Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Olivia Colman launch COVID-19 fund for UK theatre professionals

London [UK], July 30 : 'Fleabag' star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Oscar-winning actor Olivia Colman and producer Francesca Moody have teamed up to launch 'The Theatre Community Fund', as an aid to UK theatre professionals who are economically struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Deadline, donors will be contributing through initial lump sums and, through fixed, confidential percentages of their incomes over the next two years.
The fund has been set aside to help freelancers survive the present by providing hardship grants to those in immediate need.
And, it is also to ensure a healthy future for the industry by providing innovation and creation grants for artists to produce work.
Actors Tom Hiddleston, Gillian Anderson, Danny Boyle, Emilia Clarke, Richard Curtis, Kit Harrington, Ian McKellen, Daisy Ridley, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, and Rachel Weisz are among the first donors to the fund. The fund has raised one million pounds from its owners to date.
The group explained that the fund "reflects its donors' recognition that they have benefitted a great deal personally from the health of the UK theatre, and is a statement of their belief that UK theatre - nationally for all audiences and voices and down its grassroots - is vital to the strength of our nation," cited Deadline.
The fund will be dispersed and monitored by The Royal Theatrical Fund (RTF) in partnership with the Fleabag Support Fund (FSF), which has been raising money to help theatre professionals during the pandemic.