The Etties: The ET Creative Kitty
🎭 Introducing: The ET Creative Kitty! 🐱💰
What is the ET Creative Kitty?
It is our brand-new cash prize designed to support the fringe theatre community! The ET Creative Kitty is a growing pot of money that will be awarded to an exceptional artist or company to help them develop and elevate their show into 2027.
Why are we doing this?
We’ve been championing and shouting about fringe theatre since 2010, and it’s finally time to put our money where our mouth is!
As a fully volunteer-run organisation, we don’t have much income, but then again, we also don’t have massive costs. And since we’re more popular than ever, our advertising revenue has officially outpaced our running costs. Instead of sitting on it, we want to give back to the very people who make the theatre we love.
How much is in the kitty?
Honestly? We don’t know yet! But here is how it’s growing:
- Our Promise: Since 1 May, we’ve committed at least 10% of all our advertising revenue directly into the pot.
- Venue Match-Making: We’re going to start gently pestering some of the larger, established venues to back this initiative too. It’s time for them to give a little love back to the grassroots scene. After all, today’s fringe artists are the ones who will be filling their big stages in the future!
- Community Boost: Generous theatre lovers can donate directly to build it even further.
We won’t know the final grand total until the day of the Etties Live Celebration, but we’ll be keeping a public running total (which we will update regularly) so you can watch the kitty grow! What we will guarantee though is that it will be at least £500, even if we have to dip deeper into our pockets to make this amount.
Who is eligible?
If you’ve staged a show during 2026 at any of our Etties-eligible venues, you’re in the running!
Whether it was a fully-fledged production or an early work-in-progress, you qualify. Better yet? There is no tedious application form and no fee charged to be included. Sending an invitation for us to review is all you need to do – by simply inviting us to write about your work, we’ll automatically consider you.
How will the winner be chosen?
Throughout 2026, our dedicated team of reviewers will be keeping their eyes peeled, nominating the artists and teams creating the most exciting, innovative new theatre. At the end of the year, the Etties judging panel will review the shortlist to select our final winner.
When is the big reveal?
The winner will be announced live on stage as part of our Etties Live Celebration at The Space Theatre, which is now booked for Sunday 21 February 2027!
Want to help us grow the kitty? 🐾
Every single pound helps independent theatre thrive. If you want to chip in, it couldn’t be easier:
☕ How to Donate: Head over to our Ko-fi page here and leave a donation. Just make sure to write “Creative Kitty” in the description so we know exactly where to put it!
September Update
Having promised we would update this monthly, we failed miserably in August. In our defence, we were a little busy with reviews! But we can now reveal that during August, we hit our target of £500. We actually ended August with £504 in the kitty. This doesn’t mean though that we’re going to stop added to the pot, we will continue to do that all the way through to February.
We guaranteed the pot would be £500, so now we have passed that total, we’re going to discuss amongst ourselves if we will create a second pot as well, so award two cash prizes, or if we’re going to stick to one prize and award whatever the final amount is.
Donations are still welcomed, every penny donated will be put in the pot along with at least 10% of our ad revenue.