To restore the beautiful arched windows in this wonderful old theatre built in 1742, close to the Jurassic Coast.
The much loved Lyric Theatre is a grade 2 listed building in the heart of Bridport, Dorset. The building has been in community use for all of its life. The previous owner, Bernard Gale who ran a ballet school here, passed away and sadly the buidling fell into the hands of developers who tried to turn it into flats. It was bought in 2011 by Niki McCretton, a performer who lives locally, passionate to keep it as a theatre and open to the community.
Since then the building has, once again, become a lively place, presenting shows, running a puppet club, dance and theatre classes, creating a home for youth theatre, supporting artists – amateur and professional/local and international to create their work, providing a base for Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company who make productions for families, running a cosy coffee shop, offering work experience placements to young people with professional theatre makers, bringing in interesting and challenging performances from across the globe, linking with other venues to support the arts and being a wonderful and rare hub for the creation process of live performance.
The Lyric is run as a Community Interest Company (C.I.C) which means that any money raised is ring-fenced for its charitable and community aims.
“Our mission is to make the performing arts as acccesible as possible, to inspire creativity in all ages and to contiunue to be a place where people can learn, participate and instigate ideas”.
The boarded up windows make the building appear sad and unloved – quite the opposite of what is going on inside! The original arched windows would have made the space so beautiful as well as doing what windows should – let in light and keep the rain and wind out! We simply cannot wait for the moment that we can remove the boarding and begin the restoration process to bring this building back to its former glory and flood it with light and warmth.
Please do help – come and visit if you can – Bridport is a wonderful town with a vibrant and growing repuation for art and culture and film – recently featured in ITV’s Broadchurch and home to many wonderful musicians, writers and visual artists.