Stephen Joseph Theatre: The Search for Funds. One of the venues where people can satiate their desire to experience the arts is the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The Stephen Joseph Theatre is basically a theatre in the round in Scarborough and was actually the first of its kind in Britain. The theatre takes its name from its founder, Stephen Joseph. The theater had its humble beginnings on the first floor of Scarborough’s public library. Currently, the theatre has two auditoria: a 404 –seat in the round aptly named as The Round and a 165-seat endstage/cinema called the McCarthy. The building also has facilities such as a restaurant, shop and full front-of-house and backstage facilities. The Round boasts of two innovations: the stage lift which enabled speedy set changes and the trampoline, a Canadian invention which allows technicians particularly easy access to the lighting grid. All of these improvements did not come without a price. The price tag for the improvements was £5.2 million. This only goes to show that art-related ventures are not only founded in the artist talents but actually involves expenditures that can be quite huge. However, the practice and development of the arts should not be hindered by the lack of capital. The exercise of such an important part of society should never be compromised by financial reasons. This reasoning has been the rationale behind the public as well as private support in the field. Perhaps, the most immediate and important support is funding. The theatre project, for example, was given £1.48 million by the National Lottery Arts Council of England, £500,000 from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts. £495,000 from the EC Objective 5(b) fund. £400,000 from Alan Ayckbourn personal funds. £240,000 from the Chairman of the Development Trust, Charles McCarthy. Other amounts amounting came from donations ranging from hundreds of thousands to pound coins dropped in a collection bucket after each performance.
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