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Posted: Thursday 15 September, 2011
A £50,000 appeal is under way to expand a city centre theatre.
The Next Stage Theatre Company has acquired the run-down two-storey former bakery building at the back of its Mission Theatre in Corn Street.
It now has a 25-year lease on the building and wants to create light and spacious dressing rooms and a rehearsal space for both its adult and youth companies.
The group has launched a fundraising campaign called Space-Mission, which aims to bring in the money by the end of the year.
Entrepreneur Andrew Brownsword has offered to match every penny raised, meaning the group need only raise £25,000.
It is a similar gesture to one the hotel owner made recently to the city's Forever Friends Appeal through his Brownsword Charitable Foundation, and made to the theatre company in 2007 when it needed £20,000 to repair the Mission roof.
Next Stage will be contacting company members, artists and performers who use the theatre, theatregoers, local businesses and sponsors in the hope that they will be prepared to make donations.
Next Stage has spent 12 months negotiating the lease for the derelict building, which will also house breakout and workshop areas.
The company needs the money for a structural survey, new roof, floors, walls, stairs and windows, and electricity and drainage systems.
An added bonus of acquiring the building is that it will make it easier for actors to move around backstage.
The company admits it is a tight deadline, but it renovated The Mission itself in just six weeks ahead of its opening in 2005.
Founder Ann Garner said:
"Time is of the essence. We are anxious that work should begin on The Old Bakery as soon as possible. Companies are using the theatre as a performance and rehearsal space every day and, with winter on the way, it is imperative that we start the vital work on the structure and rook before a heavy snowfall causes even more damage."
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