Support Us
£800k
generated each year through performances, hires and trading
must be raised each year through grants and donations
£500k
Gosforth Civic Theatre is more than somewhere to see a show. Over the past ten years, it has become part of everyday life in Gosforth: somewhere familiar, welcoming and open to everyone.
It is a place where teenagers rehearse after school.
Where people meet friends.
Where families experience live performance on their doorstep.
Where community groups gather.
Where people work, volunteer and take part side by side.
Where you can come in for a drink and stay a while, without needing a reason to.
As Gosforth Civic Theatre celebrates its tenth year, we are launching the GCT Future Fund — a campaign to raise £100,000 to protect the venue and everything it makes possible.
As a public building with “Civic” in the name and a professional cultural programme, it is easy to assume GCT receives significant public funding. It doesn’t.
We generate close to £800,000 a year through performances, hires and trading. That income forms the backbone of how we operate. But it cannot fund everything it takes to keep a public cultural venue open, active and contributing to community life. Around £500,000 must be raised each year through grants and donations.
Those grants are becoming harder to secure, which is why support from the people and organisations who value GCT matters more than ever.
You can help by:
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Making a donation to the GCT Future Fund
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Becoming a personal or corporate member
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Sponsoring a seat
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Fundraising for GCT
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Sharing why GCT matters to you.
If you would like to talk about making a larger gift, we would welcome a conversation about how your support could help shape GCT’s next chapter.
If GCT is part of your life, please help protect its future.
What a public venue can be
Rosie found real responsibility, and people who trusted her with it. Jack found a doorway to something spectacular and followed it all the way to a national stage. Marcella found a place to belong and the confidence to create something of her own.
Their stories are different, but they have one thing in common: they happened because GCT is here.
Rosie
A place here to be who I am
If you have bought a coffee, ordered lunch or stopped in before a show, you will know that the café is part of the everyday life of GCT. This year, Rosie was one of the trainees learning within that everyday life.
She arrived with nerves and a clear intention:
“I was a little bit nervous, but I had a passion to do it and give it a try.”
Her placement covered both sides of the operation — front of house and kitchen. Making drinks, serving customers, taking payments, preparing food, making soups and learning recipes.
“My favourite part about training here is learning how to make different foods and drinks for people. I love making people happy when I get to serve them.”
The work is real. The customers are real. The food is real. The standards matter.
Rosie identified talking to customers as one of her strengths:
“I find talking to customers easy… because I’m friendly.”
During her placement, Rosie also became an independent traveller, arriving at GCT on her own. She says it made her feel “independent and confident.”
She has advice for someone starting out at GCT:
“Just take a deep breath for yourself and ask for help when needed.”
“I feel really proud and happy. I’ve got a place here to be who I am.”
Rosie has now secured a place at Choice College for the next academic year, where she will continue developing her skills and preparing for employment.
Jack
A doorway to something spectacular
GCT’s Dance Pathway begins in SEND schools and colleges across the North East, reaching around 150 young people through dance each year.
“I love to dance because it’s like a doorway through to something spectacular — and it’s freedom for your body all the time,” says Jack.
Jack is in his fourth year with GCT Youth Dance Company — weekly evening rehearsals at the theatre focused on ensemble work, choreography and performance.
In 2025/26, he was selected for the National Youth Dance Company — one of 31 dancers chosen from more than 300 who auditioned nationwide.
There was no adapted category, no separate process and no lowered expectation: the same selection, the same standard, the same cohort.
This summer, GCT Youth Dance Company represented the North East at the U.Dance National Festival in Glasgow and performed at Sadler’s Wells East in London.
The work that got them there carries on every week at GCT.
The pathway is established. The dancers are ready. The doorway is open.
Marcella
A place to share ideas, play and grow
Every Tuesday, young people come to GCT for Gaming Social. They come because they love games. They come to play, talk, laugh, watch, join in and be around other people who understand that world.
For Marcella, that weekly space has become part of something much bigger.
She has attended GCT’s Tuesday Gaming Social for several years. In 2026, her game Chroma’s Wish was selected as a BAFTA Young Game Designers finalist in the Game Making Award for 10–14-year-olds.
Her parent wrote to GCT afterwards:
“She has been attending the Tuesday gaming sessions at Gosforth Civic Theatre for the past several years, and I genuinely feel the welcoming, creative environment there has been a meaningful part of her journey.”
Gaming Social begins with something young people already care about.
They play games. They share ideas. They spend time with other gamers. They take part in their own way. They come back.
Her parent described what that repeated, welcoming environment had made possible:
“Being around other gamers of all ages, sharing ideas, playing, laughing and enjoying games in such a positive space has helped nurture her confidence and creativity over the years.”
It gives young people a regular place to belong, where confidence can grow quietly over time. For some, that means speaking to someone outside their family. For others, it means becoming a volunteer, helping younger participants or beginning to imagine a creative future.
For Marcella, it became part of a journey towards national recognition for her own game.
The games matter. But what grows around them matters too: confidence, creativity, friendship and the belief that your ideas have a place in the world.
