Camden People’s Theatre (CPT) is facing an emergency. We need to raise £80,000 by December 2025 to continue our sector defining work, safeguard our youth theatre, and continue supporting the artists who will shape the future of British theatre. We’ve already secured £10,500, and now we’re turning to our community for help.

For over 30 years, CPT has been one of the UK’s most vital homes for new and independent performance: a launchpad for extraordinary talent and a hub for bold, joyful, political theatre. Artists like Cash Carraway (Rain Dogs), Nouveau Riche (Queens of Sheba), and Flawbored (It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure) all started here.

Last year alone, we supported 122 artists – 65% in the first five years of their careers – and commissioned 16 brand-new projects, with 47% of those artists identifying as Global Majority, 66% as LGBTQIA+, 66% as deaf or disabled, and 40% as working class. We don’t just platform new voices, we help build sustainable careers through mentoring, producing support, and community connection.

Despite this impact, we face an unprecedented funding crisis. Across the theatre sector, income from trusts and foundations has collapsed – a cornerstone of CPT’s funding model for decades. Without urgent support, we will be forced to make devastating cuts: cancelling our 2026 seasons, scaling back our work with emerging and marginalised artists, and putting our acclaimed free-to-access youth theatre at risk.

We are not standing still. Over the past year, we’ve opened up new income streams, built stronger partnerships, grown individual giving, and cut costs wherever we can - all while staying true to our values of paying staff and artists fairly. These steps are already strengthening our business model, and we’re confident in its long-term resilience. But right now, we need your help to bridge the gap.

By donating today, you’re helping us protect a vital cultural space – and ensuring the next generation of theatre-makers has the chance to thrive.

The difference your support makes:

£100 – Provides a term of free dinners for a young person at Camden Youth Theatre, so cost is never a barrier to participation.

£200 – Kick-starts a new idea: a seed commission for an emerging artist to test a brand-new performance in our theatre.

£500 – Funds two one-day professional development workshops for emerging artists, covering vital skills like fundraising, producing, or access integration.

£2,500 – Supports a festival week at CPT (like Sprint), giving dozens of artists their first professional platform and audiences a glimpse of the future of theatre.

£5,000 – Funds a term of mentoring, rehearsal space and producing support for multiple artists through our Starting Blocks programme.

£10,000 – Pays for integrated access across a season of shows, from captioning to audio description, so deaf and disabled audiences can experience live theatre.

Even small donations make a big impact: if everyone who’s attended a show at CPT so far in 2025 donated £10, we’d reach well beyond our £80,000 target

Why support us?

Right now, it’s harder than ever for early-career artists to sustain a life in theatre. Many earn below the living wage, face barriers because of race, class, disability, or geography, and are pushed out of an industry that too often only works for the privileged few. The result? Our stages, and our screens, risk becoming less diverse, less imaginative, and less reflective of the society we live in.

CPT is part of the solution. For over 30 years, we’ve been the theatre that champions those voices that the sector overlooks: artists who are queer, working class, disabled, or Global Majority. We don’t just give them stage time: we offer mentoring, rehearsal space, producing support, and the tools to build sustainable careers - helping them thrive, and in turn, reshape the future of theatre.

The impact is real. Artists we’ve supported — like Chris Thorpe, Lorna Rose Treen, Sh!t Theatre, Frankie Thompson, and many more— have gone on to the West End, the BBC, and international stages. In 2024/25, nearly 60% of our audiences were first-time visitors, and at our recent disabled-led festival, 62% of the audience identified as deaf, disabled or living with a long-term health condition. We’re reaching the communities that the wider theatre sector continues to leave behind.

By donating, you’re not just helping one small theatre survive. You’re investing in the next generation of artists who will shape culture for decades to come, and you’re ensuring theatre remains a space where everyone, on stage and off, can belong.

Fringe theatre is worth fighting for. Long live CPT.

More about us:

Camden People’s Theatre began in 1994 when a group of artists transformed a disused pub on Hampstead Road into a home for radical new theatre. Thirty years on, that spirit of independence and imagination still defines who we are.

We’re proud to be small but radical: a theatre where experimentation is encouraged, where joy and politics sit side by side, and where community is at the heart of everything we do. Our free Camden Youth Theatre, our commitment to integrated access, our insistence on keeping tickets affordable, and our pledge to pay artists fairly are all part of the same belief: that theatre should belong to everyone.

The atmosphere here is unique: warm, daring, collaborative. As Milk Presents put it: “CPT was the turning point for us. They believe in you so you can believe in yourself. They’re in it for the long game so you’re in it for the long game.” And an audience member told us: “As a Black queer woman, you don’t normally get to see yourself on stage. There’s nothing like this where I live.”

As The Guardian wrote, “CPT is one of the most important spaces in London for early-career artist development and form innovation.” We believe the future of theatre starts here.

That’s what CPT is: a home for artists and audiences alike, a place where bold new ideas are nurtured, and a community that believes fringe theatre is worth fighting for.