Panto for Harrogate patients in groundbreaking project

In what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind in Yorkshire, patients at Harrogate and Ripon Hospital are to get Harrogate Theatre's phenomenaly successful panto beamed live to them.
Harrogate Theatre's chief executive David Bown launches the Centre Stage fundraising initiative.Harrogate Theatre's chief executive David Bown launches the Centre Stage fundraising initiative.
Harrogate Theatre's chief executive David Bown launches the Centre Stage fundraising initiative.

The groundbreaking announcement today, Friday was part of the launch of Harrogate Theatre's new Centre Stage fundraising initiative.The NHS Trust and Harrogate Theatre have been working closely together for months to turn the ambition into a reality.Introduced by David Bown, CEO of Harrogate Theatre the event was attended by Businesses from across the borough who were presented with the details of ambitious plans to livestream the pantomime on December 28 live from Harrogate Theatre in a partnership with Harrogate and District NHS Foundation TrustThe Chair of the Trust, Angela Schofield spoke about the Trust's support for the new initiative and how they backed the project.This can mean that the Production of Jack and The Beanstalk can be screen in the lecture theatre at Harrogate Hospital, as well as Ripon Hospital and across the Children’s Wards and patients across all wards who can benefit from the free wifi for the hospital.This will be a HD livestream with full stereo sound that can be projected, watched on TV, Tablets or smartphones.This can be shared with families, across generations in hospitals and care home settings.This will be a first for Yorkshire and Harrogate Theatre would lead the way with this innovative approachAssociate Artist, Marcus Romer talked through the benefits for audiences and communities of this sort of ‘digital outreach’.His experience of delivering these projects span the last 10 years as a pioneer in this area of work.To make this happen we have set a target of £25,000. This is required for the technical team and equipment to deliver this. The theatre is looking to build up increments of £5,000 packages of support to make this happen.Supporters will be named as Executive Producers of the Digital Production, and be above the line credits for the film version.The team will then work with these supporters to enable us to deliver their corporate and PR requirements in terms of publicity, marketing and brand visibility.