Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Popular Modo programmes to end in north-east communities over money woes

Ellie Moore of Theatre Modo demonstrates her juggling skills.
Ellie Moore of Theatre Modo demonstrates her juggling skills.

A north-east circus troupe has been forced to shut down its programmes in two communities after funding dried up.

Theatre Modo ran popular circus workshops in Fraserburgh and Mintlaw, but will now only operate out of Peterhead because of money concerns.

The charity needs about £10,000 to run each programme it offers, and relies entirely on grant funding.

Parents were informed by organisers yesterday that it was with a “heavy heart” events in Mintlaw and Fraserburgh would be pulled this Christmas.

But last night, Modo’s creative director, Martin Danziger, said the group was actively look for benefactors to be able to reintroduce the workshops as soon as possible.

He said: “We’ve been running these weekly programmes since 2014 when we got the money from the Lottery.

“We perhaps naively thought that a programme that was over-subscribed and managing to accredit hundreds of young people a year would attract lots more funding – but that has proved incredibly difficult.”

Staff at Modo have had to work for free to provide after-school events for youngsters in Mintlaw and Fraserburgh.

Recently they took part in Peterhead’s Christmas lights switch on, where youngsters performed fire tricks.

Mr Danziger said the last thing he wanted to do was charge parents for the sessions.

“At some point the financial crisis will settle down where we are able to run them again,” he said.

“But as we all know in the third sector at the moment, it is incredibly hard to raise funds for anything.

“We are really committed to providing it for free, so we can’t go down the route of simply charging for it. We feel we would miss the people who really need these activities.

“The programmes have provided real benefits to young people, and we’ve seen them grow in skills and confidence to give back to the community.”

Mr Danziger has called for anyone with ideas to raise funds to contact Theatre Modo.

Theatre Modo received a grant from the Big Lottery Fund in 2014 of £50,000 which allowed them to expand their work.