Sir John Gielgud, who died in May at the age of 96, left an estate valued at £1.5m. He left most of the estate to charities chosen at the discretion of his executors. However some items were left to specific beneficiaries. A number of personal items, including a snuffbox once owned by Charles Kean, are left to the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden, and he left two portraits, including one of his great aunt Ellen Terry, to the National Portrait Gallery. he left it to the executors to dispose of his papers.
According to a report in The Stage, the high cost of mounting the Vivian Ellis Prize annual showcase has led to its being abandoned. In its place the board of the charity intends to establish a bursary system within the next two years. The cost of this year's showcase was £50,000.
The Cardiff International Festival of Music theatre has announced its World Quest for New Musicals, which will be a biennial event starting in 2002.
1.71% increase in Welsh arts budget
The budget for the arts in Wales is to increase by 1.71% before inflation, an effective cut of 0.5% whilst, according to Chris Smith, the increase in arts spending in England will be in the order of 60%. This was the complaint of Plaid Cymru Assembly member Owen John Thomas in the Assembly on Thursday 26th October.
Finance Minister Edwina Hart replied that the Assembly's allocation of resources was in line with its priorities and that she believed that funding to ACW will increase by £4m by 2003-4. She was not, she said, influenced by England or by England's decisions on spending.