Dear Supporters,

This Campaign has not ended.

But there has been a prolonged silence while we have been meeting with the Trustees of Seven Dials Playhouse in the aftermath of their selling the lease of 1a Tower Street - the building bought for actors by actors.

The intent of our meeting with them, under the gaze of the Charity Commission, was to try to persuade the Trustees to re-instate affordable training and workshops.

We now know they have no intention of doing any such thing, and are instead hellbent on pursuing their vision which has led to the erasure of the Actors Centre and the sale of the lease. It appears their sole invitation to collaborate was predicated on the idea that this campaign ceases its campaigning!

It is awkward for them that there are loud voices of condemnation & protest at their wanton destruction of a community of thousands who cherished the Actors Centre as a lifeline, including many of you. We have no choice but to conclude that for, Seven Dials Playhouse, engaging with us was performative.

Their decisions since the 're-brand' to end membership and reject a successful 40-year business model in favour of programming intermittent shows, comedy nights and a few artistic development initiatives serving the very few has led to a serious Charity Commission investigation.

While the outcome of that investigation is as yet unknown (we pray for decisive intervention and leadership from the Charity Commission), the 5,700+ signatures to our petition, that you have signed, remain ignored. It is galling to imagine how Sheila Hancock, Tony Hopkins and the other founders must feel as they have watched their passionate project be dismantled by a CEO and trustees who have wilfully ignored the AC's vital role in the industry, failed to understand its legacy and have apparently pursued a self-serving agenda at the exclusion of thousands of actors. 

A public meeting will take place at the Old Diorama (201 Drummond Street, Regent’s Place, NW1 3FE) at 7.00pm on May 1st.

We hope you will gather with us to discuss future campaigning, and indeed the huge question of whether there is a place in our industry today for a newly constituted Actors Centre - one which has built into it an unbreachable defence against opportunists taking over and re-purposing a charity.

Entrusted with the Actors Centre’s 40-year legacy, they branded the very idea of an Actors Centre “elitist”, followed up with decisions that look alarmingly like asset-stripping, while remunerating their leader with a generous salary. 

Please keep sharing the petition to make your voice heard and we hope you will be able to come to our public meeting on 1st May.

Enough!

Actor At The Centre.