HAMPSTEAD RECEIVES SECOND CRUCIAL GRANT FROM GOVERNMENT’S CULTURE RECOVERY FUND

Hampstead Theatre has received the news that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will invest another vital package of financial support into the organisation as part of the UK Government’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF).

Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of Hampstead Theatre said:

"We are relieved and grateful to have been successful in this second round of crucial funding.  I’d like to express my thanks to the UK Government and Arts Council England for making the Culture Recovery Fund available.  COVID makes planning a challenge.  This funding is a lifeline that allows us to plan beyond our current productions of Alfred Fagon's The Death of a Black Man and Deborah Bruce's Raya and continue to support our creative freelance community.  We are desperate to get back to making live theatre and sharing remarkable stories with our much-missed audiences.  Creative and communal cultural experiences are going to matter more than ever as we start to recover from the last year."

Hampstead Theatre is due to reopen with Alfred Fagon’s The Death of a Black Man  on the Main Stage and Deborah Bruce’s Raya, Downstairs from 28 May 2021. Hampstead will open with socially distanced audiences for both productions and stringent Covid-secure measures in place. 

Having been closed since March 2020, Hampstead Theatre reopened for a limited period on 3 December 2020 with Alice Hamilton’s 60th anniversary production of Harold Pinter’s iconic play, The Dumb Waiter. The show had to close early due to London entering Tier 3 and the subsequent national lockdown. 

The theatre hopes that The Death of a Black Man and Raya are the first of many live productions it can offer while the country cautiously emerges from the recent lockdown. The theatre will also continue its work developing playwrights such as The Inspire Programme and Writing the Bigger Picture with Mike Bartlett. It will continue its work with young people through its Ignite Youth Theatre. The theatre’s Open Scripts Submissions has remained open throughout lockdown and fully intends to remain open 24/7 for the foreseeable future. Hampstead will also be working closely with its neighbouring communities, supporting its locals through creative participation projects following the pandemic. More details to be announced in due course.