President Claire Williams said the community theatre company had received $35,000 in donations since May, when the organisation decided to "go public" about its financial woes.

"There's a lot of love out there," she said. "People have been very generous. And it's really interesting some of the stories. One bloke said 'I met my wife at a show in the '80s' and donated.

"We're opening up the theatre to more fundraising events too, so there's a whole lot of interesting things on. We're running a tarot card reading night and a ghost tour."

She said the company's most recent season of Stepping Out, which closed on Saturday, had also contributed an additional $20,000 to the theatre's kitty.

"It's a musical comedy about a group of people learning to tap dance," she said.

"We had seven or eight full houses so that's really helped our bottom line. We had to turn people away, so we're bringing the show back from the 11th to the 15th of December.

"It shows what can happen if we mount a really popular show."

While the interest from the public bodes well for the company, Ms Williams said fundraising would have to continue in the long-term to cover the $80,000 to $100,000 required for the fire safety works, which began at the theatre on Monday, July 29.

The upgrades include installing a manual air handling system and fire-proof walls on stage.

"On a wing and a prayer we're going ahead with it," Ms Williams said.

"We have a drawdown on our mortgage and we have got an overdraft facility. We're worried about our capacity to pay the higher repayments so the fundraising is absolutely critical.

"There are some corporate funding rounds open now, so we're having a meeting this week to look at those."

The theatre has been on month-by-month extensions from council to meet mandatory safety regulations since failing an annual fire certificate check late last year.

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