THEATRE ARTISTS FUND

TIME TO ACT is pleased to support the Theatre Artists Fund - with a donation made for every book and limited edition photographic print sold.

members of the CAST, Hairspray, Shaftesbury Theatre, 2009; Photo: Simon Annand Members of the CAST, Hairspray, Shaftesbury Theatre, 2009; Photo: Simon Annand

Thousands of theatre professionals in the UK are struggling. Many of them haven’t been able to get help from the existing Government schemes, and the situation continues to worsen. They need help now.

SAM MENDES, Founder of The Theatre Artists Fund

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.

FIND OUT MORE AND DONATE HERE

At this moment theatres have no income and are unable to plan for when they can reopen... That’s why I’m supporting this vital Theatre Artists Fund to help the most vulnerable people get back on their feet. - SOPHIE OKONEDO

The lifeblood of our sector are the freelance creatives. This fund could not have come at a more important time. - KWAME KWEI-ARMAH

Thank you Sam Mendes for getting this tremendous initiative off the ground. I am very happy to support it. - IMELDA STAUNTON

 

I love actors. It’s a weakness in a producer, but it explains why I jumped at the chance to be involved in TIME TO ACT.

The vulnerability of actors is extreme. Their power is also extreme.

I find it impossible not to love the people who create this world of such extreme highs and lows. And you can see how Simon also loves them, how he documents the way they travel from living as themselves to inhabiting someone else, how he frames them in situ, in cramped dressing rooms and crowded corridors, or peering into their mirrors as if they are trying to identify the people they’re about to become.

When Simon and I first discussed this book we saw it as an extension to The Half, his first essay in demonstrating the passage of the actor from street to stage. We couldn’t have known how his photographs would also be permanent records of a world that may, I fear, never again exist so exuberantly.

Peter Wilson - Producer, The Woman in Black, An Inspector Calls