Support our 50th year

We work hard to be accessible to everyone and offer free carer tickets to allow those with disabilities to attend our shows. Each carer needs their own seat in the auditorium so a donation of £15 would cover the cost to offer this important service.

These sessions are loved by all - our Take Part team collect objects from The Theatre and the local museum and take them along to local care homes for people to try on, sing some familiar songs, and prompt conversations and share memories about The Theatre and our town.

We need the benefits the arts can bring. We also know the arts can be hard to access. Bursaries provide an opportunity to experience theatre, drama, find out about yourself and develop confidence, self-worth, resilience and adaptability as well as learning to sing, dance and act. They make a real difference to the everyday lives of the children who benefit from them, as they develop skills to help them now, and for the future.

Did you know its costs £1,500 a month just to run our lighting rig! That's about £50 for every show. We're working hard to use renewable energy sources & switch to more efficient bulbs

We need to replace and upgrade all the lights on our lighting rig from the current (soon to be discontinued) tungsten bulbs to energy efficient LED lighting units. These use less electricity and generate less heat, so the lighting rig wouldn't need to be cooled. These new lights will reduce the number of man hours, energy costs and reduce the fire risk to The Theatre.

Support our 4 pick-a-price live shows to enable more accessible ticket prices for a wider audience and bring the best new shows to The Theatre.

Since lockdown we've been supporting local families on low income through the school holidays. This started with about 40 families, who received lunch packs and craft activities, and has now grown to 160 families, with ever increasing need.

Why? Meeting us to come and take part in a craft morning and pick up their lunches introduced many families to the Theatre for the first time. Many have since discovered a real love for art and drama and we have been able to support this by offering community tickets for live shows, free film screenings in the school holidays, drama workshops, and for some, free places in our Youth Theatre thanks to the Judith and Tony Yarrow bursaries. Thanks to Wise Investments and Aldi for their enormous support in helping us establish this invaluable programe.

Every year, the Theatre offers hundreds of free tickets to groups in our local community. We work with schools, our local food banks and larder, and groups such as SEND and SEMH schools, mental health support groups, young carers and Ukrainian refugee support organisations as well as the Theatre’s community groups to welcome our widespread, rural community into the Theatre.

We love our local schools and whenever there is a need we look to rise to the challenge and support in any way we can.

In 2023-24, we are launching our Anti-bullying project, using drama and role-play to explore what bullying is and how it affects young people in response to requests from teachers and students. It’s free for local schools to participate in, and we hope to be able to offer these valuable sessions, and others like them, to more schools in the future.