and helped us know we are valued and what we do makes a difference.

As you know, arts and culture had to shut and is by no means back on its feet.  

Creativity is at the core of so much – design, music, TV, film, live shows, architecture, fashion and so much more! Because we are passionate about the creative process and what it brings to our lives, throughout Covid and since then we have been spending our time:

  • Mentoring and encouraging young people
  • Providing support, rehearsal space and mentoring for professional creatives to continue to work during this difficult time. 
  • Lobbying MPs and the sector to support freelance creatives
  • Supported training: some have needed to keep their skills drilled – singers, pianists, trumpet players, dancers, aerialists, acrobats and actors, film makers – all dedicated artists using the building to keep going in some way and to create new works, whether to live stream or be ready for re-opening or touring when the work eventually will come back.

But… right now, few artists can tour, find funding, fully commit without other jobs, get funding to create shows, or find enough auditions to go to, as many film, TV and theatre jobs have not yet come fully back.  

We will be presenting some occasional live shows at the Lyric over the coming months, but because of the industry being still so fragile, we will be treading lightly to present what we feel reflects this slower emerging. The Lyric has always been led by artists creating for audiences, rather than putting on shows simply to entertain – for us it must be a two-way street. Without the creative artists, we have no industry. 

So please know that if you see the Lyric door shut, we are most probably in here and the building is used meaningfully and nearly every day! Our resident company Stuff and Nonsense are creating new shows, and we are an essential hub and home to many.  

We don’t have a café at the moment – BearKat decided to close during the pandemic, but again, keep your eye on us as things will still happen.

Lastly – when you see we do have an event on, please do support us and those that are onstage performing by buying a ticket and even better buying a ticket and turning up with it! We run on a shoestring, with volunteers at our heart with only very limited team members working on keeping it all going – it is hard! Hard but we are still here and intend to grow!

If live shows aren’t for you yet, no problem. Go to our Support Us tab and drop us a donation! We will love you for it and will know you love The Lyric. Because our staffing costs are so low, you can be reassured that any donation goes towards meaningful activity and furthering our mission to be a creative beating heart for Dorset and beyond.

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