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Dateline: 7th November, 2003 £3m for Newcastle Playhouse The Newcastle Playhouse and Gulbenkain Studio is to receive £3m from the Lottery Fund towards its transformation into a European centre for the performing arts and home to Northern Stage. According to Andrew Dixon, Executive Director of Arts Council England, North East , the award recoghnises the vision of Northern Stage director Alan Lyddiard. "Alan Lyddiard's work in positioning Northern Stage as a European arts centre," he said, "has put Newcastle on the international theatre map. This is one of the most important and innovative theatres in the country." Northern Stage has been the resident company at Newcastle Playhouse for the past ten years and it has created ambitious plans for the theatre. The '70s modernist style architecture will be re-modelled into a stylish and attractive building that will complement Newcastle University's plans for a cultural quarter. The Centre will have the capacity to show world class theatre created by the Northern Stage Ensemble, and will present the best theatre from around the world. "It will be a place from which the Ensemble can set off and tour Europe and beyond. A home to which it can return reinvigorated, a base for collaborations, where local people and international artists can meet and forge long-lasting relationships" says Alan Lyddiard, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Northern Stage. Northern Stage will move out of the building in May 2004 but will continue touring work. The development is expected to be complete in autumn 2005. The total project cost is £8 million and other funding has come from the Northern Rock Foundation, Garfield Weston Trust, The Trusthouse, Sir James Knott, Foyle Foundation and Storrow Scott Trust, and the European Regional Development Fund. Northern Stage is confident of a major award from Newcastle City Council.There are three main areas to the redevelopment. A new performance space is being built at the heart of the building, an accommodation block on the north side of the building will bring all the staff of Northern Stage under one roof for the first time in its history, and a new foyer on the south side of the building will open out onto Kings' Walk. This will include a dedicated education space and room for corporate entertaining as well as improve the visual impact of the building within the city and campus. The theatre is situated with the front facing one of Newcastle's main streets and the rear looks onto King's Walk, part of the University of Newcastle. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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