## **Droylsden Little Theatre** ## **Annual Report 2024/25** We’ve had another busy and rewarding year at Droylsden Little Theatre. Across our 2024/25 season, we staged six productions, each brought to life by our dedicated directors, actors, set builders, technical crew, and front of house volunteers. Our members and volunteers continue to be the backbone of every performance — on stage, behind the scenes, and welcoming audiences. Thank you all for your unwavering commitment and support. **Season Overview** – We opened the season in October with ‘Home, I’m Darling’, which filled 77% of available seats — a darling start indeed, setting the stage for a promising year and exceeding last season’s average of 69%. Next up in November was ‘Dirty Dusting’, and while our audience numbers swept down slightly to 70%, the laughs were anything but brushed aside. January brought ‘Deathtrap’, and though the title might suggest danger, our attendance held steady at 70% — proving our audience wasn’t scared off by a little suspense. In March, ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’ took to the stage. While the play entertained, our audience numbers slipped to 58% — perhaps Mr Sloane was a bit too mysterious for some. Then in May’s ‘Confusions’ drew just 38%. This is our lowest attendance on record, prompting a review by the Management Committee to understand contributing factors. Thankfully, July’s ‘Junk’ helped us tidy things up, with attendance rebounding to 64%. A fitting end to a season that had its ups and downs — but never lacked character. Overall, our season averaged 62% attendance — a noticeable decline from 69% last year. The Management Committee is actively reviewing this trend and developing an action plan to re-engage our audiences. We were also proud work in partnership with Paul Charlesworth, one of our members, to present a two-night Halloween special ‘The Raven in Plain Sight’ — a unique and immersive folk horror dream that drew audiences into a world of dark forces and strange magic. Whilst this wasn’t a Droylsden Little Theatre production, it would be amiss not to mention the hauntingly memorable twist this brought to our stage and the ticket sales of £1,718 which Paul agreed the theatre would receive. We’d like to thank Paul, Alistair and the crew for making this possible. **Looking Ahead -** We’re excited to launch our new season in October 2025. The Management Committee remains committed to filling seats at every performance, with renewed focus on marketing, social media engagement, and strengthening ties within our local community. **Financial Results** – This year has been more challenging financially, with an overall loss of £1,714 (2023/24: profit of £6,872). Despite this, we’ve maintained a healthy reserve balance of £21,175 (2023/24: £22,888), which ensures we remain in a stable position going into the next financial year. Unlike last year, we didn’t receive any grant funding or large donations, which had previously helped boost our income and support investment in our bar and technical equipment. Our total income this year was £35,641, down £6,447 from £42,088 in 2023/24. This drop was mainly due to lower ticket sales, bar takings and raffle income, as well as the absence of external funding. Our costs increased slightly to £37,354 (2023/24: £35,215), driven mainly by higher building maintenance costs. These costs included essential electrical work, as well as investing in hand dryers in our toilet facilities. We also saw increases in broadband and water charges, although some areas such as housekeeping, utility bills and bar stock remained relatively stable compared to last year. While the deficit is disappointing, it reflects our continued commitment to investing some of the profit we made last year back into the theatre and delivering high-quality productions. We’ve made necessary upgrades to technical equipment like the sound mixer desk and continued to invest in maintaining the building to a good standard. Looking ahead, we’ll continue to keep a close eye on costs and exploring opportunities for external funding. We’re also planning to continue our investment in the theatre to ensure it remains a vibrant and welcoming space for our community. **Membership** – We’ve continued to see our membership numbers increase over the last few years. Last year our membership has risen to 90 and we’re pleased to report we’ve seen this rise again this year to around 97 individuals, with a number of new members treading our boards for the first time. It has been great to welcome them to our community and actively involve them in our theatre. We hope to continue to attract new members, whilst retaining our current loyal members. **Management Committee** – It’s always challenging to keep our theatre running – from planning our season, keeping the building safe and compliant, building our sets and supporting our directors and cast members – not to mention volunteering front of house during productions. We are certainly kept busy. We’re excited for the coming season and look forward to working with all of our members, old and new! We’ve had a number of social events this year starting with an afternoon crochet club with Tracy and Kath showing a large group how to start off with granny squares. Ged devised another great quiz at Easter, and for Christmas we head our open day and story time coordinated by Amy, with special guest Father Christmas. The Christmas event proved popular with families and was thoroughly enjoyable for visitors and volunteers alike. As we reach the end of our year, we have a few vacancies to fill on the Management Committee and we’re hoping to appoint some fresh faces at our Annual General Meeting in September. A special thank you to everyone who supported the theatre this year—whether by attending performances, volunteering, or contributing in other ways. Your support is what keeps Droylsden Little Theatre thriving. As we look ahead to another exciting season, we remain committed to making Droylsden Little Theatre a welcoming, creative, and inclusive space for all. Whether you're a long-time supporter or new to our community, we invite you to join us — on stage, behind the scenes, or in the audience. Thank you for being part of our story. This report has been compiled by Trudy Collins (Treasurer) on behalf of the Board of Management (the Trustees). The report has been agreed with the Trustees and signed by Trudy Collins on behalf of the Trustees. Signed: Date: 14[th] September 2025 ## **Droylsden Little Theatre** ## **Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2025** |**Opening Balances**
Current Account
Cash Account
Floats
**INCOME**
**Ticket Sales**
Season tickets
Ticket sales
**Production Income**
Bar
Raffle
**Other Income**
Art Commission
Grant Funding
Membership fees
Donations
Theatre hire
Sale of scripts
Social Events
Miscellaneous
**Total Income**
**Total Income + Opening Balances**|**1st Aug 2024 to 31st Jul 2025**|**1st Aug 2023 to 31st Jul 2024**| |---|---|---| ||£21,002.61
£1,435.82
£450.00
**£22,888.43**
£2,794.60
£18,604.65
**£21,399.25**
£10,295.33
£1,190.67
**£11,486.00**
-£21.50
£0.00
£778.21
£115.92
£1,256.34
£30.00
£444.01
£152.38
**£2,755.36**
**£35,640.61**
**£58,529.04**|£13,777.99
£1,788.16
£450.00
**£16,016.15**
£3,077.16
£20,323.86
**£23,401.02**
£12,275.14
£1,399.71
**£13,674.85**
£36.27
£2,000.00
£639.53
£724.51
£1,224.47
£20.00
£260.93
£106.00
**£5,011.71**
**£42,087.58**
**£58,103.73**| ## **Droylsden Little Theatre** ## **Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2025** |**EXPENDITURE**
**Production Expenses**
Scripts
Adjudications
Set Expenses
Costumes
Props
Furniture
Royalties
Bar
Raffle
Printing (tickets, programmes, posters)
**Utilities**
Gas
Electric
Water
Telephone / Broadband
**Premises Expenses**
Licences, rates, refuse, PPL, website
Housekeeping
Building maintenance
Alarm & Lift maintenance
Fire extinguisher maintenance
Insurances
**Other Expenses**
Accounting Software
GMDF / ACT membership fees
Stationery, postage & photographs
Tools & stage general
Social Events
Marketing
Miscellaneous
**Capital Expenses**
Technical purchases
**Total Expenditure**
**Profit / Loss**
**Closing Balances**
Current Account
Cash Account
Floats
**Total Expenditure + Closing Balances**|**1st Aug 2024 to 31st Jul 2025**|**1st Aug 2023 to 31st Jul 2024**| |---|---|---| ||£1,098.00
£330.00
£604.82
£246.05
£1,220.86
£707.50
£3,696.00
£5,210.33
£299.73
£1,362.00
**£14,775.29**
£1,449.61
£4,001.24
£1,223.53
£1,301.14
**£7,975.52**
£1,032.84
£1,282.19
£3,989.14
£780.00
£237.49
£4,771.73
**£12,093.39**
£468.00
£126.00
£36.10
£0.00
£560.31
£262.89
£239.89
**£1,693.19**
£816.93
**£816.93**
**£37,354.32**
**-£1,713.71**
£20,406.19
£318.53
£450.00
**£21,174.72**
**£58,529.04**|£789.95
£300.00
£404.81
£301.87
£518.61
£138.00
£3,316.86
£5,692.83
£238.22
£1,577.56
**£13,278.71**
£1,559.60
£4,429.09
£937.65
£1,077.72
**£8,004.06**
£927.89
£1,220.00
£1,619.82
£440.00
£251.34
£6,491.07
**£10,950.12**
£393.60
£111.00
£67.03
£50.00
£271.92
£645.58
£92.18
**£1,631.31**
£1,351.10
**£1,351.10**
**£35,215.30**
**£6,872.28**
£21,002.61
£1,435.82
£450.00
**£22,888.43**
**£58,103.73**| CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Charity Name DROYLSDEN LIThLE THEATRE On accounts for the year ended 31 JULY 2025 Charity no (if any) 1179390 Set out on pages (remember to include the pagp niumbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 3110712025. Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attentiOnWh8r￿t4l￿￿lo￿ts) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examiner's statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: 1410912025 Name: RACHEL MILLER Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): ACA, ICAEW Address: 29 PETERSHAM DRIVE APPLETON WA4 5QF IER October 2018 Sèctloh B ,' Dl8cIosurn Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER October 2018