Donate your ticket!
Support theatres, donate your cancelled ticket
Theatre goers are being asked to support theatres by donating the cost of tickets for cancelled events back to the theatre involved.
All theatres are currently contacting their patrons to refund the cost of the tickets to shows that have been cancelled due to Covid-19.
Now would be a really good time to support your favourite non-commercial theatre by agreeing to donate the cost of your ticket back to the theatre, instead of getting a refund. You can even gift-aid it.
The Festival, Lyceum, King’s and Traverse theatres.
The problem for the theatres is that although they get grants from Creative Scotland and other public bodies, they still rely on ticket and bar income to make up the rest. Which is likely to be over three quarters of the income of most theatres.
Here’s how Pitlochry Festival Theatre put it on their website when they announced that they, too, would have to be closing for the foreseeable future:
“The impact of COVID-19 is a critical threat to Pitlochry Festival Theatre and to the livelihoods of many in the region and in the arts.
our income is gone
“Most of our funding comes from you attending our productions and spending time here with us. Without you the vast majority of our income is gone and the organisation will not be able to stay open.
“Right now we need you. Please consider making a donation and/or donating your ticket to the Theatre.”
The same applies to all theatres, but particularly those in the independent and non-commercial sector, who face an existential threat and are even now working out how they are going to survive through the coming weeks and months.
It’s not just theatre buildings you are supporting, it is the people – freelancers and staff – who spend their working lives making the magic happen on the stages of those theatres and making the theatres safe for us all to enjoy it.
If you can afford it, please do consider donating the refund for your cancelled ticket to the theatre.
Thom Dibdin
Editor, All Edinburgh Theatre.
ENDS
