Join us on our 18-month fundraising campaign (Jul 24 - Dec 25) to celebrate 80 years of theatre at the Cheltenham Playhouse (1945-2025) and raise £80k to help secure the theatre's future. These essential funds will help us remain a home for arts in Cheltenham.
The Playhouse has a vibrant past and the potential for an exceptional future. We are looking to our community for their support in achieving this. In supporting the Playhouse you are helping benefit all of its users.
The Cheltenham Playhouse is a unique and intimate 186-seat theatre, with stunning Regency architecture and a wide range of performances that often leave visitors with a remarkable experience.
As the Playhouse is also one of the very few independent venues in the county, we pride ourselves on being a down-to-earth and welcoming space to all. Whether you are a regular theatre enthusiast or trying your first live performance, the Cheltenham Playhouse is a here for you.
Historically, the theatre has been a hidden gem in the town. In recent years the Playhouse has flourished and is rapidly becoming one of the most popular venues in the area. We're making big waves across the county with hundreds of performances each year and a forecast of over 50,000 annual visitors. Our events include Music 🎸, Drama 🎭, Film 🎞️, Comedy 🤣, Musicals 🎶, Pantomime ✨, workshops 🎨 and more!
To see our current upcoming events please visit our website.
Some of our recent feedback from visitors:
In almost fifty years of living in Cheltenham and surrounding areas, I have never visited the Playhouse before and I now have one question for myself "Why not"? Oh how I've missed out over the years...Right from the moment we walked through your doors, the experience was magical, your front of house staff were warm and welcoming, the facilities were amazing and the performance...Rest assured we will now become frequent visitors to Playhouse and have already started telling family and friends.
The Playhouse offers more variety of shows than any other venue in Cheltenham...Thank you for making the Playhouse one of the best live entertainment venues in Cheltenham and at prices one can afford....Thank you for everything you are doing.
An amazing theatre! We've seen many productions there and have loved every show.
The Playhouse has been a theatre since 1945, however, with the oldest parts of the building dating back to 1806, the Playhouse also has a fascinating heritage. The building has also been a salts laboratory, a swimming bath (which still exists under the auditorium, see below!), slipper baths, medical spa, a steam mill and bakery, an indoor cycling school, and much more!
To learn more about our remarkable history please visit our dedicated history website.
1. As you can see from the previous sections, we are lucky to run a charity with such a dedicated community and opportunity for culture. It's important to celebrate milestones, reflect on our impact and hear the experiences of those in our community. 80 years is a significant anniversary and a good excuse to celebrate!
2. Like most theatres, which don't receive fixed funding, we are facing a difficult period and need to raise awareness of the challenges the current climate is presenting.
3. Donations and fundraising is an extremely effective way of raising funds. Compared to ticket sales where we typically only receive 20-30% of the ticket's value and our other streams of income, such as bar sales and room hire which both have significant overheads:
As we mainly host incoming productions, it is a common misconception that we keep all the money from ticket sales. The reality is that, for example, it would be typical on an average £20 ticket for the charity to receive only between £4 to £6. This means the best way of supporting the Playhouse (especially when Gift Aid is added) is through donation, as this provides 'undiluted' income and allows us to keep other prices down for both visitors and clients. A £5 donation roughly has the same value to the charity as a £25 ticket! - Chief Executive
These essential funds will help allow us to sustain day-to-day operations and rebuild a modest safety net that will then allow us to further develop our offering to the community, such as growing our Fringe Festival, maintaining the Grade-II listed venue, increasing the number of free community events and more. If you would like to donate to a specific cause, such as improving access or energy efficiency please do get in touch, however, our current priority is securing unrestricted income to support the charity across the board.
1. Join us as we celebrate! Be sure to keep an eye out for regular updates as we have a series of events, performances and special surprises to announce throughout the campaign that will both celebrate the last 80 years and fundraise for our future.
2. Support this fundraiser. £80k is equivalent to around £1 per visitor forecast for the next 18 months, we think this shows that a relatively small amount spread over a large number of people could make a significant difference. If you are in the fortunate position of being able to support us financially with a one-off or regular donation we would be very grateful
3. If you want to get even more involved, such as by fundraising for us, or supporting more widely, such as through business sponsorship get in touch with us and we would be happy to see how we can help. We are keen to hear from visitors, clients, businesses and anyone else interested in supporting the Playhouse! Contact: fundraising@cheltplayhouse.org.uk
Tell me more!
The anniversary itself is Wednesday 9th April 2025 and we will be hosting a very special evening to celebrate the date in our main auditorium. Keep an eye out for more details. In addition to this, we will be announcing numerous other events throughout the campaign's duration.
We believe the Playhouse has a fantastic future and will continue to grow with and for the community. However, the unfortunate timing of COVID, the increased cost of living, lack of national arts funding, all-time high energy prices, inflation and many other factors is a significant hurdle, but also highlights how valuable venues such as the Playhouse are.
This is our biggest fundraising, celebration and awareness campaign in years and we hope you will be able to support us.
Donate to this fundraiser with a one-off or regular payment
Purchase tickets for our shows
Consider other ways of supporting, such as becoming a friend of the theatre (launching soon), business sponsorship, legacy donations and more.
Pay the restoration levy
Donate at one of our donation points around the venue (cash available, card coming shortly)
Donate to a specific cause. For example, you could pay for helping us move to LED lighting to save on energy costs and improve our sustainability or contribute to the costs of our What's On brochure and help spread the word of the Playhouse.
Ways to support for free:
Spread the word about our theatre, fundraiser or shows such as sharing our posts on social media or distributing our flyers with friends and families.
Come to some of our free events
Volunteer - we have a huge team of volunteers who play an essential role in our operations. For more info, involved@cheltplayhouse.org.uk
Fundraise for us, for example, you could put on a show, host a social event in our bar, or run a raffle and we may be able to support with the costs, such as offering space for free for theatre fundraising events. The possibilities are endless and we'd be happy to discuss ideas with you at fundraising@cheltplayhouse.org.uk
Q - Do you get funding/grants, if so, why not?
A - Apart from a proposed rent relief we receive no regular funding or grants.
Fundraising in the arts has become exceptionally difficult, the combination of unprecedentedly high numbers of applicants and exceptionally low fund availability means that it is a more competitive environment than ever with the majority of applications being unsuccessful, particularly in areas such as Cheltenham which are not considered 'priority places' for funding due to the perception of wealth (we are aware that in reality there is a much more nuanced and diverse financial landscape in Cheltenham).
Grants are exceptionally time-consuming to complete and have no guarantee, or even likely chance of success. There is significant risk of spending significant time and resources applying for funds to no avail. The other major issue with grants is often they are restricted to specific projects and not for general running expenses. Specific grants can of course be helpful, however, a key goal is for us to be able to maintain our core operations so that we can then consider other projects.
This is why we are appealing to our community for your support. We hope to secure grants in the future and will continue to explore these options in addition to our own fundraising.
Q - What about the building, is it maintained by an external body?
A - Currently we receive no support with the maintenance of the building and lease it from the council. It is a large Grade II Listed building dating back to 1806 so has significant maintenance costs and requirements. Historically the council have been supportive in assisting with larger projects such as repairs to our roof which has been vital and gratefully received; we hope that this much-needed support will continue.
Q - Don't you make lots of money from shows?
A - No, this is a common misconception! The vast majority of our shows are from incoming companies/groups, rather than our own productions. This means that often we receive only around 20-30% of the ticket price and that's before things like licencing are deducted. It would be typical on a £20 ticket for us to only receive £4 to £6 to cover all of our costs.
Q - Why don't you produce shows in-house then if you would keep more from ticket sales that way?
A - The primary answer is financial risk. Nationally it's a difficult time for live events and we're regularly hearing of even major productions cancelling dates and even whole tours. Although we have some internally produced work and events, to start a substantial program of internally produced work in the current climate without major funding is just too risky. We also have a backlog of clients wanting to use our spaces so it works well for all parties for us to hire the venue out.
Q - Why not raise prices for clients?
A - To a reasonable extent, we have. However, the main limitation to the charity and our clients is capacity. With only 186 seats although we provide a unique experience it isn't enough to cover the costs. Production and venue costs are not linear to venue size, so both clients and the venue have significant overheads but are bottlenecked by the number of seats for sale. If we charge too much, unfortunately, we run the risk of not being viable for clients. For clients and customers, we want to offer a relatively affordable provision of culture so are keen to keep prices in a fair middle range for all parties.
Q - Why does it cost so much to run?
A - It costs us over £1,000.00 per day to keep the Playhouse operating. Running a theatre is a complex operation and has Our largest costs include staffing, maintenance, marketing and stock. We work exceptionally efficiently to keep costs to a minimum whilst being fair, such as paying staff at or above the real living wage but using our fantastic pool of volunteers where possible. With major overheads the best mitigation to cost is to run more events, however, this in turn also increases dependent costs. We also are aiming to get to a position whereby we can increase preventative rather than reactive costs, particularly with maintenance.
We are optimistic that with energy prices falling, salaries forecast to slow with decreasing inflation and increased awareness helping lower necessary marketing costs these areas will stabilise or decrease. However, the last few years have seen rapid increases in these areas.
We also have a lot of hidden costs such as ticket processing fees, insurance, bank charges, licensing, internet, administration, alarms, H&S,
Additionally, we've heavily invested in the theatre over the last couple of years. Such as purchasing a suitable in-house PA and some new LED lighting so that we can offer a better range of events, a greater experience for visitors and our offering to clients. We now have the majority of the more urgently required equipment in place and will see the benefits of this investment.
The following clients and companies (in alphabetical order) have generously pledged their support to this fundraiser or currently go above and beyond to support the wider charity:
Behind the Curtain Productions
Chapel Arts
Ghostlight Productions
Howlers Comedy Club
Grove Productions
Makiom
Matt Nolan Creative
Playhouse Theatre Company
Theatre Studio
University of Gloucestershire Performing Arts Department
Wyrley Music and Promotions
If you are a client or company that would like to discuss pledging support to us either with this campaign or more widely please email us at fundraising@cheltplayhouse.org.uk
Thank you for taking the time to read about our fundraiser, as always, we look forward to seeing you soon.
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