Posted in: Movies | Tagged: hobbit

Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Ian McKellen And Patrick Stewart Save The Park Theatre With The Hobbit Screenplay

Published Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:30:39 -0500

Last updated Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:15:20 -0500

Frazer Brown writes;

The Park Theatre held their first major Gala on Friday the 19^th October at The Globe Theatre and It was a star-studded affair.

Amongst those in attendance were Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart – or as I prefer Sherlock, Professor X and Magneto.

The evening's auction raised a whopping £100,000.00 plus, helped in no small part by Sir Ian McKellen's surprise auction lot, a copy of The Hobbit Screenplay signed by the entire cast, final going price £10K.

The Park Theatre is an exciting new performance space opening soon in Finsbury Park, The project is the passion of, and has been masterminded by, Husband and Wife team Jez and Melli bond. Their vision has converted an old office building into a 21st century Theatre. I'm truly in awe of all they've achieved these past two years, and so it seems is McKellen. He had this to say on the night:

Whatʼs the word for Jez Bond? Thrusting, cheeky, forward looking, single minded? Or is it simply chutzpah? Heʼs got the lot, and heʼs got me on board.

Sir Ian explains the project better than I in this clip.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=386y0jqOn2s[/youtube]

I've had the pleasure of being a fly on the wall the last year at the Park Offices and building site. I named a toilet seat recently as part of their fundraising options – The Crest of Uranus – and I've been championing the Theatre internationally during my recent visit to Hollywood, where the concept was met with great interest.

I'm personally very excited about the space and the possibilities it opens up to the Local community and established Theatre Groups. It has been an intriguing process watching the building take shape and listening to all of the innovative ways in which digital technology will be used.

The purpose of the Gala was to raise the money needed to create an education floor in the new building – the duo behind the project had already raised a whopping £2million to build the theatre from scratch. This in a time where Arts funding has been cut to disastrous effect by the coalition.

Eager to give back to the local community and create a space that locals can use as well as "Theatre Folk", this last push for donations was sorely needed, and it paid off. Thanks to all in attendance, the Education floor can now be funded.

Auctioneer, Lord Jeffery Archer, sold a total of six lots reaching up to £11,000 each, with prizes donated by Les Secret des Grands Chefs, American Airlines, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Celia Imrie and Sonia Friedman, Spencer Hart, Compass Box Whisky, Quintessentially Flowers, The Ritz, The Savoy and The Atheneaum.

A great time was had by all, and to make this month extra special the lights in the theatre were turned on for the first time this week

If you'd like to know more about the Theatre you can check out their great site.

And you can see more of Sir Ian and the evening here

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viyf0u97cxc[/youtube]

And here are pictures of many of the guests present at the event, many of whom hosted tables on behalf of the theatre. They include Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Daldry, Stephen Poliakoff, Tom Stoppard, Patrick Stewart, Romola Garai, Anna Maxwell Martin, Maureen Lipman, Jeffrey Archer, Celia Imrie, Sean Mathias, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Rupert Goold, Josie Lawrence, Tom Ellis, Tamzin Outhwaite, Evgeny Lebedev and Tim Piggot-Smith.