YOUR NEWS – £5million and counting…
Ian McKellen On Stage. Photo: Frederic Aranda
By PAUL JOHNSON
Ian McKellen’s donations to British theatre tops £5 million…
Ian McKellen, Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, and Sean Mathias donate profits from the National Theatre and Amazon Prime Video broadcast of his celebrated one-man show, Ian McKellen on Stage which will create a fund for emerging producers to cover actors’ salaries.
The extraordinary production was filmed by National Theatre Live in front of an audience at the Harold Pinter Theatre in January 2020. It launched exclusively on Prime Video in June, as part of a season of plays with the National Theatre.
Profits from licensing the televised show will combine with remaining profits from the West End run to create a new fund to support emerging producers and artists. Distributed via ATG Productions, multiple funding rounds will offer grants of up to £25,000 to pay actors’ wages for both new plays and revivals across UK Theatres, as long as they employ six actors or more and include a recent graduate from a theatre school.
Ian McKellen devised his solo show to celebrate his 80th Birthday year, earning £3 million for over 80 UK theatres. Through proceeds of its extended run at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, which went to British theatre charities, further fundraising and the broadcast distribution of the show, the total money raised for the theatre industry is now over £5m.
The actor told us: “Performing Ian McKellen on Stage was a joy. As our theatres re-open, I’m very pleased to be able to support producers and artists who have really struggled over the last year.”
Directed by Sean Mathias, the critically acclaimed Ian McKellen on Stage is a brilliant intimate mixture of anecdote and acting including Tolkien, Shakespeare among others, which the Daily Telegraph positioned as “the Theatre event of the year” (2019). And quite right too!
McKellen received a special Olivier Award in recognition of his fundraising, and was named the #1 most influential person in British theatre as part of ‘The Stage 100’ in 2019.