An update from Maydays HQ

Regency Square Maydays Studio closure

It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of our Brighton studio, primarily due to the on-going effects of the coronavirus pandemic. We have loved our studio (and we know a lot of you have too) but the space is too small to hold classes safely, and in a socially distanced manner. The donations we gratefully received at the start of lockdown have allowed us to keep our company from going under, but after three glorious years, we simply can’t afford the studio anymore.  Our plan is to restart real life classes in 2021 at a new space in Brighton. It’ll be a great chance for us to not only gain space for social distancing, but also to prioritise accessibility (which we didn’t have in Regency Square).

Diversity recruitment and online classes

In other news, you may not have seen much of us for the last six months! Again, due to the pandemic, we’ve performed very few shows – online or offline – and have effectively been on hiatus from performing while we work out our next steps.  Our online classes in conjunction with The Nursery Theatre however have hopefully given you a chance to keep your improv going and keep the community thriving.  We’ve been using this time instead to plan diversity recruitment as a top priority for The Maydays. And also to continually learn, and be active allies in the fight against racism. Our collaboration with The Nursery Theatre has allowed us to provide inclusive online classes, collaborating with diverse teachers from all over the globe. This is just the very beginning. When it comes to diversity and inclusion, we’re putting the work into a long overdue core company restructure and recruitment drive, with a view to making long lasting change. We are proud to be working with the 100 Black Improvisers Partnership, along with continuing to offer our Jason Chin Scholarship.

Goodbye to the Directors

And lastly, as many of you know, our lovely Heather and Jules are expecting a tiny human. So Heather will be off on maternity leave , along with Jules for a few months. They will be working on joyful, emotional, three person scenes…

Joe is also taking this opportunity to take a break from Directorship so stay tuned to find out who will be taking The Maydays forward as new Directors soon.