Live Theatre Set To Return To Putney | ||||
Group 64's Young Company to perform Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
A ghost light has been hanging in the main auditorium of Putney Arts Theatre for the last year as a symbol of hope, looking forward to when the doors reopen. This challenging period now looks to be coming to an end with live performances set to return. The Youth Company of Group 64, which is resident at the theatre, is to perform a stage version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The performances will be from 27-29 May at 7.45pm with an online performance taking place at 3.30pm on 30 May. Tickets cost £12 or £8 for concessions and £5 to under 18s and Group 64 members. Group 64 is an inclusive Young Peoples Theatre Company. It runs weekly drama and musical theatre classes and holiday projects for children and young people aged 4-19, and opportunities to be involved in performance, directing and technical theatre. It also has an education department, where it works regularly with local schools enhancing their curriculum and inviting them to perform on stage. It believes drama activities should be available to every young person and offers assisted places and extra support in classes and shows The Putney Theatre Company has also produced an audio adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women which can be accessed for free online but they hope listeners will consider making a donation to the theatre. The light that has been left in the theatre has been the symbolic inspiration of its fundraising campaign - ‘Shine on - Support your local theatre’. It says on its website, “When we closed our classes, shows and other income-generating activities we knew we would be faced with an uncertain future. It is now becoming more apparent that we will not be able to ‘go back to normal’ as soon as we hoped or would like. As a result we now estimate that our funding gap may be £69k. We have been fortunate to receive a government grant of £25k and are taking part in the government-sponsored furlough scheme for staff. We are also actively seeking other ways of meeting this new target. “We have received many generous donations and want to thank you all for these and your continuing support. We are increasing our donation goal to £20k and hope this will help us to bridge the funding gap. If you are able to support us through a one-off donation or regular monthly giving this will help us to ‘Shine On’ until we are back. Thank you again for your support.” Putney Arts Theatre is over three quarters of the way to reaching its fundraising target of £20,000. All donation funds are used to improve the space, complete repairs, or support development initiatives for this self-supporting charity which runs the borough’s oldest theatre.
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