Open call for Expressions of Interest here
“Since 2024, when the Board of Trustees invited us to become the temporary custodians and interim leadership team at LIFT, we have overseen a process of honest reflection and strategic thinking to prepare LIFT for its next phase of transformation.
With the expert guidance of LIFT’s board, we are proud to have led LIFT to this exciting moment, on the brink of new horizons and possibilities. LIFT’s role as an international theatre festival is to reflect the urgent and topical questions of the global moment. The world moves and changes so fast – evolution is a key ingredient of our festival making and has been almost the only constant in LIFT’s long history.
We can’t wait to see what unfolds next, and we’re thrilled to have played this role in LIFT’s journey so far. Our excellent core team – Karan Kaul, Noa Bladon, Tom Brocklehurst, and Helen Eragona have been instrumental in all we have achieved, and we can’t thank them enough.
We want to give special recognition to Karan Kaul, LIFT’s excellent Producer, whose thoughtful, diplomatic and creative approach has brought so much to this process.”
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Amaya continues:
“As the Creative Producer and then Head of Programme at LIFT since 2021, I have had the great pleasure of programming, commissioning and producing artistic works across a huge variety of disciplines and scales. It’s been a privilege to work alongside some supremely visionary and fearless artists to realize some of our most ambitious projects – building beaches in Lewisham for Sun & Sea, an unforgettable all-nighter with Ruth Wilson for The Second Woman and filling the Old Bailey with noise with Chiara Bersani for L’animale – to name a few. We could not have achieved this without the many artists, collaborators and colleagues who have contributed to these unique spectacles and the many more successes which attracted some of LIFT’s largest and most diverse audiences, something we’re all very proud of.
LIFT was founded by two visionary women in 1981, so when the Board of Trustees invited me to take on the role of Interim Artistic Director in 2024, in a joint co-leadership model, I was honored to join Jo Gooding as a temporary custodian of an organisation we both deeply believe in. Together, under the guidance of our Trustees, we have been preparing LIFT for transformation and readying the organisation for what we know will be a brilliant next chapter.”
Robin Saphra, Interim Chair of LIFT Board:
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Amaya Jeyarajah Dent and Jo Gooding for their leadership as Interim Artistic Director and Interim Executive Director during this important period of strategic review for LIFT, as well as for their contributions in their roles as Head of Programme & Producing and Head of Development. Throughout, they have each brought clarity, creativity, and unwavering commitment to the organisation. Their insight and leadership have been instrumental in laying the foundations for a bold new direction for LIFT. One which we are confident will serve audiences and artists for many more years.”