The RSC is to change its redevelopment plans after ACE rejected its Lottery bid for £3.5m to complete phase one of the project. The RSC's aim was to build a new middle-sized theatre, redevelop the Swan, and convert the Other Place into an education centre. The project's total cost of £100m is likely to be reduced by as much as £200,000 when the bid is resubmitted. ACE has encouraged the RSC to resubmit.
The National Theatre's Cottesloe will close for five weeks, starting in August, as part of the company's backstage refurbishment.
Robinson Forecasts Major Changes
There are likely to be major changes in the way ACE operates its funding policies, chairman Gerry Robinson has hinted. He has suggested that no client can be guaranteed core funding and that there will be mch quicker decision making, especially on Lottery bids.
Karl Watkin, owner of Newcastle's New Tyne Theatre, home of the English Shakespeare Company, could be liable for a fine of up to £5000 for not submitting accounts for its first year. These accounts were due in October 1997. Two other companies he owns are also late in filing their accounts, one by three and one by five months.