Student task force works to keep theatre going strong
Theatre Trent Venue Relief Fund will go to support The Theatre on King and Market Hall Performing Arts Centre
Theatre Trent, a Trent University student-run group dedicated to supporting theatrical endeavours throughout the Trent community, has announced the establishment of the Theatre Trent Venue Relief Fund with $6,000 set aside to provide essential support to two local performance venues whose doors have been closed for months due to COVID-19.
These venues, The Theatre on King and The Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, host the majority of Theatre Trent sponsored productions.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” says artist and Trent MA candidate Sarah McNeilly, founder of the Theatre Trent Task Force that created the relief fund. “Performance venues are particularly vulnerable to the closures COVID has necessitated. Although businesses are slowly being permitted to reopen, live performance venues will remain shuttered for quite some time. These venues need our support now to help ensure that they can persist until they are allowed to reopen.”
The $6,000 will be distributed to the two venues in amounts equal to the portion of Theatre Trent events that take place at each site, with $5,000 to The Theatre on King, while The Market Hall receives $1,000.
“This initiative is fantastic, and we are thankful to be a part of it,” said Chad Hogan, director of The Market Hall. “The best way to support the hall is to become a member, which provides benefits to you, and helps us demonstrate the community-wide support the hall enjoys.”
For information on how to become a member, visit The Market Hall website at markethall.org.
“TTOK runs on community energy and goodwill,” said Ryan Kerr, artistic director of The Theatre on King. “We’ve been getting donations since this crisis began, and the support means the world to us. It’s the difference between our existence on the other side of this crisis, or not.”
To support TTOK with a donation, visit the website of their charitable partner Public Energy, at publicenergy.ca/support/donate/ and select TTOK on the drop-down menu in the FUND line.
“We need to make sure that performing artists, and audiences, will have rehearsal and performance spaces to return to when we are permitted to do so,” said Kate Story, member of the Theatre Trent executive and chair of The Theatre on King Board. “Imagine a Peterborough without live theatre, dance, music! It’s not a pretty picture.”
Herod Financial
Herod Financial Services donated a generous $20,000 to the Canadian Mental Health Association Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge’s (CMHA HKPR) Journeying Together program as part of the Great Canadian Giving Challenge, a virtual fundraising contest that ran through June.
The Journeying Together program provides education and support to caregivers ad family members of individual with a mental health concern, helping them learn how to better support their loved ones and themselves. It supports approximately 250 individuals each year.
CMHA HKPR thanks Kevan and Roberta Herod, founders of Herod Financial Services, for their generous donation to this program.
“The Herods continue to be leaders in supporting caregiver mental health in our community and have championed our Journeying Together program since 2014. They have been instrumental in the success of the program and have shown a passion for assisting caregivers,” said Jack Veitch, manager of community engagement and education.
“We are so grateful for our Journeying Together group,” said a caregiver currently receiving support from the program.
“We received help that we didn’t even realize was possible. We are still a work in progress and are grateful to have the support of this wonderful group.”