| History, Aims &
Objectives |
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History - The
Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames has an interesting background being
used for a variety of purposes after it opened as The New Theatre in
1805. More recent history:- |
| 1904 - 1910 |
The building was known as the
Kenton Hall, where cinema and theatre were performed until it
closed. |
| 1925 - 1928 |
After some fourteen years, it
re-opened as a hall for theatrical use. Sadly this only lasted
for three years. |
| 1930 - 1951 |
The building re-opened as The
Play House Theatre and stayed open with a high level of theatrical
performance and entertainment. |
| 1951 - 1963 |
New licensees, John Piper (the
artist) and Dr. Adam Hartley ran the Theatre until it was forced to
close by the fire officer. |
| 1965 - 1967 |
A group of local people decided
to rescue the theatre and founded a charitable company to focus the
activity. The Theatre was saved and re-opened in 1967, being
renovated, upgraded and put back into operation through a succession
of tremendous fundraising and volunteer efforts by a large number of
people. |
| 1967 - present |
To gain a more stable basis fro
the activities, a forty-five year fully repairing lease was taken
out with the landlords (Henley Municipal Charity Trustees) and all
the theatre organisation was incorporated into a single company,
The Kenton Theatre (Henley on Thames) Management Society
Ltd., short The Kenton Theatre. We are very proud
to be involved in the longest period the Theatre has been open and
are working hard for it to stay open for many years to come.
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| Aims and Objectives
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| The charitable objects of The
Kenton Theatre as laid down in our constitution are: -
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| "…the encouragement of the Arts,
including the arts of drama, mime, dance, singing and music … and
... the repair, restoration and preservation … of the Kenton Theatre
Henley-on-Thames in the County of Oxford."
|
| The Kenton Theatre pursues these
charitable objects by maintaining and equipping the theatre, and by
providing it as a public amenity for the benefit of a broad
constituency. The Kenton Theatre itself rarely produces
theatre, only occasionally promoting shows itself, although this is
increasing as a part of fundraising activities. Theatrical activity carried out by independent
production companies, including many amateur groups who rent the
facilities for short periods, is the mainstay. The Theatre
itself shows films, having taken over the equipment from a local
cinema that closed in the early nineties. |
| The Kenton Theatre is run
essentially as a volunteer organisation, employing a wide variety of
workers on the management, technical, commercial and administrative
side. It is a point of pride for the Theatre that it has
managed to achieve its purposes for nearly 40 years now, basically
without any revenue grants. Results from current operations,
together with benefit shows, have allowed balancing our income and
expenditure very successfully. |
| Reports &
Accounts |
| Points worthy of noting: -
|
- In period 30 September 2004, we
recognised we need to to fundraise in order to carry out
refurbishment projects as our regular hiring income is very close
to the running costs of the Theatre.
- During this period we raised
sufficient funds to finance essential legislative work for lifting
equipment and also a lighting project. Hence both our income
(funds received) and expenditure (costs of the project)
increased.
- To bring income more in line with
running costs we introduced fundraising shows and have increased
prices charged for hiring The Theatre; both contribute towards
revenue.
- The upgrades and refurbishment
projects are long overdue and we have recognised we need to
address the situation and have the work carried out in order to
encourage a higher number of patrons to visit the Kenton
Theatre. This in turn will increase the revenue to a
healthier level.
- Once we have carried out the
improvements for the patrons, we need to address the improvements
backstage that are also very much needed. This will benefit
hiring companies and hopefully encourage increased bookings.
The backstage improvements will be covered as a separate
projects.
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| Fundraising |
| This project is very important to
Henley and the surrounding areas - especially as we want to
celebrate our bicentenary in style. We are aiming to raise
£10-15,000 through local fundraising activities. |
| Bi-Centenary
Projects |
| We would like to start the
bi-centenary celebrations with three long overdue capital projects,
a new canopy, refurbished front of house cloakrooms and a new stage
with storage facilities. After a long period of substantial
deficit, we are concentrating heavily on introducing new hirers to
the Theatre to combat the ever-increasing running costs of the 4th
oldest working theatre in England. The first two projects will
benefit patrons and the community, while the third project will
benefit hiring companies. These two groups of people are so
important to the theatre and to each other. |
| A New Canopy - The Kenton
has a principal role within the Henley community and it is important
that the new canopy will be in keeping, not only for today, but for
many years to come. We have worked with architects,
conservation officers, planning authorities and English Heritage in
order to present the appropriate canopy design. |
| Cloakroom Refurbishment -
We have reviewed the current layout of the toilet facilities and
want to increase the facilities available in the ladies; that often
attract lengthy queues! The layout will be re-planned,
refurbished with new bathroom furniture, new windows and completely
decorated to compliment the new layout and improved
surroundings. |
| A New Stage - The general
appearance of the Kenton stage seems to be perfectly adequate,
however those who have pe4rformed on the stage will agree that a new
stage would be gratefully received. Over the course of time
the stage has worn and developed areas that do not perform as well
as they should. While replacing the stage, we want to improve
the structure and increase storage facilities. Our aim is that
the stage will see many, many more performances in years to
come. |
| Estimated Costs - We have
estimates or budgets for each of the three projects. We
believe the estimates to be reasonable, however we will engage more
detailed quotations once we have the funding pledges in
place. |
| |
Canopy and New Facade
Cloakroom
Refurbishment
New Stage and Storage
VAT
@17.5%
TOTAL |
£50,000
£21,500
£30,000
£18,000
£120,000 |
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| Supporters |
We are welcoming support by way
of donations, sponsorship and grants from local authorities, grant
making organisations, corporate and private investment into the
Kenton Theatre as well as local fundraising activities. For
many years the Kenton Theatre has given pleasure to many walks of
life, we now ask our friends in both the private and corporate
community to support our bicentenary
project.
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