HOLLYWOOD actor Tom Hiddleston has backed the Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts, with the launch of its Love Lighthouse public fundraising appeal.
The War Horse and Marvel Avengers star recorded a special video message of support that was played at the campaign launch last week.
The evening also saw a performance from the actor in a screening of the National Theatre Live presentation of Coriolanus. The Poole venue is calling on supporters to help raise funds for the final stages of the venue's refurbishment next summer.
The campaign, Love Lighthouse is encouraging donations to help hit the final £400,000 needed to complete a multi-million pound refurbishment to bring the charity-funded venue fully up to date.
Another endorsement for the Love Lighthouse campaign came from Josie Rourke, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse: “It has a lot of meaning for me and I’m enormously honoured to be here tonight at the launch of the public part of the appeal,” she said.
“To have raised £5 million so far and to only have another £400,000 to go is hugely exciting and a little bit scary. The way to get there is with lots and lots of small donations from people that really care. If you can give 10p or £10,000 it will make a difference and be just as welcome,” she added.
Josie also touched on the part played by live screenings in arts venues such as Lighthouse, not as a substitute for live theatre, but as a different way of experiencing theatre that reaches out to new audiences.
‘When I grew up in Salford it didn’t have a theatre so if there had been NT Live screenings I would have absolutely devoured them. Screenings like this cannot replace live theatre, but digital technology can bring the theatre to audiences in a way that allows them to see it differently.”
Elspeth McBain, Chief Executive for Lighthouse said: “It has been a genuine honour and a rare privilege to welcome Josie Rourke, one of British theatre’s most dynamic artistic talents to our venue for the launch of the Love Lighthouse appeal. For a leading figure in the national theatre establishment to so eloquently endorse what we are achieving here is enormously pleasing and can only help focus attention on our work.”
For more information please visit lovelighthouse.co.uk
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