Venue focus: Lyric Theatre Belfast

Not for nothing did the Lyric Theatre, Belfast – once described in the Irish Times as ‘a cultural bridge in a divided city’ – receive the UK Theatre Award's excellence in arts education commendation in 2022. With no full-time actor training available in Northern Ireland, the Lyric's Drama Studio, led by Philip Crawford for the past three decades, has provided much-needed opportunities for young people to decide if they wish to pursue a career in the performing arts.

‘It's something we pride ourselves on,’ says Erin Hoey, who took over from Crawford earlier this year as the Lyric's head of creative learning, although he has stayed on in a freelance capacity as director of the Drama Studio. ‘We hope the young people who come to the Drama Studio will get an idea what it's like to train, then, at the end of the course, if they decide that's what they want to do, we'll support them with audition prep. Equally, if they decide this isn't for them, that's a win too because they won't have spent thousands of pounds on a course at one of the big drama schools to reach the same conclusion.’