This has been a harrowing year for TFT to say the least, but despite the threat of the Arden Theatre closing, the opening of Fareham Live and constant financial pressures we are under, we have continued to bring a full repertoire of shows to you. 42 in fact in total.

This is a tremendous feat but it does come at a cost.

We were pleased that the Judge at the High Courts Of justice saw sense and allowed our appeal to go ahead on 2 counts out of 3 to a Judicial hearing on 26th March. If we lose this final appeal, we have to close the Arden at the end of May 2025.

The legal costs have been crippling and despite cutting back on expenditures where we can, we find ourselves in dire need of funds. We are actively seeking additional funding from various sources, but this is taking longer than we had anticipated to arrange

We have seldom gone to our 10,000 Patrons for help in this way, the last time was in 2010 to raise funds to pay the deposit on St Margarets Lane when we were homeless. Over the past 14 years we, with your patronage, have built a wonderful community theatre that is frankly the envy of the South Coast and beyond. We have over 400 children and young people attending our Youth Theatre. We have an outreach programme which makes theatre and live performance accessible to those unable to attend the venue. We have a Community Theatre which has never charged a fee to join, making it one of the most inclusive theatres in the country.

All of this is now in serious jeopardy.

As we run up to Christmas, we are asking if you could consider sending TFT a Christmas present. We hate to ask as we know times are difficult for everyone at this time. However, if every one of our registered patrons donated just £25.00 then it would help immensely in our fight to keep TFT in existence.