A new year is an exciting time – you can look ahead and reflect on the year past. I’ve been AD at Attic for a year now and what are my new years resolutions?

The first has got to be to make ourselves indispensable to our local community. In many ways we already are – our participation work, particularly with older people and young migrants and refugees is a life line to these often marginalised groups. Where I think we have a big space for development is in the shows we put on. I was incredibly proud of my first show with the company – The Death of Ivan Ilyich – in Merton Arts Space in the back of Wimbledon library. The show was a success – both artistically and from a business point of view.

What has come across loud and clear is that our first and foremost duty is to our local area. This is the most remarkable thing about Attic as a company. We are based above the library in Mitcham and, through our massive participation programme, are deeply embedded in our local community. Our shows have also had a local focus Fields Unsown and summer Shakespeare at Morden Hall Park, Great Expectations opening the Merton Arts Space at Wimbledon library, and our most recent show The Death of Ivan Ilyich popping up across the borough. Over the years we’ve tried lots of different ways of being relevant locally, but it seems to me that the only way to authentically achieve this is to make our work present and truly accessible to as many people as possible. In a sense Ivan was straddling two models – a venue focused and a community touring model and perhaps achieved the former more fully than the later.