Worcester Live also runs the annual Worcester Festival, the Historic Ghost Walk of Worcester and a Children’s Ghost Walk. The organisation also has a producing arm in the form of the Swan Theatre’s resident professional theatre company, the Worcester Repertory Company, which produces two annual Shakespeare productions: the outdoor Shakespeare at the Commandery and Shakespeare at the Cathedral, as well as touring shows, Theatre In Education tours, new work and the annual Swan Theatre Pantomime. The Swan Theatre is also home to the award-winning Swan Youth Theatre, and runs the Swan Theatre School: a professional one-year foundation course for those looking to enter the industry.
Worcester Live relies heavily on charitable donations to exist, including arts grants, money from trusts, legacies and other organisations, and fundraising events.
The Bransford Trust is one of Worcester Live’s biggest and most loyal supporters. The Trust’s continued and generous support has not only helped the organisation to continue moving forward as a whole, but has also contributed hugely to specific projects.
The Bransford Trust has supported the annual Worcester Festival since 2004. Since the first Worcester Festival only a year earlier in 2003, the Festival has grown year on year, not only in terms of the number of events, but also the number of venues involved and the number of people enjoying those events. The support of the Bransford Trust has been invaluable in helping that to happen. The Festival is for the people of Worcester and its surrounds. It revolves around a series of partnerships between large cross sections of the community and provides an umbrella for a huge range of events and activities. It is a coming together of people of all ages, an opportunity for individuals, organisations, groups and charities to stage events, as well as to attend and take part in a vast selection of both professional and community activities. It is a vibrant celebration of life, and of Worcester and its people. The Bransford Trust’s continued support has helped enable Worcester Live to offer this fantastic community focused event.
The Trust has also supported the Worcester Repertory Company in its two biggest annual projects, Shakespeare at the Commandery, which began back in 2007, and Shakespeare at the Cathedral, a series launched in 2012 with a highly critically acclaimed production of Macbeth. The Bransford Trust's continued support for both these events has enabled them to grow year on year. Both events are now well established and have allowed the Worcester Rep not only to build strong relationships with the community - not least by building strong bonds with these two important historic venues - but also to build a strong reputation for delivering high quality and accessible theatre to an ever-increasing audience. They have also served as flagship projects, increasing general awareness of the Company and what it does. This in turn, has allowed the Rep to produce an ever-growing repertoire, in an increasingly diverse range of venues and locations, all over the country.
“The continuous and generous support from the Bransford Trust has been absolutely invaluable in enabling us to do what we do – deliver an exciting and diverse arts programme to the people of Worcester and beyond. There is no doubt that without the generosity of organisations such as the Bransford Trust, both in terms of financial and practical help, Worcester Live would find it much more difficult to survive.” Chris Jaeger, Chief Executive of Worcester Live.
www.worcesterlive.co.uk