The Foundation

The Royal Victoria Hall Foundation awards between twenty and thirty grants each year to smaller scale professional theatre projects based in London. There are two rounds of funding, with deadlines in February and August.

The Foundation has two major aims: to help professional productions in need of financial support and to introduce high-quality live performance to groups who are not traditional or regular theatregoers.

Examples of recent grants include to Tamasha towards Sweet Cider at the Arcola, to Soho Theatre towards their Soho Slam outreach programme, to Coup de Theatre towards Bluebeard at the Brompton Cemetery, to the National Theatre towards their access programme, to Bitter Pill Productions towards Too True to the Good at the Finborough, to Camden People’s Theatre to hire a manager for their Sprint Festival, to Half Moon Youth People’s Theatre towards Baa Moo Yellow Dog, to Changing Faces towards George and the Dragon touring London schools, to Athletes of the Heart at the Riverside Studios, to Clod Ensemble towards Red Ladies at the ICA, to Box of Tricks towards Wordplay.2 at Theatre 503 and to the Lyric Hammersmith for renovations to their green room and dressing room area.

Also, the Foundation funds the Lilian Baylis Awards for promising students who attend the accredited drama schools in London. The grants are made at the end of the students’ second year to ease the financial pressures in their final year of study. Each student is recommended for an award by their drama school. We are sorry but this scheme is not open to general applicants. Please note that we do not make grants to individuals for drama training

The Foundation is funded from the invested proceeds of the sale of The Old Vic Theatre in 1982 plus subsequent gifts and bequests. It has existed as a charity since 1891 and still owns the Theatre’s archives from 1818-1963, which are housed at The University of Bristol Theatre Collection.