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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 18 January 2008

Theatre hopes for grants cut reprieve

AN Islington children’s theatre will hear on Wednesday if it has won an appeal against a £194,000 Arts Council grants cut that threatens its future.
Staff at Pop Up theatre, in Brewery Road, had just three weeks to make their case to the regional board of the Arts Council.
Seven full-time staff face redundancy if the cut goes ahead. Shows were cancelled following the shock announcement just before Christmas.
A list of distinguished names have added their support to the appeal by the theatre, whose patron is poet John Hegley.
Richard Shannon, of Polka Theatre, in Wimbledon, has told Pop Up: “You gave me my first break into theatre for children and I learnt so much.”
Tony Graham, artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre, in Southwark, has warned that the Arts Council’s decision will have “devastating consequences”.
Award-winning children’s writer David Almond, author of best-selling novel Skellig, said: “Pop Up has been crucial in my career. It was in collaboration with Pop Up I wrote my first children’s play…
“I was hugely impressed by the creativity and ambition of this theatre company, by its refusal to take short cuts, by the recognition of the necessity for children to be offered work of the highest quality.”
Without Arts Council funding, the theatre’s work with some 15,000 young people each year is in jeopardy. Its newly-commissioned spring production, due to tour for 31 performances, has been cancelled due to the proposed cut.

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