We’ve had some great news for the theatre this week – we are now Edward Alderton Theatre CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). You can see our Charity Registration Number at the bottom of the home page, it’s all official!

Becoming a recognised charity has long been an aspiration for the EAT. We’re hugely grateful to Helen Macdonald for all of her help with our application, we’re very lucky to have members with such expertise as it is not a simple task.  This was submitted to the Charities Commission six months ago and this week they said YES!

Our Charity status opens up the possibility of applying for grants and funding. This is going to be critical for the theatre going forward, not least to improve accessibility – our first priority is to reconfigure the existing toilets to allow for a fully accessible cubicle.

If you would like to be part of a small group that will lead on funding applications, we’d love to hear from you. Send an email to edwardaldertontheatre@gmail.com or have a chat at the Wednesday Night Social if it’s something you think you might be able to help with.

In order to complete our submission to the Charities Commission, we had to name the people who would be our Charity’s initial Trustees. These are: Lindsay Dale, Rachel De Silva, Helen Macdonald, Sue Sewell and Penny Walshe. The Trustees have overall legal responsibility for the governance and running of the Charity and in addition will need to take an active, named role to support the day-to-day running of the theatre.

Our first AGM will be held on Wednesday 5^th August, at which all of the current Trustees will stand down and nominations will be invited for election to the Board of Trustees.

If you would be interested in taking on a Trustee role, please email us at edwardaldertontheatre@gmail.com by 5^th July 2026 and we will arrange for you to have an informal chat with the current Trustees to let you know more about what it entails.

If being a Trustee is not for you, but you would still like to help with the running of the theatre, we will also have Management Committee roles available, so again, please get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

As we head towards the end of our 50^th Anniversary Season, we’re delighted that our Charity status means we’re in a really strong position to head into another 50 years of our wonderful little theatre.