Rix help Star Struck Theatre with fundraiser

 December 21, 2011

Rix Petroleum help Driffield Theatre Company raise all important funds. 

Leading East Yorkshire fuel company Rix Petroleum has donated a HTC Smart phone to a Driffield theatre company, to help it raise vital cash for new sound equipment. The phone, worth more than £400, is to be the star prize at a raffle and funding raising event in aid of the Star Struck Theatre Company due to be held in October. Tickets to win the phone went on sale at the theatre company’s production of the classic Broadway musical Annie, which it staged on August 28th and 29th at its Nafferton base.

The money collected by the raffle will go towards new microphones for the school, which relies on donations and fund raising events to provide costumes, lighting and sound equipment for its students. Jez Francis, founder and musical director of Star Struck Theatre Company, said the donation would go along way to helping fund the new equipment.

“We are very grateful to Rix,” he said. 

“It’s great to see a large local company supporting a small organisation like ours and supporting the arts. Our aim with the school is to give local kids the opportunity to do something they wouldn’t otherwise get and ensure it is affordable for everyone. 

We charge a small term-time rate which covers the rent and heating of the building, but all the extra stuff we need to put on productions comes via our fund raising efforts, which is why donations such as this are so important to us.”

Jez, who worked in the West End and on cruise ships for a decade, started the school in 2007 with just 10 students. It now has up to 40 youngsters attending from as far a field as Market Weighton, Beverley and Bridlington and often invite professional coaches from London to tutor the kids in dancing, singing and acting. 

Duncan Lambert, Rix Petroleum director and general manager, said he was delighted to give the Star Struck Theatre Company the phone “Jez and his team do a great job running the school. It is real grass roots stuff that helps give kids something positive to focus on outside school. I hope they are able to raise all the money they need and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before the theatre school produces its first star.”