pvp’s 10 year roadmap

We are

scrupulously principled, proudly nimble,
and commercially & artistically ambitious

A woman with blonde hair wearing a brown trench coat singing with emotion on stage, holding a yellow cloth, with a young man sitting in the background against a wall with kitchen shelves.

PVP aims to become a leading force in producing and managing theatrical work with integrity, driven by a commitment to people as much as to profit. It should be innovating to make excellent shows with a 21st century mindset; performances that are of great worth to artists, investors and audience members alike.

This roadmap is a 10-year plan for the future - a combination of descriptors of where we are and goals of where we want to be. It is revisited, reviewed and revised each autumn, beginning with its launch in 2025.

The principles in the roadmap aren’t unique to us, but putting them out in public is designed to be planting a flag in the ground of what we stand for.

Paul also runs through the roadmap and its themes from time to time on Substack, which you can read here.

This is also an invitation to hold PVP accountable. Tell us when we aren’t on-track; celebrate with us when we hit a milestone. If they inspire something in your own practice, let us know. You can’t make theatre in a vacuum, it’s collaborative by its very nature, so any success we have is success for every single person we engage with.

Finally, every word of this relies on investment - if any of this is going to become a reality then we need people willing to stake their money on it too. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can read more here.

We are…

  • Scrupulously Principled

    We treat people as human beings and not as cogs in a machine, engaging meaningfully with workers, audiences and investors in a way that treats each individual as a key contributor, and never reduces them to their perceived financial value.

    We prioritise the least enfranchised, whether you can only afford a £10 ticket or you’re just learning the ropes.

    We are committed to working towards a thriving wage for everyone, not just those with the best unions or profiles.

    We more equitably divide the proceeds of successful projects while also rewarding the risk individuals make to get the work on.

    We treat HR as a forethought, not an afterthought, with a firm commitment to safe, inclusive working environments.

    We are focused on diversifying the class background of staff and audiences.

    We pay attention to who our collaborators are, weighing up carefully where we take money from and who we choose to platform.

    Our focus is on human art; we do not engage with work created by artificial intelligence.

  • Proudly Nimble

    We capitalise on our background in subsidised and commercial, large-scale and small-scale, site-specific and site-indifferent, high budget and no budget work to treat every project as its own enterprise.

    We always remain liberated from any creeping sense of status quo: “this is how it’s done” is never a good enough reason.

    We adapt to each project’s goals and don’t force them to fit a predefined mould that doesn’t make creative or business sense.

    We utilise learnings equally and without prejudice of profit or prestige: leveraging the ingenuity of smaller projects and the commitment to excellence of larger work in tandem.

    We adapt and refine every step of the way - when it doesn’t go as planned, when it goes better than expected, when it takes longer than anticipated to happen.

    We aren’t tied down to a single genre, scale or realm of work, our only shackle is creating the highest quality experience for workers, investors and audiences alike.

  • Commercially & Artistically Ambitious

    We would rather try and stumble than never press ‘go’.

    We learn from work that challenges ‘traditional’ models, collaborate with venues on novel ways to present theatre innovatively, and love to reimagine projects that have been written off as ‘tricky’, ‘unpopular’ or ‘failed’.

    Every project we take on should have a multi-year plan, never tied down to one specific path.

    We explore new routes for funding and leverage investors’ expertise by involving them in the process.

    We build on the talents of every person involved in the show’s journey, no matter their prior experience, and invite input from everyone.

    We’re transparent about where the money goes and why.

    We recognise that commercial, ethical and artistic success are not at odds with each other but instead work in harmony to create profitable, exciting work that delights audiences who want to return again and again and again.