Theatre-a-thon for Creative Futures

Save Live Theatre. Save Hackney Empire. Save Creative Futures.

 Forest School is passionate about the performing arts. Creativity, expression, inclusion – Theatre is by turns thought-provoking, beautiful, reflective, emotional. It gives the audience and the performers a different place to simply be and supports thousands of people involved in all aspects of a production. Its value within education and to young people is unlimited and indefinable.

We want to support the Hackney Empire and help it to survive the decimation of the industry due to the pandemic. To lose this beautiful old theatre would be to make East London a little ‘less’ and take away a treasure that has brought joy to many generations of Londoners, developing new talent and supporting many careers along the way. As a school, Forest’s ongoing commitment to the Hackney Empire’s outreach programme (Creative Futures) for young people is a real concern and a key reason to keep the Hackney Empire up and running. A team from Forest School plan to walk a sponsored theatre-a-thon on Saturday, 17th October – a half marathon via 65 theatres that takes us from the Globe to the Hackney Empire, stopping at the theatres of the Southbank, West End Theatreland, Clerkenwell, and Islington en-route to Hackney. Our theatres are currently dark and we want to shine a spotlight on this, however the light at the Hackney Empire is at real risk of going out permanently.

Please don’t let this happen. We can save Live Theatre. We can save Hackney Empire. We can give a Creative Future to young people who desperately need our help more than ever right now.