Freelancers Make Theatre Work encourage you, if you are in need, to apply for this fund quickly. Applications open at midday tomorrow.
THEATRE ARTISTS FUND
Sam Mendes, The Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre have set up this fund with a £500k donation from Netflix. It will assist individuals in urgent need of emergency financial support by providing small grants for theatre practitioners who find themselves with nowhere else to turn.
It is designed to specifically support those who have been ineligible for Government aid and have not been able to work since theatres closed on 16th March due to Covid-19.
To continue the fund, the ambition is for industry figures, corporations, charitable trusts and individual theatre goers alike to support the fund in its growth, as more help will be desperately needed by those out of work over coming months.
Spearheaded by director Sam Mendes the fund will provide short-term relief to hundreds of theatre workers and freelancers across the UK, and particularly those from underrepresented groups disproportionately affected by the crisis. The grants will be £1000 each, and the full criteria is available to view on the website.
Applications will open at 12noon on Monday 6th July
Further details below:
Who Is The Theatre Artists Fund For?
The Theatre Artists’ Fund has been set up to provide emergency support for theatre workers and freelancers across the UK. It is for theatre professionals who are in need of urgent and critical financial support due to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the theatre sector.
Our ambition for the fund is to provide short-term relief to hundreds for theatre workers and freelancers across the UK, and particularly those from underrepresented groups disproportionately affected by the crisis.
Key information
If eligible, applicants can be considered for a one-off emergency grant of £1,000 which they can use towards living costs.
Applicants will need to meet certain eligibility criteria, provide one form of proof and provide contact details of a theatrical professional to act as a referee to verify their information.
Only certain theatrical freelancer professions are eligible – a full list is below.
The first round of applications will open from 12noon on Monday 6th July and remain open until 12noon on Monday 13th July. We will then process and review the applications against the eligibility criteria and support as many people as possible until all current funds are allocated.
We will endeavour to let applicants (who apply in the first round) know about the outcome by the 27th July.
A further round of applications will open, dependent on sufficient funds being available.
Eligibility
To be considered for an emergency grant of £1,000 from the Theatre Artists’ Fund, you will be asked to let us know which of the following statements apply to you.
You are a theatre professional and have worked in one or many role/s (within the sector) totalling at least 8 weeks between January 1st 2019 and March 31st 2020
You are in need of urgent financial assistance due to the Covid-19 pandemic
You are self-employed or currently unemployed
You are not currently furloughed by your employer on the Government’s Job Retention Scheme or received any support via the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme
You are not currently in full-time Further or Higher Education You are a resident of the UK
You earn the majority of your income through professional theatre work in the UK You have less than £2,000 in savings
You have not received support in excess of £1,500 from any other industry coronavirus emergency (COVID-19) grant scheme. Please note the ACE Project Fund does not count as an emergency grant in this context.
You have sought to access any statutory support (government provided i.e. Self- Employment Income Support Scheme) available to you and to reduce financial commitments wherever possible
Providing proof
You will be asked to provide one item of proof for any one of the above eligibility requirements. This can include any of the following:
Proof of address – e.g. utility bill, driving license
Bank statement
Email from employer terminating employment
Email decline for any of the government schemes.
These can be in any format including a picture or screen grab from your phone.
Your profession
You will also be asked to provide details of up to 5 professional role/s or job/s that you have done between 1st January 2019 and 31st March 2020. Your jobs might have occurred one after another or might have overlapped, but the total time worked needs to add up to a minimum of eight weeks. You may include part-time roles as long as the total adds up to at least eight weeks.
There is also the option to upload proof of further weeks worked. This could be in the form of a CV, a simple list of your roles and/or your spotlight profile.
Your profession – the following roles are eligible
Actor Assistant / Resident Director; Casting Director; Choreographer / Movement; Director; Circus Artist; Comedian; Composer; Costume Maker; Costume Supervisor; Director; Education, Outreach and/or Participation; Fight Director; Live Artist; Musical Director; Producer; Production Manager (freelance); Props Maker; Puppet Designer / Maker; Theatre Technician, including Operator / Programmer (freelance); Scenic Artist; Set and/or Costume Designer; Stage Carpenter; Stage and/or Company Management; Sound, Video or Lighting Designer; Voice or Accent Director; Wigs, Hair and/or Make-Up; Writer.
Further information about your individual circumstances
There is an additional set of questions which asks more about you and your individual circumstances. You can choose to answer ‘prefer not to say’ if you do not wish to provide the information. Our ambition for the fund is to support as many people as possible but due to the scale of the crisis it is possible, we will not be able to support every applicant. We will therefore seek to support those in greatest need with an acknowledgment that those from underrepresented groups might have been disproportionately affected by the crisis.