The Foundation

The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation awards between twenty and thirty grants each year to smaller scale professional theatre projects based in London. There are two rounds of funding, with deadlines in February and August.

The Foundation has two major aims: to help professional productions in need of financial support and to introduce high-quality live performance to groups who are not traditional or regular theatregoers.

Examples of recent grants include those to Ockham’s Razor towards Tess, Almeida Theatre towards  King Lear, Park Theatre towards Sun Bear, Birds of Paradise towards Don’t Make Tea,  The Yard towards Samuel Takes a Break, Clean Break towards Trials and Passions of Unfamous Women,  Arcola Theatre towards The Book of Grace, Fifth Word Theatre towards Liberation Squares,  Wayward Productions towards Princess Smartypants, Donmar Warehouse towards The Cherry Orchard, Artemis Theatre Company towards The Rainbows End, Southwark Playhouse towards Windrush Child, Fuse theatre CIC towards Follow the Signs, Kiln Theatre towards Peanut butter and Blueberries, Papatango Theatre towards Some Demon, Fuel Productions towards There’s a Bear on my Chair, Shybairn Theatre towards This is What Utopia Looks Like, Omnibus-Clapham towards Arctic, Arts Trust Productions towards Fire Songs, Poltergeist Theare Limited towards Alice in Wonderland, Broccoli Arts Limited towards Tender, Hampstead Theatre towards their £10 ticket scheme, How It Ended towards The Fir Tree, Theatre Peckham towards Pan, The Bush Theatre towards Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew, Blue Elephant Theatre towards Mrs Claus List, The Space towards A Kiss for Cinderella  and Finborough Theatre for Belly of the Beast.    

The Foundation also funds the Lilian Baylis Awards for promising students who attend the accredited drama schools in London. The grants are made at the end of the students’ second year to ease the financial pressures in their final year of study. Each student is recommended for an award by their drama school. We are sorry but this scheme is not open to general applicants. Please note that we do not make grants to individuals for drama training.

The Foundation is funded from the invested proceeds of the sale of The Old Vic Theatre in 1982 plus subsequent gifts and bequests. It has existed as a charity since 1891 and still owns the Theatre’s archives from 1818-1963, which are housed at The University of Bristol Theatre Collection.

The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation is committed to supporting and championing work that represents diverse people and perspectives, challenges bias and inequality (historical, systemic and cultural), and is inclusive and accessible for artists/producers and audiences.

 

To enable this, we strive to maintain a diverse and inclusive Board of Trustees; in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age, ability, religion/belief and LGBTQIA+ identities.