On March 16th 2020, we were readying the theatre for the first preview of THE FALL by Thomas Arensen and Luminaries Productions and were riding high coming off the back of a double Best Actor award win for Bart Lambert and Jack Reitman in our in-house production of Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story at the recent OffWestEnd awards. Later that day we made the decision to postpone the production and close due to concerns for the safety of our staff, artists and audience alike. Later that week every theatre in the UK was told to close and The Hope Theatre’s doors have been closed ever since.
Despite being closed we’ve been working hard on trying to keep in contact with our audience, deliver opportunities for workshops and arts employment, and to keep on creating. We presented a variety of online workshops with Hope Online, from a Q&A with Peaky Blinders producer Chris Ballantyne and a Creative Mindfulness Masterclass with the Different Womxn Project founded by Ariane Barnes. Currently we are also still accepting submissions to our monologue writing competition – Be Heard – until 15 October for 11-25 year olds supported by the Arsenal Foundation.
Like every theatre, we’re struggling to plan for the future and 95% of our total income has stopped making it hard for us to continue. We were over the moon to receive a small grant from the Arts Council Recovery Fund only made possible by the National Lottery and its players. This has enabled us to keep up our online work and we’re recently received confirmation of another project grant from the London Community Response Fund that will allow us to launch an online series; HOPE AT HOME, this Autumn.
We hope to be able to safely return to The Hope in January and continue to programme brilliant, innovative theatre. If you would like to help keep The Hope afloat and ensure our survival, you can head to our support us page for more information on how to donate.We’ll see you soon!Kennedy, Toby and The Hope Theatre team.
Despite being closed we’ve been working hard on trying to keep in contact with our audience, deliver opportunities for workshops and arts employment, and to keep on creating. We presented a variety of online workshops with Hope Online, from a Q&A with Peaky Blinders producer Chris Ballantyne and a Creative Mindfulness Masterclass with the Different Womxn Project founded by Ariane Barnes. Currently we are also still accepting submissions to our monologue writing competition – Be Heard – until 15 October for 11-25 year olds supported by the Arsenal Foundation.
Like every theatre, we’re struggling to plan for the future and 95% of our total income has stopped making it hard for us to continue. We were over the moon to receive a small grant from the Arts Council Recovery Fund only made possible by the National Lottery and its players. This has enabled us to keep up our online work and we’re recently received confirmation of another project grant from the London Community Response Fund that will allow us to launch an online series; HOPE AT HOME, this Autumn.
We hope to be able to safely return to The Hope in January and continue to programme brilliant, innovative theatre. If you would like to help keep The Hope afloat and ensure our survival, you can head to our support us page for more information on how to donate.We’ll see you soon!Kennedy, Toby and The Hope Theatre team.
