Imagine an industry that made billions for the treasury. Imagine an industry that made billions for the wider economy. An industry that literally existed to make us better humans, to create connections, to show us how to dream and remind us what dreaming looks and feels like.

Imagine an industry that made us famous across the world, that brought people from around the world to the UK. Imagine an industry that told young people that their stories, their voices, matter, whoever they are.
Imagine an industry that made money and made hearts swell.

Imagine an industry that made something that helped children and adults walk taller and believe in themselves. Imagine an industry that allowed you to "walk a mile in another person's shoes", the way Atticus Finch told us to.
Imagine that? It exists. It's dying. It's theatre.

Can you imagine letting that industry just die? Just letting it go? Why would you do that? Let it die? In Manchester @rxtheatre is in immediate danger. Today it's Manchester. In recent weeks it's been Northampton, Plymouth, Newcastle - it's coming to a theatre near you.

It doesn't have to die.
It doesn't make sense to let it die.
To let it disappear is an act of the most horrific, wanton neglect that will make us all so, so much poorer.

I'm the @yorkshirepost theatre correspondent and a playwright. Before I was that, i was a mixed race working class Northern boy. Theatre opened its doors and changed my life. It needs to be there to change the lives of others in future.

Theatre makes dreamers of us all. We need dreamers now to imagine a way to save them from the effects of Covid.
It's such an important industry, one we're going to lose.
We're going to have to stand and watch it disappear over a cliff edge if nothing is done - now.
#THEATRE