Theatre Club Kids was not established as a money making business, but grew from Rita Cooper’s love of teaching and working with children in all aspects of the performing arts.
Our aim has always been to charge fees that allow us to cover our costs and donate money to charity and to schools in which we work. We do not operate to make a profit above these costs. We do not want children to be unable to attend, because they cannot afford to join us. For this reason, our fees have remained virtually unchanged in ten years and are currently between £2.00 and £2.25 per hour, which is considerably less than comparable theatre schools and dance classes.
We also want all of our parents and friends to be able to enjoy our shows, so we endeavour to keep our ticket prices low. When we are working on shows, staff give their time freely to enable extra rehearsals and classes to take place at no charge. From time to time, when children have been offered an audition for a London show, we offer coaching sessions at no extra cost, to enable them to do their best...
Another expense for parents that we wanted to avoid was paying for costumes for our shows and other performances. We therefore make all of our costumes and do not ask for a contribution from parents. From experience, we know how expensive it is, in many other schools, for parents to provide these costumes, especially if they have more than one child attending.