Theatre Royal Wakefield was a thriving and successful theatre before the Coronavirus crisis, bringing joy and fulfilment to Wakefield audiences and offering transformative participatory projects to young people and the wider community. 

We are fundraising to support the work of Theatre Royal Wakefield to help ensure we can ‘Turn The Lights Back On’ for live performances and carry on our life changing work with the wider community. 

You can support our campaign by making a donation or pledging on a reward. You can also support us by sharing our campaign and encouraging others to support it.  

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are crowdfunding to ensure we can ‘Turn the Lights Back On’. We closed our doors in March and remain closed for live performances. We have been able to offer support to some of those who we work with during this time and are slowly starting to open our doors to restart face-to-face community activities. While we have had no shows, we have not been able to generate the income that allows us to operate and deliver our life changing activities. 

You can help 

• Ensure live theatre returns to Wakefield
• Help preserve Wakefield’s amazing 125-year-old theatre
• Support our work with Young People 
• Allow us to restart our work with older people at risk of isolation
• Support CHIME - our project working with young people with learning disabilities
• Allow us to restart Conversation Cafe and our work with refugees and asylum seekers

About Theatre Royal Wakefield

Working with the entire community in Wakefield as both audience members and participants, we have an exciting programme of live theatre and participation activities. 

We regularly engage with members of the local community from a broad range of groups, including vulnerable individuals, through our busy participation programme which encourages diverse engagement in creativity. Our target groups include young people, people with a learning disability, socially isolated older people and refugees and asylum seekers. In 2019 we became a Theatre of Sanctuary, proving a place of welcome and support for asylum seekers and refugees. We develop and deliver projects bringing people together, encouraging new friendships and offering new opportunities.

About Save Our Theatres

In villages, towns and cities across the country, theatres are at the heart of their community. Places to come together, to be inspired and entertained. Theatres are where our best-loved actors learn their craft and thousands of others learn valuable skills. 

But we risk losing this forever.

Theatres saw their main source of income disappear in an instant when they closed in March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Six months later, we still don’t know when they will be able to reopen fully. A decision won’t be made until November at the earliest – too late for most, including Theatre Royal Wakefield, to put on their annual pantomime, which often provides the income to support the theatre for the rest of the year.

This ongoing uncertainty puts theatres in a perilous situation. The government’s bailout is spread across all cultural organisations and certainly won’t be enough to save all of the UK’s theatres.

Every day theatres are facing the tough decision to make staff redundant and to close their doors until next year.  

Without urgent support, we could lose our nation’s amazing theatres. Please help us to make sure our theatres survive this crisis and will be there to be enjoyed by future generations.

#SaveOurTheatres 

Please donate, share this page widely and do what you can to help us to make sure our theatre survives this crisis.