Theatre Development - Planned Extension

Ever since CoPs bought our Little Theatre in 1972, the Company has strived to develop it’s facilities to support the best possible experience of producing and watching great theatre. The initial conversion from Victorian schoolroom to theatre created the basics of a stage, dressing room, toilets and auditorium – over time, adjustments were made as funds allowed, with improvements becoming more major in later years, starting with the foyer construction in 1998.

To find out more information on the history of the Company and the Theatre as it progressed from a private members’ club to the publicly-accessible community amateur theatre company it is today, click the button.

This gradual evolution created some shortcomings, and several areas of our more than 150-year-old building have not changed at all since that first conversion. So in 2019 it was time for a major review of the building and its facilities as a whole. Working with local architect Andrew Goodman, we sought solutions for many of these shortcomings, as well as updating our outdated facilities and improving comfort and access, to create an environment fit for purpose in the present day and into the future. The main priorities we identified were:

Other areas long overdue for work are proper heating and ventilation in the auditorium and upgrading stage lighting to LED, both of which reduce our carbon footprint as well as improving the comfort of our audiences.

Plans and Progress

Detailed plans were developed to meet all of these priorities within “a single storey extension to provide an enlarged foyer, new and improved sanitary accommodation, additional backstage facilities and improved access and facilities for disabled persons”.

These plans will give us:

  •  A bigger, more comfortable foyer
  • Internal stairs to our technical control room
  • Disabled access and toilet facilities
  • Front-of-House toilets
  • Internal access from backstage to front-of-house and both sides of the stage
  • Additional dressing room space

Planning permission was granted in November 2022. All the planning materials, including the application and related documents are still available to view on the Council’s website via the link below:

We are now working on raising the substantial funds needed to bring these plans to life, currently estimated at £360k, through a combination of grants and personal giving from our membership and beyond. Match funding for grants is usually 20% and we are already nearly halfway to the direct fundraising target of £80k, so with your help we feel sure this is achievable. To find out more about how you can join us on this exciting new stage of our journey, visit our Donate to CoPs page via the link below. Your support will give a new lease of life to the Little Theatre you all love, so you can continue to enjoy our shows in comfort for years to come.

We’ll keep this page updated as our plans progress. If you have any comments, questions, concerns or want to get more involved, please email us at info@cops.org.uk or speak to any of our committee members. You can find answers to queries that others have already raised on our FAQs page.

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