In 2019, Ian McKellen went on a tour of the UK visiting 87 venues with a one-man show. The aim was to raise money for each venue he visited. Later that year the show transferred to the West End for 88 performances.

The final two shows were captured by the producing team in conjunction with NT Live.

All remaining profits including any salary Ian would have received will be distributed to help emerging producers by providing a one-off grant of up to £25,000.

The aims are:

  • To support emerging producers and production companies.
  • To allow producers to employ and correctly pay as many people as possible.
  • To enable productions that would otherwise be financially unviable due to cast size. Grants will favour those productions that break even BECAUSE of this money.
  • The grant is for producing plays – both new plays and revivals.

Who can apply:

  • The Producer or Production Company must have already produced one production in the UK in a venue that is a member of UK Theatre or the London.
  • Fringe for more than 21 consecutive paid public performances.
    The producer or production company must have paid the cast and crew equity minimum or above.
  • Your production must have a cast of at least 6 actors and 1 of these actors must be a recent graduate of an accredited theatre training course (graduated in 2020, 2021 or 2022)

Deadline to apply is 5pm on 31st August 2022.

For more information and to apply, click here.