• New words of support from (Golden Globe and BAFTA winning) Ruth Wilson, Theo James, and Ros Eleazar

• An update from our meeting with the VC on March 20th

• Where this campaign goes from here

• We need your help (design and social media)

Right, let’s get into it.

New words of support from NNT alumni

The list of incredible testimonials from former NNT members just keeps growing and growing. We’ll let them speak for themselves:

Ruth Wilson, Luther, Down Cemetary Road, The Affair, His Dark Materials:

“Without my time at NNT I wouldn’t be where I am today. That may sound like a grand statement, but it was at NNT that I explored and nurtured my greatest passion. And what is University for, if not that. During my time there I devised, produced, directed and acted in many plays, I built long lasting friendships and on-going collaborations with like-minded souls like Carrie Cracknell, Mike Longhurst and Tristan Goligher. It was an incredibly creative and invaluable period of my life, and that is why it is shocking and upsetting to hear that the NNT has been left to such ruin. Whether or not you end up pursuing a life in the arts, the NNT provided an essential and vital creative outlet for students at University.”

Theo James, The White Lotus, Divergent, The Gentleman, Downton Abbey:

“Nottingham New Theatre was a seismic part of my young adulthood, in many ways shepherding me into the career that I chose. The freedom to create, perform and express myself in an environment run and beloved by students was formative. Improvisation, dramatic work and everything beyond was introduced to me during my time at Nottingham University and the New Theatre. It is a precious little gem for future performers, directors, stage managers, set designers and more. Please keep it funded for new generations of talented young people.”

Ros Eleazar, Slow Horses, Missing You, Misty Green (upcoming):

“The news of the New Theatre’s closure broke my heart. That space was my home, the place where I was happiest, where I found my people, and where I truly became myself. I remember my very first production there, 7 Minutes 31, directed by Anthony Lau—now a celebrated theatre director—a bold, unusual new play about the precise time it takes for an ambulance to arrive, told through the tender complexity of human relationships. It was unlike anything I’d experienced, and I was hooked. The intimacy of that space was irreplaceable; it created something rare and electric between performer and audience. My love of acting grew into a full-blown passion within those walls, and without the New Theatre, I genuinely doubt I would be doing what I do today. So many alumni have gone on to build extraordinary, edgy, fearless careers across the creative world as producers, directors, writers, and actors, and so many of us trace it back to that theatre. For the next generation, it is essential that a place like this exists: somewhere to play, to take risks, to expand your mind and find your tribe.”

Thank you also to all the alumni from whom we’ve received many more messages. If you’d like to submit your own, you can always email us at savennt@gmail.com

Our meeting with the VC

We met with Vice Chancellor Professor Jane Norman on March 20th. Here’s who was there:

• Professor Jane Norman (VC, UoN)

• Matthew Bannister (SaveNNT)

• Matt Leventhall (SaveNNT)

• Charlotte Reay (President, NNT)

• Jonathan Ashford-Smith (Acting Head of Alumni Relations, UoN)

Here’s a short summary of what we discussed:

• We presented our argument for the importance of an autonomous, standalone building, providing quotes from high profile alums who spoke to this explicitly

• We also relayed and underlined the level of support the campaign had received, including the number of people who had written in to offer their support

• Charlotte Reay outlined the difficulties of the current space NNT operates in inside the Portland Building: no backstage, no workshop, no dressing rooms, and not enough height for the proper operation of lights

While Professor Norman was sympathetic to everything we said, the fundamental response is unchanged: the university, like much of the rest of the higher education sector, is facing acute financial difficulty.

In her follow up letter to Matthew Bannister after the meeting (the full text of which we’ve linked to below), she said:

“The University is facing a maintenance backlog of hundreds of millions of pounds across its significant estate and is having to prioritise its limited financial resources on its core teaching and research facilities. The needs of our estate far outweigh our financial capacity, so we are constantly having to make difficult choices. While bringing the New Theatre back into use is a long-term goal, we are currently unable to allocate funds for this.”

Full letter from the VC (Google drive link)

Where the campaign goes from here

Hearing the stark reality of the financial situation has been a bitter pill to swallow, and we have found it hard to decide on what to do next. Should we… what, wait? Give up? Try to run some kind of huge PR campaign? Buy lottery tickets?

You will, we hope, be glad to know that we’re not giving up. And, while we recognise the difficult position the university is clearly now in, we believe that if nothing else, we need to remain top of mind when the relevant university bodies are discussing what to prioritise.

And they will be discussing priorities. Here’s another quote from the same letter:

“I mentioned that we will be prioritising our capital spend by September this year. I agreed that we would consider repairs to the New Theatre whilst conducting this prioritisation exercise, although I mentioned that there are many other competing priorities”

Because here’s the thing: we believe many people working at and running the university simply aren’t aware of the sheer scale of the social and cultural impact that the NNT has, and the impact it has had on so many UoN alums. To be sure, until we started compiling everything as part of this campaign, perhaps some of us didn’t either—when you write it all down in one place it’s nothing short of mind-boggling.

So that’s what we’re now going to do: pull everything together into a single campaign pack that we can use to get in front of, and get onto the agendas of, everyone else in university management in Council, the Senate, and as many others as possible—not just the Vice Chancellor. Work on this is already well advanced.

But in the meantime…

We need your help (again)

Writing the pack is one thing, but actually making it and getting the word out there is another:

1. Designers: we need help designing the campaign pack. If you know your INDDs from your CMYKs, or if you’re really good with Canva, we’d love to hear from you.

2. Social media: are you extremely online? We’re thinking about setting up an Instagram account, but only if we can find a volunteer capable of running it.

Please email us at savennt@gmail.com

One more thing

We’ll be back in touch when there’s any significant developments, or if we have something else worth sharing. As ever, please keep sharing around so that we can grow the support for our campaign.

Many of you also shared your personal thoughts and reflections on the theatre's closure, and explained what NNT means to you. We’ve gathered just a few of those below, and it makes for powerful reading.

But before we continue, a reminder that we need your help to keep spreading the word: please get in touch with as many other NNT alums as you know, send them to savennt.com, and ask them to subscribe.

What did NNT mean to you?

We asked around, and many alums shared their personal reflections on what NNT meant to them and why its closure matters.

Here’s what Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 4 Presenter on the Today show, had to say:

Quite simply changed my life.

I learned to direct, produce and work as a team. Oh, and have a blast. It defined my time at uni and to have been elected its President? Magical.

It must be a part of Nottingham Uni students’ experience moving forward. We thrived because of it and conversations were had that wouldn’t have been. I am devastated that the building has been left to ruin. A theatre is a magical place - especially a student one. Anything can and does happen.

I really hope we can save this dedicated building where dreams are realised and firm friendships formed.

We also heard from renowned theatre and film director Carrie Cracknell:

The year that I spent running the Nottingham New Theatre as President was completely formative for me in terms of my work as a director and a producer moving forwards. The opportunity to lead a team of people, to programme our own plays via pitches from the student body, to fundraise, look after the building, and take on that level of responsibility was a completely unique opportunity. I met future collaborators such as producer James Erskine, actor Ruth Wilson, and Jenny Worton who I have now worked with on over ten professional productions and in her role as the Artistic Director of the Roald Dahl story company.

Alumni from the NNT are disproportionately represented in the performing arts and I believe that much of this is due to the freedom and artistic responsibility that comes at a formative age with the opportunity to work in and run a student theatre. By the time I graduated I had set up my own company with fellow students and in our graduating year we toured our show to Edinburgh, London and New York. This led me to be confident enough to apply to run the Gate Theatre in London at the age of 26 which I went on to run for five years. Applying so much of what I had already learnt at NNT.

My career has spanned from Broadway, The National Theatre, via film and opera. I am always so grateful that I had such incredibly creative and empowering formative years at Nottingham and the role that played in my life as a director cannot be overstated. I graduated with a degree in history but also having directed 6 original productions and produced countless more.

I regularly recommend Nottingham to young actors and creatives as a place to go and develop themselves, whilst also obtaining an excellent academic degree. It seems such a waste that the building has now been left to degrade. It seems to me that if the university were to commit to keeping it open there would be a strong swell of support from alumni to work alongside them.

Deputy Political Editor at The Guardian, Jessica Elgot, had this to say:

The current state of the New Theatre is devastating to see - not only to its precious stage but also to the backstage areas where so many new skills were learnt, friendships forged and memories made. It’s a shame to see this happen to a place with such a vibrant artistic scene, including many famous creative alumni and the litany of awards won by student actors, playwrights and directors while at Nottingham.

New Theatre was formative for me at Nottingham, a place for experimentation, to debate and engage with texts, to undertake serious journalistic research as we did with our play Talking to Terrorists, to self-organise as we did on the committee, but also where I met my husband!

Student theatre was such an enriching part of my time at Nottingham, and the self-run aspect of the theatre was a unique point of pride. And it is this, specifically, that needs to be preserved: the making of theatre alongside the experience of managing and running our own building that cannot be replicated in borrowed spaces and is a vital skill for life which the next generation should also get to have.

Douggie McMeekin, actor (Chernobyl, The Decameron, Harlots, The Crown) said:

Very sad to hear about the closure. I am often asked to speak to teenagers who want to pursue acting as a career, and my advice is ‘go to a university like Nottingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, places with brilliant student theatres, be in as many plays as you can, play brilliant parts alongside your friends, it’s the most incredible training.’

For me personally, NNT remains front and centre of my life in Nottingham. I played sport, did a physics degree, was the Activities Officer of the SU, but NNT was where I take my fondest memories, of friendship, of pride. And it was because we had the keys to the place, we were given the responsibility and freedom to create work, and we took it, week in week out. A student-led group in a student-maintained space, it was perfect.

As an actor, the skills I learnt at NNT of collaboration, resilience, artistic integrity, and the broad range of plays, old and new, I was exposed to set me up brilliantly for a life in theatre. Let alone the relationships and encouragement from the experience with the National Student Drama Festival which gave me the confidence and knowledge to pursue acting as a profession. I wouldn’t be an actor if it wasn’t for NNT.

NNT was not just an addition to life on campus, it was an ecosystem of exceptional people and profound joy, its alumni are scattered all over the industry, working at the highest level, and it’s a great shame to think that the future versions of those theatre makers may not come to be.

Want to add your own reactions and memories? Email us: savennt@gmail.com

Watch this space…

Our meeting with UoN VC Professor Jane Norman takes place tomorrow, Friday, March 20th. We’ll be back in touch soon with a further update.

In June 2023, just like every year before, the New Theatre closed its doors for the summer break. But during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival rehearsals in the summer, we are told that the students using the space were suddenly asked to leave and, later that September, the committee were told to surrender their keys to the building.

To this day, the theatre still stands empty and unused, its future more and more uncertain as each term passes.

So how and why did this happen? It’s a story that might shock you.

But before we get into it, a quick appeal: our chances of saving the theatre depend on the support we can rally. We need your help to spread the word:

1. Please get in touch with as many other NNT alums that you know, send them to savennt.com, and ask them to subscribe

2. …then ask them to do the same! With any luck, we’ll get a chain reaction going

Okay. Let’s get into it.

What happened to the theatre?

Before 2012, NNT was a part of the Archaeology and Classics (ARCS) Building on Cherry Tree Hill. When the university demolished ARCS in 2012, the theatre itself—after much campaigning—was retained and expanded.

Since then, leaks have appeared in the building, those leaks caused water damage, and, eventually, a significant amount of mould has spread throughout the building, making it unsafe to use.

The theatre was also home to significant fixtures and fittings provided by alumni donations, many of which we understand have been damaged.

Is the university doing anything about it?

In terms of repairs to make the building usable, no.

In a letter from Vice Chancellor Professor Jane Norman, the university estimates the cost to put the building right at a staggering £2M, and has said that “the theatre is not on our prioritised investment list due to more urgent short and medium-term priorities.”

This, they say, is because of their current financial difficulties.

Are productions still happening?

Yes, but in difficult conditions. NNT has temporary use of a cramped former student bar area in the Portland Building—formerly known as “The Venue”—and various forms of support from Lakeside Arts.

This support is obviously welcome, but the bottom line is this: NNT is a shadow of what it used to be, and of what it could be right now.

The creative freedom and organisational autonomy that we were all once afforded is something today’s students—most of whom have never been inside the theatre—have had taken from them.

Even in such difficult conditions, the current NNT committee has done incredible work keeping things going and deserves all the support we can give them.

Who is behind savennt.com?

We’re a loose collection of former New Theatre members who found out about all of this toward the end of 2025. We are:

• Matthew Bannister, broadcaster and former BBC executive (New Theatre 1975-78)

• Phil Geller, Head of Production, Theatre By The Lake (New Theatre 2007-2011)

• Matt Leventhall, Director of Technical Theatre Arts, RADA (New Theatre 2005 – 2009)

• Liz Stevenson, Artistic Director and Joint CEO, Theatre By The Lake (New Theatre 2008 - 2011)

• Nick Stevenson, Producing and Programming Director, Sheffield Theatres (New Theatre 2011 – 2014)

• Will Pimblett, Principal Engineer, Runa (New Theatre 2011 – 2014)

• Will Vickers, Head of Marketing, Calira (New Theatre 2007 – 2011)

What have you been doing?

So far, whatever we can:

• We’ve been meeting over Zoom with current NNT President Charlotte Reay and Secretary Kieran Bell to offer our assistance

• We’ve sent a signed letter to the VC voicing our anger and disappointment that this has been allowed to happen (to which we received a response, quoted above)

• Matthew Bannister and Matt Leventhall are meeting with NNT President Charlotte Reay and Vice Chancellor Professor Jane Norman in person as soon as possible

We’re still figuring out exactly what the shape of any campaign to save the theatre could or should look like.

What can we do to help?

We’re asking for help on two fronts:

1. Please subscribe and spread the word by sharing the link, savennt.com, and encouraging others to subscribe

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2. If you can help in any way*, please reply to this email or email us directly at savennt@gmail.com

*Maybe you’re a structural engineer, maybe you’ve built a career on the foundations of what you started at NNT and want to share your story, or maybe you’re a mould expert with two million quid down the back of the sofa. We’re all ears.

What happens next?

We have two priorities:

1. Grow this mailing list as much as possible from the current ~400 to at least 1000+

2. Meet the VC to keep the pressure on and dig into what that “£2M” number really means

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. We know this news is likely a shock to many, but we fully believe that with your help, we can move things in the right direction.

We’ll email again when we have another update to share.

Update (6 March): this post has been edited to clarify the description of building works, mould, and fixtures.

Update (8 March): this post has been further edited to clarify the sequence of events leading up to the closure of the theatre building.