Reglstered number: 01526454 Charity number: 1056994 Medway Little Theatre Ltd (A company Ilmlted by guarantee) Unaudited Trustees. report and financlal statements For the year ended 31 August 2024 Medway Little Theatre Ltd {A company limited by guarantee) Contents Page Reference and admlnlstrative detalls of the charlty, Its Trustees and advisers Chaimian's statement Trustees. report Independent examlnerfs report ststement of financlal activities 10 11 Balance sheet 12 Notes to the flnanclal statements Medway Llttle Theatre Ltd (A company Ilmlted by guarantee) Reference and administrative details of the charlty, Its Trustees and advisers For the year ended 31 August 2024 Trustees David Aldington Roderic De Lonne Michael Dickinson Victoria Hayhow Chris Hynd Christopher Loft Kerensa Thompson Carol Wrate (resigned 4 June 2024) lan White (resigned 5 March 2024) Dr Christopher Pamell {appointed 9 March 2024) Company reglstered number 01526454 Charity reglsternd number 1056994 Registered office 256 St Margarets Banks High Street Rochester Kent ME1 1HY Accountsnts Kreston Reeves LLP Chartered Accountants Maritime Plac8 Quayside Chatham Maritime Chatham Kent ME4 4QZ Independent Examln•r Samantha Rouse FCCA DChA Kreston Reeves LLP 2nd Floor, Mantime Place Quayside Chatham Kent ME4 4QZ Page 1 Medway Little Theatre Ltd (A company Ilmited by guarantse) Chalmian's statement For the year ended 31 August 2024 The chairman presents his statement for the year. Looking back over my last yearfs statement, it would appear that I had already reported a lot of what happened in the 202312024 season. However, to briefy recap, the season started with 'Kodachrome' in October 2023, a UK first, followed by the Youth production of ' Wendy & Peter Pan, in November. The December production was unfortunately cancelled, but 2024 started with a production of 'The Weirf followed by the Youth production of 'Our Day Out,, both very successful. Then we had our children's production for two nighls in March.. 'April Fools, Day, and the musical, 'Th8 Point of the PyramKI'. both directed by our Children's Workshop Seader. Carol Scott, who does such splendid work with the children. Following on, camé our production of 'The Hollow Crown, a staged reading of Shakespeare, poetry, and letters covering monarchs from William I to Queen Victoria, which ran for four nights, and was directed by first time director, Adam Wigmore. In May, Paul Doust, presented us With a splendid production of Terence Rattigan's classic play 'The Deep Blue Sea, which introduced several new members to the theatre. This was followed by our last production of the season in June, the farce, 'Post Hom Gallop,, which was the sequel to 'Wild Goose Chase,, the last produdion we presented prior to lockdown in 2020. Highly successful, this proved a near sell out, which of course was good naws. I should mention that both 'The Weirf and 'Our Day Out, were entered into the Kent Drama Association {KDA) Full Length Play Festival. where Mike Dickinson won Best Supporting Actor for 'The Weirf and Lisa Gibbons was a runner up in the Best Actress category, and for 'Our Day Out., Lola Johnson won the Adjudicator's Special Award as well as being a runner up in the Best Young Player category. The production itself was also a runner up in the Most Effective Use of a Limited Space category. My wngratulations to all. July saw our annual Duncan Rand One Act Play Festival take place. the 51st, where unfortunately we were slightly down on entries from the previous year. bLrt nevertheless the festival was still a great success and enjoyed by all those groups who took part. We are hoping to boost entries for the 2025 festival. My thanks as a￿￿yS to Kerrie Thompson who administers and njns the festival and to Derek Thompson and Kairn Bignall. amongst others, for all the technical support they provide and without whom the festival wouldn't take place. It is no mean feat putting the festival on. Our 202412025 season began with a splendid production of James Goldman's 'The Lion in Winter,, followed in Octoberl November with the Youth Extravaganza, 'Romanov & Lupinette,, a Halloween take on Romeo and Juliet, which our young players perfomied with aplomb. December brought us the stage version of 'lt's a Wonderful Life,, based on the classic Frank Capra film; highly successful and a virtual sell out. JanuarylFebruary 2025, brought us a lesser known Alan Ayckboum play. 'Improbable Fiction, in which you were transported from a mundane writers group meeting to outlandish scenarios of fantastical characters formed from the wrrters, imaginations. Original, funny and.. out there! Most recently of course our YoLrth Group perfompd in 'Hope Springs (Youth Edition),, a play set in a youth correction facility where all the adults seemed to have disappeared. First time director and one of our youth leaders, David Hutley, certainty put our youngsters through their paces, but inevitably they rose to the occasion to give a splendid performance in this most powerful and challenging piece. The play has also been entered in to the 2025 KDA Full length Play Festival and received a very favourable adjudication on the last perfomiance. We therefore wish all concemed the very best of luck. Again, just prior to our youth production. we hosted local theatre company. Aftemate Shadows, with their 2025 pantomime, Sleeping Beauty for one perfomiance only. Great fun as ahvays and a sell out. On the music front, in July we hosted a Dave Goggins album release followed in August with a book launch for Wild Billy Childish to include a music evening. who retumed in November with the The Singing Loins. Highly popular, both evenings sold out. In September Rachel Lowrie and The Ashen Keys took to our stage for the first time. A Kent based mulii-instrumental and multi-voiced trio, they also proved popular. Again, in December, international group, Track Dogs retumed to our stage, selling out once more. My thanks to Cazz Wrate for organising these events. Page 2 Medway Llttle Theatre Ltd (A company Ilmlted by guarantee Chairman's statement (continued) For the year ended 31 August 2024 In October, we hosted the Little Theatre Guild (LTG) Southem Region Conference. Most ably organised by our LTG Representstive, Dawn Jones, for which many thanks, the conference proved highly successful with all those who attended from other theatre groups. My thanks also to Chris Hynd who aided and supported Dawn leading up lo the event, and to all the MLT members who attended on the day to help the proceedings run smoothly. (FYI.. The LTG is an organisation that represents the views of amateur theatres across the UK as well as providing helpful information, legislative or othepwise, about running an amateur theatre. MLT has been a member for many years). Our membership has increased slightly to 152 (Split: 90 Full Members and 62 Audience Members), and through the year we changed the term of Audience Members to Friends of the Theatre as we felt this to be more inclusive. Moving on to our box office. this has been a prety successful year. some shows doing better than others of course. Kate Brookes, our box office manager, continues to do a splendid job, apart from selling tickets and running the box office on show nights, she also forthrightly promotes our shows, sending out priority booking notices, mailchimps and reminders as a show time approaches. My thanks to you Kate for all tha hard work that you put in. Now to our changeover to LED lighting, vthich has progress8d significantly over the past year. both for the stage and public and backstage a￿as. Many thanks to Mic Aldington, our stage direclor, and Chris Ostler, who is a relatively new member and has a been a Godsend in helping to execute this exercise, and to Menno Willemse for his backup support. With regard to the upkeep of the theatre. unfortunately we have still not progressed very far, although we are due to have the rear wall of the theatre rendered this year once the better weather arrives. Part of the problem is that it is not just a matter of smartening up the building with a straight forward paint job. Due to the age of the building, significant remedial work needs to take place as per the architect and structural engineer reports we had done in 2023. Time has flown since. but rt is something we must try to address in the coming year as I'm sure you will agree, the building is looking rather sory for itself. We did nevertheless have a good clear out of the workshop and our props gallery in August, although there is plenty more to be done, and my thanks to all those who helped. At the same time, Elaine Thomas, our wardrobe manager spent many hours freeing up the attic wardrobe area so that rt could be used as our main props gallery, the original of which had been bursting at the seams, and which is now being used for our Youth Group's props, Thank you Elaine for all your hard work. As ever, additional help is always required behind the scenes: set builders and painters, stage managers and assistant stage managers to run the shows and techies to light the shows. For some considerabl8 time it has been the same few people who do this and we desperately need more people to share the load. It would also be useful rf there is someone, and it doesn't have to be one person, who could take charge of our props. My thanks of course to all those people who help to keep the show on the road. Equally, filling the bar and front of house rotas still remains a challenge at times, but of course my thanks go to all those members and friends of the theatre who do help in this regard.. .Where would we be without you? Talking of additional help. we have for some considerable time now been discussing the idea of appointing a theatre manager for the purpose of ctrordinating all the different areas of the theatre in general so thal we work in a more cohesive and effective manner. The position would be part time. as to the needs of the theatre, and could work as a job share. This matter we will discuss as st appears on the meeting agenda under Any Other Business. Page 3 Medway Llttle Theatre Ltd (A company limlted by guarantee) Chalrman's statement (contlnued) For the year ended 31 August 2024 Now, to thank those people I haven't mentioned and some I may have already. who keep the theatre wnning.. Chris Hynd, who valiantly continues her role as Treasurer, and more besides; Kerrie Thompson. our secretary and youth leader. Del de Lorme, our house manager. who carries out our running repairs as well as building some of our sets,. Dawn Jones, our front of house manager and LTG Rep, as previously mentioned, and who remains one of our main stage managers and set painters who puts in so many hours over and above; Mic Aldington, our stage director,. Menno Willemse, who continues to light many of our shows,. Mike Dickinson, our publicity officer, Cazz Wrate, who despite stsnding down as membership secretary last year, has continued to carry out the role., Elaine Thomas. our wardrobe manager, who apart from costuming our shows, continues to pare down those costumes beyond repair or no longer required. I would also like to thank our production committee: Chris Pamell, who has chaired for the past year, Kate Brookes, Dave Wilson, Cazz Wrate, Sean Stephens and Adam Wigmore. In the near future you will hear about the plays they have put together for our 202512026 season in an evening presentstion. date yet to be announced. For our Youth Group and Children's Workshop, thanks go to Kerrie Thompson, Kaim Bignall, Carol Scott, Derek Thompson and David Hutley, who continue to do 8 ternfic job in running the weekly Wofkshops and producing their splendid shows. One person I haven't mentioned is Paul Tomkies, who in recent years has taken on the perhaps unenviable role as the theatre's obituarist, whose infomiative and heartfelt tributes l am sure you will have seen. Thank you, Paul, for what is not an easy task. Unfortunatety, over the past year we have lost fomier members, Frank Linton, Simon Walson and Vera Conroy, as well as Dan Willis, our vice president, and most recently, Penny Dickson, who was our wardrobe and box office manager for many years. As always, my thanks to all those members I may not have mentioned and to all our patrons who give their continued support. Finally, you may no doubt be aware that after six years in the role l am taking my leave as your chaimian. I should like to thank all the various members of our management committee for all their support during this time, and l am sure that they will give similar support to my successor, However. I shall certainly not be disappearing over the horizon and look fop•iard to contributing to our 'jewel of a theatre" in a drfferent way in the months and years ahead. Chris Loft Chainnan Chairm8n Date: Il [03) a C*3S Page 4 Medway Little Theatre Ltd (A company limited by guarants•) Trustees, report For the year ended 31 August 2024 Th8 Trustees present their annual report together wrth the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 August 2024. The Annual report serves the purposes of both a Trustees. report and a directors. report under company law. The Trustees confinn that the Annual report and financial statements of the charitable company comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the charrtable companys governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charrties preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland {FRS102) (effective 1 January 2019). Since the charity qualifies as small under section 382 of the Companies Act 2006, the Strategic report required of medium and large companies under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors. Report) Regulations 2013 has been omitted. Objectlves and actlvltles a. Pollcles and obJectfve8 The stated objectives of the charity are lo advance education by the provision of a theatre and facilities for dramatic perfomiances and exhibitions of art.. To expand upon this. we provide an educational venue for people within the Medway Towns and Kent where we offer them an opportunity to participate in all the functions required to present a production and learn about other performance-based events, including newly written, devised WO￿ and introducing unknown artisls. We also provide a forum and educational platfom) for youth involvement in a real theatre context which gives them a chance to learn lrfe skills as well as encouraging them to participate in all aspects of theatre, in acting, stage craft and administration and production. In setting objectives and planning for activitEs, the Trustees have given due consideration to general guidance published by the Charty Commission relating to public benefit, including the guidance 'Public benefit.. running a charity (P82)'. b. Strateg168 for achlevlng objectlves In the furtherance of these objectives a variety of aclivities are generally undertaken. Based in Rochester in the Medway Towns we have a wde catchment area for members and audience alike. Plays for the Medway Little Theatre season are selected by a Production Committee based on the suggestions of members and a proportion of the plays selected will provide challenges for acting members and aim to educale as well as entertain our audiences. The theatre is largely self-supporting through ticket sales and refreshments. Sometimes extra funding is sought for larger projects through grants or extra fundraising activities. We presenl at least five adult plays, three plays for the Youth Sections and the Duncan Rand One Act Play Festival but we have increased the number of community events and external bookings to increase revenue and to extend the use of the theatre to a wider audience. Medway Little Theatre is predominantly funded by ticket sales and mainly staffed by volunteers but the next logical step to further increase the use of the theatre is to start paying for one or more theatre managers to enable more day-time events to take place. Idealty this will be self-funding but the trustees V4ill need to weigh up the benefrts to the communty against the cost rf this is not the case. Youth Sections An important part of our commitment to education is our yOLrth sections. Medway Ltttle Theatre's commitment to young people has a long history, having been founded in 1964. At a time when there was little provision in the Medway Towns for young people keen on theatre, be￿een leaving school and wothing with our main company. Page 5 Medway Little Theatre Ltd (A company limited by guarantee) Trustees. report (contlnued) For the year ended 31 August 2024 Objectlves and activities (continued) The YoLrth Company is involved in a wide range of productions from visits to the Gibraltar One Act Play Festival, outreach work with Child Friendly me￿aY and Pretending people, and entries into the KDA festivals, which, over the years has provided hundreds of young people wrth an experience of the theatre which has undoubtedly enriched their lives. Some of our youth members have progressed to become leaders with enthusiasm and commitment- bringing back their experiences from Drama School and further education. Workshops take place on different aspects of the theatre world from acting, perfonning arts, improvisation, devising, text work, theatre styles. film, stage combat. mime, and a whole lot more besides. We actively encourage our members to learn the basics of stage management, lighting, and sound design. We have in the last year introduced singing lessons to boost confidence. Our weekly workshops for the Children's Workshop are for younger members aged seven to twelve, where we explore self-confidence, vocal, literacy, team and problem-solving skills but emphasising the fun. Our Youth Company expands on these elements. Our yOLrth sections stage an annual show each and a combined YoLrth Exiravaganza once a year, as well as participating in adult shows, the theatre's own Duncan Rand One Act Play Festival and an exchange programme to Gibraltar for an educational and cultural exchange. The MLT youth sections have been increasingly referred to by schools wtth special needs and Ihose in homeschooling as an opportunty for those youngsters to engage in an exciting and imaginative, creative world of theatre and gives young people a chance to form new friendships, 9ain in self