Reading Rep Theatre today announces plans for its award-winning ENGAGE programme over the next 24 months, providing high-quality access to the arts for Reading’s most vulnerable communities. Thanks to generous funding of £200,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund and Arts Council England’s Cultural Recovery Fund, ENGAGE will provide a summer programme and full participation programme accompanying the company’s artistic season over the next two years, ensuring that everyone in Reading, no matter their background, has the opportunity to access Reading Rep’s work.
Over the next 24 months, the ENGAGE programme will deliver 1000 hours of free workshops per year, reaching 10,000 people. The programme will collaborate with 50 local organisations including 7 Reading libraries; 25 local schools; 3 higher education institutions; 5 youth groups; and
10 voluntary and community organisations, which includes Alana House for vulnerable women, Compass Recovery College - a mental health and wellbeing charity, Purley Park Trust which supports adults with learning disabilities, Bounce Back for Kids which supports children who have been victims or witnesses of domestic abuse, and the NHS. This will culminate in a festival of work in 2023, bringing all the organisations together for the first time to celebrate what Reading has achieved.
Paul Stacey, Founding Artistic Director, today said, “We think of our productions as much more than what the audience eventually gets to see, we think of them as a Participation Project; an opportunity to engage with communities that otherwise might not be heard. It is these communities that have been most impacted by the pandemic and we can’t wait to welcome them to our new venue to collaborate and make and experience art together.”
The participation projects at the core of Reading Rep’s inaugural season in their newly built theatre include:
Made in Reading, accompanying DORIAN, exploring cultural history and future, and Wilde’s imprisonment in Reading Gaol.
Dear Mr Scrooge, accompanying A Christmas Carol, in which six primary schools throughout Reading will stage their own response to A Christmas Carol.
Stranger than Fiction, accompanying Jekyll and Hyde, exploring the real man behind the legend, in partnership with numerous community groups throughout Reading,
Alby The Penguin Goes to the Library, accompanying Alby The Penguin Saves the World, which aims to provide thousands of early years children with their first experience of theatre in partnership with Reading Libraries.
Dare to Dream, accompanying A Midsummer Night’s Dream, making Shakespeare’s language accessible to primary and secondary schools throughout Reading.
Created in 2015, the year-round outreach programme has reached 15,000 children, young people, and adults in the last 18 months alone, and has partnered with a wide variety of local organisations including the NHS, Activate Learning, Brighter Futures for Children, Reading Libraries, Reading Refugee Support Group, and Launchpad.
Reading Rep will deliver this project in partnership with Reading Borough Council, Reading Libraries, Reading College, Activate Learning, University of Reading and the NHS.
It is funded by Arts Council England as part of their Cultural Recovery Fund, Activate Learning, The National Lottery Community Fund, Reading College and a number of Trusts and Foundations.
Helen Bushell, Senior Head of Regional Funding for London, South East & East at The National Lottery Community Fund also said, “We are delighted that National Lottery funding is being used by the ENGAGE programme to provide a diverse range of theatre-based activities which are helping to bring communities together and help individuals grow in independence and confidence through the weekly summer workshops. Thanks to National Lottery players, projects such as this across the country are playing a vital role at the heart of their local communities and will continue to do so as we rebuild and reconnect with one another throughout this year.”
Hazel Edwards, South East Area Director at Arts Council England today said:
"It's great to see Reading Rep’s ENGAGE programme 's plans to reach Reading's most vulnerable communities take shape. Thanks to support from the government's Culture Recovery Fund, community theatre in Reading will continue to thrive. These new workshops will help reach schools, libraries and community organisations and give everyone a chance to access high-quality arts no matter where they live."
About Reading Rep Theatre
Reading Rep began when Artistic Director Paul Stacey took a £500 overdraft and invested it into a vision he had always believed in: to revitalise Reading’s cultural landscape by making and creating the highest quality theatre, with, by and for Reading.
The company moved into the black box theatre at Reading College, producing packed out plays on a shoestring. Before long, Reading Rep grew to be a beloved home and playground for many of the UK’s leading theatre-makers, including Barney Norris, Roy Alexander Weise and Mischief Theatre. Collaborations and co-productions with leading regional and London theatres including Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Arcola Theatre and Oxford Playhouse placed Reading within the heart of the national theatre landscape.
With community at the heart of the artistic vision of the company, Reading Rep created ENGAGE in 2015, our flagship community outreach programme providing access to the arts for Reading’s most vulnerable communities. We run a year-round programme of workshops, delivered in partnership with Reading Libraries, Reading Borough Council, the Cultural Education Partnership, the NHS and numerous others, that has reached 15,000 children, young people and adults in the last 18 months alone.
With critical acclaim and sell out success, Reading Rep was ready for a new and permanent home. In 2018, just six years after our first production, we began raising funds to convert a former Salvation Army Hall into a 180 seat theatre and cultural hub.
After raising £1million throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, the company is thrilled to be opening its new venue in 2021 with a bold new artistic season of work.
