The Stiwt to host “A Virtual Audience” in bid to raise funds while lockdown measures remain in place

A local theatre which had to close its doors due to the coronavirus pandemic has come up with a unique way to raise funds and to entertain the public.

The Stiwt Theatre, in Rhosllannerchrugog, is amongst the many cultural industries which saw its business grind to an abrupt halt when the strict lockdown measures were imposed back in back.

Despite some measures slowly being eased, there is still no indication when theatres and similar venues will be able to open their doors again to the public.

Staff at the theatre have been furloughed and although the imposed lockdown put an end to the Stiwt’s ability to generate income, the bills still keep coming in.

In an attempt to ease this situation, the trustees held an email brainstorming session to come up with fundraising ideas and a small fundraising working group was set up.

They started with the now mandatory lockdown Zoom meeting, and the idea of a virtual audience donating money for virtual tickets was developed.

A fundraising target of £1,000 has been set by Monday 20th July 2020. At 7:00 pm on that date, staff plan to premiere a short video of images and video clips of some of the activities that have taken place in the Stiwt.

Staff say they want to attempt to fill at least 500 seats before the video premieres. The appeal went live on the JustGiving website at 4pm Tuesday 23rd of June.

News of the fundraising event was posted on local social media groups and by 9:30pm that same evening they had received £429 in donations.

Trustee, David Thomas Jones, said “We are over the moon with the reaction of the public to our appeal” and he joked “ It looks like we will need to extend the theatre to fit in our virtual audience”.

They are asking for donations of £2 to represent a virtual ticket. £10 will represent five tickets.

Donations can be made via the JustGiving website and they hope to have collection buckets in both the local Co-Op shops. If you are in a position to donate, don’t forget to select Gift Aid if you are a taxpayer, as you are not buying a ticket you are making a donation.