More than £6,000 raised after Blackhall Community Centre pantomime’s ‘record’ success

The January performance of Cinderella by Blackhall Community Drama Club managed to sell 1,072 tickets – raising more £6,000 towards running the community centre.

Organisers have described it as their best pantomime ever in terms of fundraising, with the closing performance the first ever to sell out.

“In the current climate, to have our best ever pantomime, it just feels absolutely tremendous that we have the support of the local community,” said Alison Paterson, community centre manager.

"We were just absolutely thrilled. All the hard work and all the promotion that we did paid off."

The pantomime ran across five days at the end of January.

Alison, who was also responsible for the lights and the sound, has said performing in front of the crowd was “lively, exciting, you could feel the buzz”.

She added: "It’s just the best feeling. We are all a bit flat after it’s all gone because we had five marvellous shows.”

There are hopes the drama club’s live show on June 30 will repeat the success of the winter pantomime, with tickets already available to book through the community centre.

Preparation is also about to start for next year’s pantomime, set to take place at the end of January 2024.

Alison said: “I would like to thank everybody for their support. We raised over £6,000 for fund that got back into the community centre to help us keep doing what we do. Every penny counts.”