Emma Dennis-Edwards (actor and writer)

I left drama school at the beginning of the decade, when the the best you could hope for was “colourblind” casting. Plays written by black people, for black actors, performed on main stages, were almost exclusively written by Americans, with some South African playwrights. You did have exceptions, like Bola Agbaje, coming through telling authentic stories. This year we have seen black British playwrights really make their mark. The idea of black work being a “risk” is redundant – the numbers don’t lie. Black theatre sells, and we have shown that if the work is varied, interesting and diverse, black people will come. The excuses of “risk” and “sales” that venues have tried to fob black people off with have been proven to be nonsense, and are in fact racist. The artistic director appointments have given graduate Emma from a decade ago so much hope. I’m excited.

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (actor)

Things have got better, but they were so damn bootleg before that nobody can afford to chill. Theatre-makers now seem less resistant to casting black actors in active and absorbing roles (instead of servants and best mates), but there’s still a dearth of black leads. The technical and production side of things seems quite wack, to be honest. I shouldn’t be able to count the number of black directors, designers, crew, stage management … There’s so much excellence out there, and I foresee a double boon that it deserves. Firstly, gatekeepers and audiences recognise and trust this excellence now, which should mean we can enjoy risk without any potential failure being attributed to our backgrounds. Secondly, we will tell stories challenging, subverting and enhancing the form and content, and we will do this loudly and confidently – no “tryin’ a ting” above some pub. I sincerely thank everybody I have worked with, ever. I’m so proud of our industry and humbly hope to continue until I cease to draw breath (but also: get on board with diversity and inclusion).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, right, with Adrienne Warren in Tina at the Aldwych theatre. Photograph: Manuel Harlan

Sylvia Darkwa-Ohemeng (stage manager)

Things have got better. I hope we increase in numbers, and stop becoming the minority backstage. I hope that black British people recognise working backstage as a legitimate career, and you can make a living. We should workshop it more to schools so people of colour know the career prospects exist. However, I believe this is slowly growing as black British people are producing more. That becomes a domino effect, where they try to seek a POC backstage team. Some amazing, thought-provoking, heartfelt work is being created. Plays I have worked on like Half Breed, Barber Shop Chronicles, Nine Night and Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner all have their own powerful messages. I feel that they are timeless and relevant to this era, and our generation.

Tobi Kyeremateng (producer and founder of Black Ticket Project)

Black producers deserve better development opportunities to support other black makers to create authentic work. I see us moving and shape-shifting the sector massively. I’ve seen black producers move into executive roles, applying for artistic director roles, leading participation departments and becoming associates. I set up Black Ticket Project because I was really tired of the laziness around bringing in new audiences, especially in the midst of conversations around “diversity” – as if venues felt they had completed their due diligence by programming black artists, even if their audience remained really white. This was matched with a frustration of the way black working-class young people are treated by the sector as statistics and participants and not as the next generation of cultural creators. Who will pass on the legacy of theatre-going once our current, loyal audiences are gone? Black Ticket Project is not a revolutionary thing. It’s really simple. Organisations with much more infrastructure and resource than me could’ve done it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Winsome Pinnock. Photograph: Bronwen Sharp

Winsome Pinnock (writer)

It can seem as though there is a lot of black theatre around, but when you take a closer look there is far less from black British authors. I have been following the work of a particular London theatre for a long time, but to my knowledge they haven’t produced the work of a single black British writer in the last decade. I have seen some great plays by African Americans there but never a black British writer.

People have started to write historical plays – of which there are very few by black British playwrights. There are so many untold histories so I would see this becoming a trend over the next decade. I hope that stories about the black British experience will be written by writers who have experienced it and not be appropriated. How are black British writers to gain experience and skill if they are not given the opportunity to tell their own stories? There have been a couple of incidents in the last decade where the black writing community has been hit by being excluded from telling their own stories. I would like to see the continued revival of black British classics by writers such as Una Marson, Barry Reckord, Edgar White, Mustapha Matura … All these writers have sadly passed away and won’t answer back if a bright new director decides to do something surprising and wonderful with their plays.

Justin Audibert (artistic director of the Unicorn theatre)

The optimist in me would say that the last decade has seen black voices move from the margins to the mainstream of British theatre. We now have black writers and directors regularly working on stages in our national theatres, our international festivals and in regional theatres up and down the country. I have no doubt that the new swathe of artistic directors, my contemporaries such as Lynette Linton, Roy Alexander Weise and Matthew Xia, will continue to push the boundaries in ensuring that everyone is represented in the work that is made.

It must be said – or shouted from the rooftops – that all of this progress runs the risk of being stymied or reversed because of the continuing backdrop of financial austerity. I worry that boards will appoint artistic directors who programme in more conventional and “risk averse” ways. We need funding to take risks. We need to take risks to keep evolving the artform. And we need to keep evolving the artform to keep challenging, exciting and growing our audiences.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones. Photograph: Helen Murray

Jasmine Lee-Jones (writer)

It’s been a very exciting, earth-shaking year and I feel very privileged to have been a part of it. A couple of weeks ago Jane Fallowfield, the literary manager at the Royal Court, alluded to a new wave of writers who seem to be critiquing the establishment and traditional structures, while drawing inspiration from and paying homage to the artists who have come before them. I love the idea that we are drawing on past, present and maybe even the future to make our art. Every black British theatrical voice I hear when I go to the theatre feels so deeply rooted in authenticity. I think the most beautiful thing to observe is that it doesn’t feel like we’re explaining ourselves to people that don’t understand or haven’t attempted to make the imaginative leap to understand.

Attention must be paid to expanding our definition of what black Britishness and – therefore black British theatre – can be. That means making space for LGBTQI+ and disabled voices in our digital and physical spaces. I saw Travis Alabanza’s Burgerz recently last week and was spellbound by the excellence and execution and the necessity of that story being told now. I’m so excited by the inclusion of a plethora of experiences and stories being told within the black British theatre landscape.

Looking back in history too many of our predecessors have been ousted out of their rightful place and recognition because of the failure of traditional structures to keep a record of their achievements. When we archive not only can we educate, but we can also recognise the ground we are standing on is firm.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lucian Msamati in Amadeus at the National Theatre. Photograph: Marc Brenner

Lucian Msamati (actor and former artistic director of Tiata Fahodzi)

The value, vitality and necessity of Tiata Fahodzi, Talawa, and the black theatre companies that came before them must not be underestimated for nurturing and giving a platform to black British theatre artists. All of us have benefited from the existence of these companies and the artists who founded and continue to run them. We’re now in a place where we have high-profile artists of colour heading major venues: Indhu Rubasingham at the Kiln, Kwame Kwei-Armah at the Young Vic, Roy Alexander Weise at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. Now is the time to be creatively bold. Anyone can make a bold political statement or choice. Making genuinely bold creative choices is a far trickier prospect.

I am arguably a “poster boy” for black British theatrical success. Make no mistake: I didn’t “luck out” or “win the lottery” – it’s been hard earned and hard fought. One cannot argue with the success of the National Theatre’s Amadeus – but that doesn’t take into account the letters of complaint, online abuse, and downright vitriol directed towards me personally and the National as an organisation. The same can be said of me playing Iago at the RSC. Let’s make no bones here, all of the nay-saying when it comes down to it is purely because I am a black man. The colour of my skin. No account is taken of ability, of experience, of taste, of artistry, of preference, and yet I played those parts to commercial and critical acclaim. Theatregoers voted with their feet and their pockets. The real issue is that this country, culture and society has not yet fully dealt with race and empire. For me it isn’t about revisionism; it’s about consistent, prickly, horrible, uncomfortable, robust conversations. To sum it all up: the day I am no longer referred to as “black British-Tanzanian-Zimbabwean actor” will be the day that the change is complete. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.