Gloucestershire’s premiere entertainment venue, The Everyman Theatre, has confirmed its headline sponsor for its much-anticipated annual festive pantomime, Dick Whittington & His Cat Tweedy. Investec Wealth & Investment (Investec), one of the UK’s leading wealth management firms, will support the in-house production of the popular family-friendly festive pantomime, which has become a much-loved local institution.
Investec, an existing sponsor of The Everyman Theatre, agreed a new three-year relationship in 2020 as the theatre’s Principal Partner. Investec’s Cheltenham office has pledged to fund a range of educational projects, run by The Everyman Theatre, to help young people across the county to access the arts.
The projects have to date included live streaming of The Everyman Theatre’s Studio Christmas Shows into local hospitals, enabling young children to enjoy some festive entertainment while in hospital over the Christmas period.
Investec has also supported the annual production of a new play aimed at primary school children, which has toured local libraries throughout the summer holidays, offering the chance to enjoy free entertainment that encourages literacy and reading. The theme for 2022 was STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and the play ‘Malfunction! Malfunction!’, which was written and directed by The Everyman Theatre’s Community Arts Manager, Camille Cowe, played to capacity and received positive feedback.
Investec also continue to fund after-school drama clubs in schools highlighted in the Cheltenham Borough Council ‘No Child Left Behind’ report, run by practitioners from The Everyman Theatre. The aim of the clubs is to help disadvantaged children to develop core skills, boost their confidence and encourage them to participate more in school life. The funding from Investec enables The Everyman Theatre to provide these after-school drama clubs free of charge.
Tristan George, of Investec’s Cheltenham office, said: “We are proud to be a long-standing supporter, and Principal Sponsor, of our Cheltenham office’s local theatre, The Everyman. We are
delighted to be extending our involvement with sponsorship of this year’s pantomime, which is always such a major event for our town and surrounding areas.”
Mark Goucher, CEO of The Everyman Theatre, said: “Our business relationships are an integral part of The Everyman Theatre as we work across the wider community to provide cultural outreach and education programmes.
The support of Investec for our 2022 pantomime is a superb new partnership, which will enable us to maintain our commitment to making theatre accessible for all, by helping to fund a range of options for panto audiences with specific needs, such as audio described performances for the visually impaired; captioned and British Sign Language performances for those with hearing impairments and “relaxed” performances for those with learning disabilities, such as autism or dementia.
Funding also supports our aim to keep ticket prices low for schools and to help provide educational extras, such as workshops, talks and tours.”
Dick Whittington & His Cat Tweedy will be showing at The Everyman Theatre from November 2022 – January 2023. This year the theatre has appointed two local charity partners, St James City Farm and Scrubditch Care Farm, and will help to raise money for these two charities via its recent 10-mile sponsored walk (which took place on 2nd October 2022) and collections donated by the audience during its pantomime performances.
To find out more about The Everyman Theatre see https://www.everymantheatre.org.uk/ To find out more about Investec see https://www.investec.com/en_gb.html
