Brentwood Theatre's tenth anniversary plans have been dampend by the news that an application for much needed National Lottery funding would be futile.

The sad news comes as birthday plans at the Shenfield Road theatre start to gather steam.

The trust was hoping to mark its anniversary by attracting a grant to help build new dressing rooms which will cost around £250,000.

But when the theatre team approached the lottery it was told its chances were slim because around 80 per cent of the shows on its stage are community based which means it cannot be defined as a professional theatre.

The theatre is now exploring other ways of raising the money needed for the project but is very disappointed, describing it as "highly ludicrous" situation.

Production Manager at the theatre, David Zelly, said: "We can't understand it. We thought that lottery money was for the community and for the people, yet here we are being told that we are highly unlikely to get any money because we have too many community groups perform here.

"The theatre is totally self sufficient and our main revenue comes from bums on seats from people who come to watch our shows and so we were really hoping for a boost from the lottery to help us fund these new changing rooms we need."

Mr Zelly said when the theatre was built in December 1993 there was not enough funding available to build brick changing rooms so instead portable type buildings were used but he said that after 10 years they needed replacing.

A spokesman for the National Lottery said that successful applications for grants depended on a number of factors and that every case was different. They also pointed out that funding for capital project such as this were limited.

Published Monday, August 4, 2003

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