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In 1935, Sir Barry Jackson founded a trust to run Birmingham Repertory Theatre (effectively donating it to the city) and following his death in 1961, the Sir Barry Jackson Trust became a theatre charity.

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In 1935, Sir Barry Jackson founded a trust to run Birmingham Repertory Theatre (effectively donating it to the city) and following his death in 1961, the Sir Barry Jackson Trust became a theatre charity.

In 1986, the Trust’s income was dramatically increased, when the about-to-be-abolished West Midlands Metropolitan County Council donated a large sum for the promotion of touring theatre in the region.

Since then the Trust has donated well over half a million pounds to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s community tours to schools and other venues in Birmingham and beyond.

ln addition, the County Fund has given well over £300,000 to other touring companies in the region ,including Big Brum, Banner Theatre, The Shysters and Theatre Absolute. The Trust supports educational work in theatre through a bequest from the Hornton Foundation and continues to look after Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company’s archive, relying on donations and legacies to support its work.

In 2003 the Trust published a new history of Birmingham Repertory Theatre to complement earlier books by T C Kemp and J C Trewin. Claire Cochrane’s The Birmingham REP: A City’s Theatre 1962-2002 tells the dramatic story of the company’s 1971 move from Station St into its new Broad St home, the development of its studio theatre as a venue dedicated to the production of new plays and its continued commitment present world standard classical and contemporary drama to a demanding and increasingly diverse audience on its main stage.

Find out more about the trust by visiting birmingham-rep.co.uk.