A PUBLIC ‘thank you’ has been issued to the 140 volunteers who help to keep Minehead’s Regal Theatre open for its shows and film screenings.

It came in what is National Volunteers Week, an annual UK-wide campaign to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers.

The Regal is operated by the charitable Minehead Amateur Theatre Association (MATA), which also appealed for anybody else to get in touch if they wanted to join the volunteering team.

Trustee Ann Strik said MATA was rightly proud of its ‘amazing volunteers’ whose hard work kept the community theatre open.

Ms Strik said: “It is absolutely true to say that without the 140 or so people from our community that give up their time to work at the Regal, in many diverse roles, the theatre simply would not exist.

“Well done and thank you to all of them.

“Of course, while 140 people sounds a lot, a single night’s show takes a minimum of around 20 volunteers to ensure our audiences have tickets, are guided to their seats, can have refreshments, can hear and see the performance, all in a safe and welcoming environment.

“That represents 15 per cent of our volunteers in attendance for every single evening that we put a show on.”

In addition, there were performers, back-office staff working on tasks such as bookings, marketing, and finance, meaning ‘an awful lot of work goes on’ for audiences to sit and enjoy a show.

Ms Strik said: “While we are extremely grateful to all our existing volunteers, we would also welcome new volunteers to help us run our theatre.

“Most roles require no previous theatre experience and we are confident we can find something for everybody regardless of the amount of time you have available to volunteer for us.”

Anybody interested should email [email protected] or visit the box office.