A MAJOR appeal is being launched tomorrow to raise funds for a new home for York's Stagecoach Youth Theatre.

It hopes to raise £70,000 towards the £260,000 cost of converting part of Trinity Methodist Church, Monkgate, into its own theatre and rehearsal space.

Since the theatre started out in 1993, the number of eight to 18-year-old members has grown from 17 to 140.

In the last year alone, its membership has grown by 30 per cent and is putting on five major productions, plus other smaller ones, this year.

Professional director John Cooper, who started the theatre, said the only permanent base it had was a hall it hired out in the Groves, York.

But it often had to hire out other bigger rooms for rehearsals, and the two studio theatres in York, at the Arts Centre and the College of Ripon and York St John, were no longer big enough for them.

At the same time, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, with 400 seats, was too big to sustain a week of performances.

He said: "It has taken a long time to build, but I didn't expect it to take off as it has. The enthusiasm and drive of the young people over the last two years has been like a forest fire, it's got bigger and bigger."

The group hopes to convert the rear of the Monkgate church into an upstairs 145-seat theatre and a ground-floor rehearsal room, plus offices and storage space.

Mr Cooper said other organisations, including schools and clubs, had already said they would be interested in using the space.

Plans have been drawn up by architect Richard Blenkham, and Mr Cooper hopes to submit the main stage of the lottery application in the next six weeks.

It is hoped the £70,000 will come from a combination of businesses, charitable trusts and fundraising. The Lord Mayor, Coun Mick Bradley, will give the scheme his backing at tomorrow's launch at the Mansion House.

The two patrons, York MP Hugh Bayley and playwright Willis Hall will also be there - Mr Hall is an old friend of Mr Cooper, who once co-wrote a play with him.

Mr Cooper said that directing the numerous Stagecoach productions was now more or less a full-time job for him and he hoped that Willis's son James, who has recently graduated in performing arts, would soon be an assistant director for the theatre.

Rehearsals are already under way for a musical version of Worzel Gummidge, and start soon for Run Ragged, a Victorian musical play, The Canterbury Tales, to be performed in the Museum Gardens, and the Dracula Spectacular.

Mr Cooper said: "It gives the children self-confidence, self- esteem, experience in working together as a company and gives them experience of song and dance and other aspects of the theatre."

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