News: Theatre Artists Fund receives a further £500k from the Mackintosh Foundation

Cameron Mackintosh has confirmed a further £500,000 of support from the Mackintosh Foundation to aid the Theatre Artists Fund.

Theatre Artists Fund was created in 2020 by director Sam Mendes, Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre. It provides emergency financial aid to the freelancers, who make up an estimated 70% of the theatre sector and have gone without any government support.

Cameron Mackintosh said, “Though the government’s exemplary vaccine programme has shown that there is now light at the end of the tunnel, the probability is that it will still be over seven months before the West End has the majority of its major shows back. This latest grant from my Foundation, a year after our industry was closed down, will hopefully help some of our hard-hit freelancers to get through until we can employ them again, provided there are no further shutdowns which would be catastrophic.”

“My theatre and production companies have also during this last year supported hundreds of jobs throughout the closure of our theatres and productions, to ensure that our historic buildings and world-renowned productions are ready to come back, as soon as we have a permanent instruction from the government to do so.”

“The resilience and spirit of everyone working in the theatre during this gruelling time has been quite inspirational, as has the amazing patience and enthusiastic support of the public who continue to book seats, demonstrating that they can’t wait to come back to live theatre as soon as they can.”

Sam Mendes said, “We are immensely grateful to the Mackintosh Foundation for this extraordinarily generous contribution. Throughout the process of setting up the Theatre Artists Fund, we have been consistently moved by the feeling that the theatre community is pulling together to support and protect its most vulnerable members, and this is a wonderful example of exactly that.”

The latest round of Theatre Artists Fund grant applications is open until 30 March. Eligible freelancers can apply for an individual grant of £1000.

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