Thornton LittleTheatre Plans £160,000 Extension

It's a new era for Thornton Little Theatre as exciting plans to secure its future as one of Wyre's premier entertainment venues have been given the go ahead by operators Wyre Borough Council.

Wyre's Cabinet Members have given their blessing to the theatre joining forces with the Paul Nicholas School of Acting in a unique partnership arrangement which will expand the theatre activities, extend the premises and take it into the 21st century.

Together, they will deliver they daily operation of the theatre, introduce new audiences and enhance the theatre experience by hosting more amateur and youth acts and live music performances and open up access to arts development opportunities locally. Their joint responsibility will see running costs reduced too with the council funding any building work.

Councillor Peter Gibson, Wyre's Living Communities Portfolio Holder, sat on the evaluation panel and was involved in the stringent judging process. He said: "We identified a number of key competencies from knowledge and experience of performance based arts development, managing a similar venue and experience of partnership working. We were very impressed with the school's capabilities, professionalism, enthusiasm and dedication.

"It has been a long journey but we are absolutely delighted to have the prestigious Paul Nicholas School of Acting as our preferred partners and we look forward to a very successful future for the venue. We also believe that Wyre's theatregoers will benefit enormously too as we continue to support the community's aspirations and introduce new improvements to improve the theatre and its acts."

And the theatre's designs on a new £160,000 extension to the building will soon be realised with plans being drawn up soon to increase accessibility at the venue and enhance the facilities for patrons and performers. The work will include the development of a multi-purpose area including a bar/refreshment area to serve audiences during interval-time for performances, the introduction of ground floor toilets and additional dressing room facilities.

The council hope to start building work start in the next few months and it is envisaged that the project will finished by early 2010. There will be minimal disruption to the theatre's activities during the building work.

Also planned are new business opportunities from themed children's parties to dance and drama courses and business to business training events which help to grow and diversify the theatre and generate additional income to benefit the venue.

Cllr Gibson added: "It a very exciting time in the theatre's history with a major extension planned and a more diverse portfolio of activities on offer, We have every confidence that the Paul Nicholas School of Acting have the credentials and the drive to deliver this project and take to the theatre to new heights."

This is not the first time that the two organisations have worked together as Thornton Little Theatre as was the venue for the first-ever Paul Nicholas School of Acting.

The School was originally set up in 2003 as the Fylde School of Acting, but joined forces with Paul Nicholas in 2006 to become what it is today, a school that delivers professional actor training to children at an affordable price. Hundreds of children have trained the at Paul Nicholas School of Acting over the years, many going on to study the arts in further education and some even performing in TV and radio programmes for the BBC.

Karen Roberts, Managing Director of the Paul Nicholas School of Acting, is delighted to be involved in this partnership and can't wait to get started. She is brimming with ideas of how to make the arts more accessible to the local community using Thornton Little Theatre as a base for a wide range of new activities.

She said: "The Paul Nicholas School of Acting takes pride in being the forefront of delivering training in the arts to young people. We have always been a community based school and we can't wait to develop this more in the future at Thornton Little Theatre."

The ambitions of the school will be:

• Expansion of existing activities
  
• The creation of a base from which a theatre in education programme could be developed
  
• The provision of business to business and role play training
  
• The promotion of theme children's parties
  
• The creation of a range of dance and drama based courses
  
• The development of the art, drama and dance based show programme to supplement the existing programme of events

Central to this would be the School relocating its Head Office to purpose-built office accommodation at the theatre from existing office space in Thornton where they would take operational responsibility for the building between 9am - 5pm Monday to Saturday. The council will operate in the evenings and all day Sunday.

Staff will continue to be employed by Wyre Borough Council's Leisure Directorate.

A partnership Board would be created to oversee the partnership, involving key people from the council and the Paul Nicholas School of Acting, representatives of the Thornton Little Theatre 'Friends' group and other user groups, to oversee the performance of the theatre and develop its service in the future.

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