Wigton Theatre Club

Wigton Theatre Club is a charity run entirely by volunteers. We own the John Peel Theatre, a small community 91 seater theatre, which is our much-loved home. As an old building, it is expensive to run and maintain. We rely entirely on ticket and refreshment sales and membership fees for our income.

We are a diverse, dynamic and friendly group of people. We all have our specialities and our preferences but we work as a company and each person’s contribution is valued equally. We aim to make theatre accessible to all in our community and we open the doors as often as we can. We have worked hard to make our building accessible and our practices as inclusive as possible. These include gender-neutral casting, gender-neutral and accessible toilets, step-free access, a hearing loop, appointing a disability champion, offering relaxed performances, having qualified chaperones and securing funding for signed and audio described performances.

We run successful community workshops every week for young people. All workshops are free to our members and are well supported by the families. The aim is to teach performing skills and we try to ensure that all children and young people perform in a play at least once a year. We stage at least three and usually four productions a year including our hugely popular family pantomime. We work hard to provide quality live theatre for our community and are proud that many people who wouldn’t be able to afford professional performances, come to our shows. We regularly donate free tickets to Wigton Food Bank who give them to disadvantaged families. We also run a monthly Open Mic Night which runs as a hybrid both in the theatre and on Zoom. This is completely free to audience and performers and pulls people in from all over the county and the Borders and across the country and internationally via the Zoom link. We also host occasional visits from professional shows and bands.