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Meet the Stars and Help a Good CauseDate: 6 July 2009
The Royal Theatrical Fund is Britain's oldest charity for theatrical artists in all stage disciplines. Its patron is the Queen and its history goes back to 1939. Four actors at the peak of their profession met after the theatre one night and began talking about the large number of elderly performers who were facing the end of their careers and a penurious future.
So they set up the General Theatrical Fund Association, which is now the Royal Theatrical Fund. The first chairman was Charles Dickens, a keen amateur actor as well as prolific novelist with many playwrights and actors such as Macready among his close friends. The current president is Sir Donald Sinden.
The Fund holds a number of fund-raising events throughout the year but the main one is the Summer Fair in the grounds of the Anglican actors' church St Paul's, Covent Garden. This year it takes place from 12.30pm until 4.30pm on Sunday 12 July; entrance costs £3 but children under 15 go in free. So if you're wondering what to do on Sunday, make your way to what its architect Inigo Jones described as the "handsomest barn in London". Meet a star (or two, or five), take a lucky dip, buy a raffle ticket and support a really worthwhile cause.
Actors, directors and designers give us all many moments of theatrical magic. This is our chance to give something back
- by Anne Morley-Priestman
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