Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman Launch The Theatre Community Fund

Many of the UK's most successful artists and entertainment professionals have joined together to create the Theatre Community Fund in support of theatrical artists and professionals whose livelihoods and creative futures are threatened in the wake of Covid-19. With thousands of theatrical freelancers currently sidelined, and the prospect of re-opening uncertain for the foreseeable future, the Theatre Community Fund aims to help ease economic strain both immediately and in the long-term.

The Theatre Community Fund reflects its donors' recognition that they have benefitted a great deal personally from the health of the UK theatre, and is a statement of their belief that UK theatre - nationally for all audiences and voices and down its grass roots - is vital to the strength of our nation. Donors will contribute through initial lump sums and fixed, confidential percentages of their incomes over the next two years.

The fund, which has received a pledge of £1M from founder donations, and has amassed £500K thus far, will be separated into two priority strands giving grants of up to £3000:

1. To help freelancers survive the present by providing hardship grants to those in immediate need.
2. To ensure a healthy future for the industry by providing innovation and creation grants for artists to produce work.

The Fund was conceived by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Olivia Colman and Francesca Moody as a longer-term supplement to other vital schemes already in existence. It will be dispersed and monitored by The Royal Theatrical Fund (RTF) in partnership with the Fleabag Support Fund (FSF). RTF began in 1839, and since its reconstitution in 1979, the Board of Directors have awarded grants, both regular and special, to members of the theatrical profession. The RTF have been working in partnership with FSF since its inception in April 2020 to award hardship grants to those in the theatre profession who have been directly affected by Covid-19. For the past several months, FSF has focused its efforts on raising significant funds to meet the unprecedented need within the UK theatre community to help feed their families, pay their rent or keep their health insurance due to the enormous impact of the pandemic. In May 2020, FSF disseminated its first wave of grants totaling over £83,000.

The Theatre Community Fund will continue to appeal to all performers, artists, producers and executives - anyone who believes in the theatrical arts and has benefited from them - to contribute to the fund, if in a position to do so.

Founding Donors:

Gillian Anderson
Jesse Armstrong
Tim Bevan
Hugh Bonneville
Stephen Boxer
Danny Boyle
Jim Carter
Emilia Clarke
James Cordon
Stephen Daldry
Arthur Darvill
Shaun Dooley
Anne-Marie Duff
Jane Featherstone
Eric Fellner
Tania Franks
Emma Freud and Richard Curtis
Romola Garai
Rebecca Hall
David Hare
David Harewood
Kit Harrington
Jonathan Harvey
Keeley Hawes

Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hollander
Tony Hopkirk

Suranne Jones
Katherine Kelly
Robert Lindsay
Lucy Lumsden
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
James McAvoy
Matthew McFadyen
Ian McKellen, Sean Mathias and ATG Productions from funds raised by Ian McKellen On Stage
David Morrissey
Josh O'Connor
Al Petrie
Daniel Radcliffe
Daisy Ridley
Andrew Scott
Imelda Staunton
Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar
Russell T Davies
Emma Thompson
Harriet Walter
Rachel Weisz
Jodie Whittaker and Christian Contreras

David Yates

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