News

Dear Friends,

My name is Jessica Brewster, and this is my first communication as full time Director of The Roses.

When I took on the role at the beginning of March this letter was going to be a slew of good news: the Roses has won its first Arts Council England project grant in 9 years and received a £19k grant from Tewkesbury Borough Council. We have a new Panto for 2020 written for us from the Bafta-winning writer of the New Stateman and Birds of a Feather, and a brilliant year of programming ahead.

What none of us envisioned was the global crisis of coronavirus throwing everyone’s lives into turmoil.

Yesterday, 16th March 2020, the government advised everyone to stop all non-essential contact including attending theatres. On this basis we have decided in order to fully protect the health and wellbeing of our customers and staff we will temporarily close. The venue will be closing from 5pm on Tuesday 17th March. We currently plan to reopen on Wednesday 1st April, but will remain responsive to up-to-date Government advice.

Our box office will remain open from 10am-2pm. We will be contacting all customers booked for close down period. We are a place of gathering, connection and community – all those things we are being advised against to protect ourselves and our loved ones – and without this, even a short closure, is going to have a devasting impact on us.

If you would like to support us there are a number of ways to do this:

• If you are able to, donating the cost of tickets would be a huge help, and a big thank you to those of you have done this already.
• We have set up a fundraising campaign here if you are able to donate more
• You can buy tickets for future shows. Currently, our autumn season is unaffected.

We hope to be open for the Easter holidays so that low risk families and children are able to come and enjoy some fantastic theatre and cinema - we will keep you updated.

Wishing you all well, and thank you so much for your support so far.

Jess and The Roses Team