Thriving at Thirty Certain Curtain company - where you can be certain of great theatre.

This May Preston based, Certain Curtain Theatre Company will celebrate 30 years of writing and producing only original theatre. Established in 1989 on the ‘Enterprise Allowance Scheme’ Certain Curtain have gone on to perform Internationally writing and producing 30 original plays which have toured England, Scotland, Wales, The Netherlands, Germany and most recently The Falkland Islands.

Since May 15^th 1989 the Company has written plays with themes as diverse as Teenage pregnancy, Drug abuse, The Holocaust, Gun-crime, Social History, Domestic violence. The company has also covered some of Lancashire’s rich History – writing, what is believed to be the first ever full length musical about football – Legend The Tom Finney Story, The Ballad of Andrew Ryding – a Preston cotton mill worker who tried to murder Cotton Kingpin Samuel Horrocks in a bid for workers rights and most recently Woman On Fire - about Preston Suffragette Edith Rigby.

“Feeling proud & passionate! We have performed in Residential homes, Hospitals, primary and secondary schools, centres for excluded children and those with special needs, community centres, Universities, 800 seat theatres, a court room, sports stadiums and even the corridor of a pre-fab building - so our work is accessible to all.” Says Claire Moore co-founder. “We’ve written 30 original plays, performed in excess of 2500 performances reaching over 300,000 people – I’m feeling proud of our achievements, especially when you consider we have had no revenue funding whatsoever – we are as passionate and determined today as we were 30 years ago!”

The company has won a number of awards, including A BBC Alfred Bradley Award for verse drama, Lucilla Award for best play, Granada TV Live Challenge Award, Best Professional Touring Theatre Company and an award for Excellence in Public Awareness Drama. As well as being nominated and shortlisted for awards including the Samuel Beckett Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.

“It’s an outstanding achievement in the face of adversity” adds writer and co-founder John Woudberg. “It’s been a constant struggle to keep our heads above water and so that does bring a sense of disappointment and disillusionment especially in our local Council who should really be proud of us and our work and proud to support us. We have taken some of Society’s most difficult and taboo subjects and turned them into powerful, mesmerising pieces of theatre, helping to tell the untold stories so that are so often ignored. We’ve flown the flag for Preston and Lancashire wherever we’ve performed so yes I am very sad that our own Council is doing nothing to support us – our audiences have ensured our survival - along with the quality of our work of course and we wholeheartedly thank them for that.”

Certain Curtain have started a £30 for 30yrs fundraiser asking supporters to donate a £1 for every year to help them continue their ground-breaking work. “We’ve chosen the paypal me method of fundraising so that every penny donated goes directly to support our work. As a not-for-profit company every penny counts and I think supporters are keen to see that the usual 5% or more taken by other fundraising sites will not be taken away. You can of course donate any amount” adds Claire

The link to help support the company is https://www.paypal.me/cctheatre