New tech for the New Theatre

Technology has advanced in every aspect of life - and theatre is no exception! The Nottingham New Theatre prides itself on being a platform that allows our members to get a foothold into an industry that is notoriously difficult to break into.  We want to put on bigger and better shows, take risks and make innovative theatre. But every year our equipment becomes increasingly outdated and with limited funding we are unable to provide our members with the high industry standard and creative opportunities we strive for.

But all is not lost! Our team has been working hard and have secured funding to revamp our technical and publicity capabilities conditional to raising a minimum of £500 through Jumpstart. Upon reaching this minimum, we will unlock an extra £2,400 through a Cascade grant that will enable us to purchase specialist industry standard equipment to support our members' creativity and development.

With your help and kind donations, we can ensure that the Nottingham New Theatre continues produce the very best of student theatre.

What is the Nottingham new theatre?

We are The Nottingham New Theatre (or NNT, to our friends), the only completely student-run theatre in England . At the NNT, students are in charge of every aspect of the theatre from directing and acting, to stage management and tech. With around 300 members , we produce 30 shows through our In-House, Fringe and Unscripted seasons as well as taking two shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year .

The Nottingham New Theatre has gone from strength to strength, enjoying sell-out and 5 star show runs in Edinburgh , recognition from the National Student Drama Festival, and with your help we can continue to make nationally recognised, and increasingly cutting-edge, student theatre.

Where do you come in?

The Nottingham New Theatre works extremely hard to put on over thirty shows a year, averaging six performances a week, in order to provide opportunities and training for actors, directors, producers, lighting and sound technicians, set and costume designers, publicity managers and much, much more!

With your donations we hope to enhance the Nottingham New Theatre's ability to work as a platform for students to break into what is becoming an increasingly competitive industry by providing our membership with industry-standard technical equipment. This will enable us to create larger and more ambitious shows that not only stretch our members' imaginations and abilities, but also enchant audiences.

Where will the money go?

With this project, we will be investing in a new and improved method of audio-visual playback for both our In-House and Fringe seasons. To do all our technical processing for the 30+ shows we produce every year, we have to use what is now a very old computer. Investing in a new and powerful Mac will allow us to revamp our technical capabilities so that our shows will be able to use more advanced and creative sound and video design, as well as increasing our abilities with projection (allowing us map projection onto multiple surfaces as in ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’, for example). Our current computer will also receive an upgrade and be transferred over to our Fringe season, allowing us to offer advanced sound and video capabilities to all of our shows – something we are currently unable to offer due to our technical limitations.

In addition to this, we are also investing in a high-definition camera and stabiliser so that our publicity team can record footage, create trailers and other promotional material for our fantastic shows. Currently, we are in a position where we find ourselves relying on members' personal equipment to create this content - teams lucky enough to own quality equipment end up with better content. This flies in the face of the ethos of inclusivity we have here at the theatre so, with your help, we hope to put an end to this by providing quality video capture equipment to all of our production teams.

If we raise more than our minimum target, we hope to invest in new LED fixtures for our shows' lighting - these can be used to create dynamic colour washes and effects. The majority of our lights offer colour by the use of gels, meaning each of the light fixtures can only use one colour once rigged. These LEDs can be programmed and used in either of our venues, meaning all of our shows can benefit. We currently own 6 LED lights, which are split between our In House and Fringe shows. This has meant we are frequently forced to hire in supplementary stock when shows' requirements clash. Increasing our stock will allow all of our shows to achieve their full technical potential, offering further opportunities for creativity in lighting design.

Breakdown of Costs:

• New Mac: £600
• Software and cabling: £400
• DSLR Camera plus accessories: £1700
• LED fixtures: £720
• Projector screen: £270

All donations received through Jumpstart will go directly towards the upgrade of our technical and publicity equipment. Any unexpected under-spending of funds will go towards technical upgrades or replacements beyond the ones described here.

Rewards

Your donations mean a lot to us and to show our appreciation we've picked out special rewards for you, starting from just £5. From getting your name on a mural painted especially to thank all of our donors, to free tickets, and the opportunity to dedicate a seat in our auditorium to yourself or a loved one - there's something for everyone!

Find us here

Find out more about the exciting goings-on at the NNT and follow us for more updates:

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NNT Archive: find out more about our rich history and explore archives of previous productions, going back to the 1950s

Help us succeed!

Donating isn't the only way to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think might support us - sign up as a helper and use the social media buttons to share on Twitter, Facebook, by email, telephone or even in a chat over coffee! In fact, share it with everyone you know, especially those who love going to the theatre! The more people who know about this project, the more likely we are to succeed. We'd love any contribution you'd be kind enough to give to help make this happen.