SAVE RED LADDER REACHES £25,000 AND LAUNCHES LIVE EVENT STRAND AT LEEDS’ THE BLACK SWAN!
Save Red Ladder is delighted to announce that just over a year since launch, the independent campaign set up to fund a production for the Leeds-based radical theatre company Red Ladder has raised over £25,000 of its £80,000 target and is hosting its first live event at new Leeds venue, Black Swan.
Save Red Ladder is delighted to announce that just over a year since launch, the independent campaign set up to fund a production for the Leeds-based radical theatre company Red Ladder has raised over £25,000 of its £80,000 target and is hosting its first live event at new Leeds venue, Black Swan.
The event, Save Red Ladder Live, will take place next Thursday 23 July from 6.30pm and will include a performance of Red Ladder’s current one-man show, Rabbitskin, featuring actor William Fox, live acoustic set and DJ-ing from Leeds-based musician Fuzzy Jones and a three-course meal including ice-cream from Northern Bloc.
Rabbitskin, by Beeston writer Dominic Grace and directed by Chris Hill, is a bittersweet story about Joe, a boy growing up in an Irish Catholic family in South Leeds. William Fox first worked for Red Ladder in 2012, taking the lead in their community show about Leeds United, Promised Land. In 2013, Red Ladder cast William professionally in their national tour of new play by Leeds writer Ben Tagoe, The Thing about Psychopaths. Since then he has worked professionally as an actor including roles in Coronation Street and Townsend Production’s recent tour, United We Stand.
Rod Dixon, Artistic Director of Red Ladder comments:
“The last 12 months have been some of my hardest as Artistic Director of Red Ladder, but the Save Red Ladder campaign has really given us strength in the fact that we are NEEDED and we are WANTED, not just in Leeds, but all over the UK – in the places that we tour to and with the audiences we engage with digitally all over the world. We have an exciting 2016 ahead, and we’re confident that we will find a way to deliver the work we need to deliver. We’re also delighted to be working in partnership with a network of non-theatre venues including The Black Swan, whose support we couldn’t do this without.”
Tickets are £20 with £5 going direct to Save Red Ladder. The ticket price covers food – for those not wishing to eat, a donation can be made on the door. To book a ticket please visit: http://blackswanleeds.co.uk/events/item/save-red-ladder-fundraiser
These performances of Rabbitskin form part of a Research & Development phase of a strategic touring project. Other dates include Barnsley Trades Club, 17 July, Edlington Top Club, Doncaster, 18 July and Batley Bulldogs RLFC, 28 July. Tickets from www.redladder.co.uk
To donate to Save Red Ladder please visit: www.localgiving.com/redladder
About Save Red Ladder
Following the announcement on Tuesday 1 July 2014 that the UK’s leading radical theatre company Red Ladder was to receive a 100% cut to its Arts Council funding, a team of independent supporters have set up a campaign to save the company.
The #GisATenner campaign is based on the fact that if each of Red Ladder’s Twitter followers gave £10 that would cover the full production budget of one UK tour (£80,000), and half of the £160,000 that the company had cut. The company’s only other current core grant in aid is an annual £5000 from Leeds City Council.
About Red Ladder
Red Ladder champions new writing, particularly that which challenges or agitates. It is a radical theatre company with 46 years of history; acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading national touring companies producing high quality theatre contributing to social change and global justice.
Founded in 1968 in London, the company’s history is rooted in the radical socialist theatre movement in Britain known as agitprop. The company moved to Leeds in the 70’s and is still based in the city.
About Black Swan
Partners Shane Quigley (Epiphany Solutions) and Si Ord, of Sandinista and Smokestack, collaborate to bring you Black Swan, a quintessential pub in the heart of Leeds’ iconic Call Lane.
Black Swan’s food concept is split over two floors offering artisan pizzas in the ground floor bar and a contemporary British menu in the first floor restaurant. Black Swan’s Dine menu is fine British food meets hearty Yorkshire grub. Find fresh, locally sourced ingredients served alongside quality craft beers and coffee.
