The Stage

Farnham Redgrave fans to launch business plan for venue purchase

Published Tuesday 20 December 2005 at 10:50 by Alistair Smith

Supporters of Farnham’s Redgrave Theatre have made an “important breakthrough” in their attempts to reopen a theatre on the site of the former producing house.

The Farnham Theatre Association has been launched with the aim of creating a business plan to convince local charitable organisation the Farnham Buildings Preservation Trust to purchase the venue on behalf of campaigners. The trust has agreed to the plan in principal, provided the FTA can demonstrate sufficient local support for the project.

Speaking to The Stage, FTA chairman Anne Cooper commented: “We’ve made a really important breakthrough. We’ve had meetings with important community leaders and now we have to demonstrate that we have enough money to support a business plan. We want to reopen the Redgrave and promote it as a receiving house. We would also encourage local groups to use the venue. It would stage a mix of community and professional productions.”

However, the site is currently owned by Waverley Borough Council which wants to demolish the theatre and convert the Grade II listed building to which it is attached into a restaurant. The council’s plans to redevelop the area have still not come to fruition, though, and supporters of the Redgrave are hopeful they might be persuaded to change their mind if delays persist.

“It all hangs on whether the development plans collapse. In the meantime, we have to raise as much money as possible to demonstrate the support for the project,” explained Cooper. “If we can raise £5,000 that would set things going”

John Levitt, chairman of the Save London’s Theatres Campaign, has urged Stage readers in Surrey and the surrounding regions especially to contact the new association and offer their support.

He said: “I feel the founding of the FTA is a very positive note. It’s the first optimism I’ve felt about this situation since we started work on the project eight years ago. But, it’s really important the association increases its membership at the soonest possible moment. We are hopeful and we have to put as much pressure as possible on the local council. We have to hope that they will look at this in the long term and not in the short term.”

Those wishing to offer their support for the Farnham Theatre Association should contact Anne Cooper on 01252 716394 or cooperstudio@mac.com.