"Worthing's Connaught Theatre Won't Shut" Says Councillor
Worthing's Connaught Theatre won't close - that's the promise that a leading councillor gave to the town's arts community at a meeting of Worthing Arts Council last night (24th January).
Concerned by reports that the Connaught was facing the axe, and that Worthing's Pavilion Theatre might also be facing cuts, Rainbow Theatre's Nick Young challenged Paul High, Worthing Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure &Sport.
"The Connaught won't shut," Paul said, "and there will be a pantomime at both venues this year."
The Connaught Theatre opened in the 1930s, when a stage and the building's distinctive Art Moderne frontage were added to the 1914 Picturedrome Cinema. The building rose to prominence as one of the country's leading repertory theatres in the 1950s, and survived until the mid 1980s when it was threatend with closure. Re-opened in 1987 as a touring house managed by a charitable trust, the theatre had a brief turnaround in its fortunes presenting companies like Trestle, Oxford Stage, Theatre D'Complicite and Siobhan Davies, alongside cinema screenings and a busy Arts Outreach programme.
By the late 1990s though, the building was again in trouble and the Borough Council took control of the trust ... and have run the Connaught since then as part of the Worthing Theatres group. For the last few years, their have been reports that the building could again face closure.
Worthing Arts Council have pledged to monitor the situation, and lobby the council through the Worthing Evolution masterplan and the local planning consultation which are both currently taking place. Local arts groups, clubs and businesses can join Worthing Arts Council for just £10 per year.
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