By: Ibukun Keyamo
Most theatre companies begin with a building, a funding body, or an established name behind them. Lion & Swan Productions began with none of those things. Jack Yearsley founded the London-based company in early 2026 with an MA from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a performance background spanning two continents, and a clear idea of what kind of work he wanted to make. That, he decided, was enough to start.
Yearsley grew up in Hawaii, where storytelling is embedded in cultural life in ways that most performing arts training programs never fully account for. He carried that background with him when he left the Pacific for the United States and eventually for London, where he enrolled in RADA’s MA Theatre Lab, a four-term postgraduate program that trains performers as creative leaders capable of developing and producing original work. Graduating from that program is what set the founding of Lion & Swan Productions in motion.
“I did not want to wait for someone to hand me an opportunity,” Yearsley said. “Building this company was about taking ownership of the work and the direction of my career from the beginning.”
Three Pillars, One Vision
Lion & Swan Productions operates across three areas. Production sits at the center, with Yearsley developing and mounting theatrical works drawn from both classical and contemporary repertoires, including Shakespeare and newly devised pieces that challenge the way audiences engage with live performance. Alongside that, the company offers professional performance services, positioning Yearsley as an actor, director, and voiceover artist for casting directors and producers seeking a performer trained to an elite institutional standard. The third area is education, where Yearsley is developing a personalized approach to actor training built on psychophysical principles.
Each pillar reinforces the others. The production work builds the company’s artistic identity. The performance services generate professional credibility and industry relationships. The education offering extends the company’s reach beyond the stage and into the training rooms where the next generation of performers is being shaped. Together, they form a model that is less dependent on any single income stream than most independent companies of this scale.
“The goal was never to build a traditional theatre company,” Yearsley said. “It was to build something that could sustain serious artistic work over the long term, without having to compromise on what that work looks like.“
The Independent Theatre Sector Today
Founding an independent company in London right now requires clear thinking about sustainability. West End producers raised over £150 million in new capital in 2024, yet nearly half of producers expect raising investment to become harder in the coming year, according to the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre’s State of British Theatre report. For independent companies operating outside the subsidized sector, those pressures are felt earliest and most directly.
Yearsley is building with that reality in mind. Rather than relying solely on grants or institutional backing, Lion & Swan Productions is structured to generate income through multiple channels from the outset. That kind of pragmatism, combined with serious artistic ambition, reflects the thinking behind RADA’s MA Theatre Lab, which it specifically designed to develop in its graduates.
What Comes Next
Over the next few years, Yearsley plans to bring Lion & Swan Productions into the United States, with New York as a primary target market. The city has long served as a proving ground for theatre makers with strong classical credentials, and Yearsley sees it as the natural next step after establishing the company’s foundation in London.
“New York is where you find out whether the work holds up,” he said. “I want to bring Lion & Swan into that conversation as soon as the time is right.“
The productions, the training offering, and the performance work will all travel with him. That portability was central to the company’s design.
