The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport via Arts Council England, Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Backstage Trust have led a campaign for donations to the Theatre Artists Fund over the past 48 hours, alongside other major benefactors and trusts. From this extraordinary collective effort, £2 million has already been raised to help the growing number of theatre freelancers suddenly finding themselves without work, due to the UK’s rising number of Covid cases and subsequent show cancellations.

A new round of Theatre Artists Fund grant applications opens at midday on Friday 24 December for individuals whose work has been directly impacted due to Covid.

Theatre Artists Fund has been created to provide emergency support for theatre workers and freelance professionals across the UK, in need of urgent and critical financial support due to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the theatre sector. Applications are now OPEN.

Eligibility 

• If eligible, applicants can be considered for a emergency grant of £1,000, which they can use towards living costs.
• Applicants will need to meet certain eligibility criteria, provide one form ID and provide contact details of a theatre professional to act as a referee to verify their information. Grants will be awarded based on hardship.
• All applicants will be required to provide details of professional theatre roles/jobs (accompanied by a CV) between January 2019 and January 2022.
• Only certain theatrical freelancer professions are eligible – a full list is available: https://theatreartists.fund/who-is-the-theatre-artists-fund-for/
• All previous recipients of a grant/s (regardless of the amount), are eligible to apply in this new round. Please note that being a previous recipient does not guarantee that you will be successful as all applications will be assessed on the basis of hardship and the information you supply.

Deadline 

Midday on Monday 10 January, with assessments and money being distributed as soon as possible after that date.

The Theatre Artist Fund, set up by Director Sam Mendes and administered by the Society of London Theatre‘s sister charity Theatre Development Trust, offers individual emergency grants of £1000 for freelance professional theatre workers – from actors, dancers and musicians to technicians, stage managers, publicists, outreach staff and many more. The Fund’s purpose is to provide vital financial aid to those directly impacted by the pandemic and unable to access direct government support.

Since launching in the summer of 2020, the Theatre Artists Fund has raised over £7.8 million, and has given out around 8,200 grants to those most in need.

To donate to the Theatre Artists Fund, visit theatreartists.fund/donate.

Full details of how to apply for a Theatre Artists Fund grant are available at theatreartists.fund