2025

Our Re-Brand!

It’s time for a change! 

Over the past few years, with a lot of grit and heart, we’ve transformed our old church hall into a buzzing hub of creativity for children and young people in Exeter. It’s been quite the ride. We’ve hosted ceilidhs and comedy, built dens, welcomed opera singers and puppets, and even filled the entire hall with pine trees. 

At the heart of it all is a simple but powerful mission: to put children’s creativity and imagination centre stage, and to make sure young people—whatever their background—can access extraordinary creative experiences. 

As we’ve grown into this new version of ourselves, we realised something: our name and look needed to catch up. 

We threw around a lot of new ideas. But in the end, the answer was right in front of us. We wanted to honour where we’ve come from—Theatre Alibi, a name built on years of touring and a reputation for high-quality, thoughtful work for children. But we also wanted to reflect what we are now: a home for all kinds of imaginative adventures, not just theatre. 

So from now on, we’ll simply be Alibi. 

A name that carries our legacy forward, while making space for everything new and exciting we’re creating. 

And with this shift, we’re also unveiling our brand-new look—logo, colours, and branding that reflect the values and creative spirit at the heart of Alibi. Take a look on our website and keep an eye out as the changes begin to take shape in our building too. 

This is the next chapter—and we’d love you to be part of it. 

Join us at Alibi. 

Debbie and Team Alibi 

Christmas might seem like a distant memory now but we wanted to reflect on the success of Winterwood, our first festive experience in the building. We’ve put together this impact report to capture a sense of what people thought of their time in the forest, and all the brilliant stats and numbers that comes with putting on an immersive experience like Winterwood…

Take a look at the Impact Report here: 

2024

Alibi’s Centre for the Imagination awarded capital funding from Arts Council England

A note from Debbie, our CEO: 

We are delighted to have been awarded capital funding by Arts Council England. This allows us to take the next huge step towards our vision of creating an exciting new venue for Children and Young People which will serve the families and communities of Exeter and beyond. With this funding we will be able to enhance our performance space and make improvements to our building bringing it closer to the young people-centred venue we’ve been dreaming of.  

Thank you to Arts Council England for supporting our vision through this funding, funding which aims to build a country filled with creative people and cultural communities. And a huge thank you to our audiences so far; we’ve felt your support during this period of transformation and are so excited to see our glorious old building filled with smiling faces. We hope this will be the beginning of more, bigger and greater things…  

And a reminder that the doors have been flung open; the changes to the space will allow us to keep programming exciting work for children and young people – whether it’s performances or exhibitions or workshops or anything in between… the space is here. So do reach out, share your thoughts and your dreams and we’ll do our best to make them happen in this next chapter of Alibi’s Centre for the Imagination. Onwards! 

Keep checking in on this webpage so we can keep you in the loop with updates and progress of our journey. This is where we’ll post pictures and the latest news about how Emmanual Hall is transforming over the coming months…. and don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list to follow along!

Photos of our 'What If...?' Festival by Emily Appleton