The Hope Theatre in Islington has secured funding from City Bridge Trust as part of a funding bid from the London Community Response Fund for a new digital project this autumn, Hope at Home.
Hope at Home is a 5-part online series of 15-minute monologues each exploring a single fascinating slice of life set at home. The commissioning process, which launches in September, will see 25-30 artists brought on board to create the films. Casting and artistic team callouts will be advertised both on Spotlight and The Hope’s social media platforms. The monologues will be launched via the theatre’s digital channels on 25 November, with each film premiering for one week for free as ‘pay what you want’ to encourage access and donations to help secure the future of the critically acclaimed pub theatre. The project will finish with a Christmas special in December.
Kennedy Bloomer, the Artistic Director of the theatre since January 2020 says, “we are delighted to launch Hope at Home – in these uncertain times, we’re looking forward to getting creative, providing arts employment and making audiences smile again. This is a really exciting project and being able to launch them digitally will allow us to be more accessible than ever.
The Hope Theatre fast became a critically acclaimed venue on London’s Off West End after opening only six years ago. The pub theatre won a double Best Actor award for Bart Lambert and Jack Reitman in its production of Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story at the OffWestEnd awards shortly before closing in early March 2020.
Since closure, the theatre has launched #HopeOnline – a series of digital workshops including a Q&A with Peaky Blinders co-producer Chris Ballantyne, a Creative Mindfulness Masterclass with the Different Womxn Project founded by Ariane Barnes, and Be Heard – a monologue writing competition for 11-25 year olds supported by the Arsenal Foundation.
The Hope Theatre, Islington has been supported by a grant from the Arts Council Emergency Response Fund to help the venue survive during the Covid-19 crisis. This grant was made possible by the National Lottery and its players.
Although The Hope Theatre doesn’t receive regular public subsidy, it was the first Off West End venue to open with a house agreement with Equity, the UK’s largest performers union, to ensure a legal wage for all actors, stage managers and box office staff working at the theatre. As an intimate 50-seat pub theatre, The Hope has a small team made up of Artistic Director Kennedy Bloomer, Associate Director Toby Hampton and Technical Manager Daniel Johnson.
To support The Hope Theatre head to: https://www.thehopetheatre.com/support-us/.
