Is this the final act for John?

IT'S dark in the Stagecoach studio theatre.

The walls of the small performing space in Monkgate, York, are draped in black: the four figures sitting there picked out by the harsh white stage lights.

In this space tomorrow a cast of young people will begin rehearsing for what has already been described as the "amateur theatre coup" of 2006: the first performance outside London of the stage version of Philip Pullman's classic children's novel, His Dark Materials.

Pullman is one of JK Rowling's few rivals as an author of imaginative fiction for children that is both popular and moral.

It is a terrific coup for John Cooper, Stagecoach's artistic director, to have been granted the rights to perform the play, ahead of professional and amateur theatre companies across the country. And it's a wonderful challenge for his young cast.

Sadly, it has all been overshadowed by a threat to the very survival of the pioneering youth theatre company.

On Monday, in the Guildhall, a group of city councillors will sit down to decide whether to cut their annual grant to Stagecoach. If they do, says Mr Cooper, it will mean the end of Stagecoach, after 14 glorious years.

The young cast of His Dark Materials is trying hard not to let that prospect cast a shadow over their excitement at getting to grips with Pullman's story.

You must be looking forward to tomorrow, I suggest to the two 13-year-old girls who are sharing the part of the feisty, fiery heroin Lyra Belacqua.

The two Lyras nod, their faces bright and shining with eagerness.

"I've never read in front of people, never done that before and I'm worried if I'm going to be any good," says Lyra 1 - Millthorpe School pupil Jessie Haughton-Shaw - leaning forward excitedly. "But she Lyra has been my favourite book character for years. She's got a mind of her own and she's quite feisty - she tends to fight a lot."

"A bit like you!" quips her friend and fellow Lyra, Huntington School pupil Sarah Gibbon. They both laugh.

Sarah, too, admits she's excited. "I hadn't read the books until I heard we were going to do the play," she says. "But I really enjoyed them. They are quite dark, and not like most other books. There are really interesting characters."

Staging the Pullman will be a typical challenge for Stagecoach.

His Dark Materials centres on a little girl, Lyra, who is brought up in an "alternative" Oxford - one where the rules of nature aren't quite the same as in our world.

During the course of the three books, Lyra and her friend Will travel between a number of different worlds, cutting through from one to another with a knife so sharp it can slice through the boundaries between parallel uni-verses. There are giant, talking polar bears, flying witches, shapeless life-draining wraiths - and a visit to the world of the dead.

A typically ambitious Stagecoach project then.

Staging it, Mr Cooper admits, will be a real technical challenge. In fact, it will be a nightmare. "But once it's on stage..."

Once it's on stage, it will no doubt be another Stagecoach triumph.

There have been plenty of those over the last 14 years. Evening Press arts correspondent Charles Hutchinson picks out just a few: the 1996 production of Under Milk Wood in the Museum Gardens; 2003's Run Ragged and Cabaret (see panel on right).

The stairway at the back of Trinity Hall, in Monkgate, which leads up to the studio theatre is lined with photos of past performances, a visual record of Stagecoach's history.

Sheer professionalism has marked out each of those performances - and there are about seven major productions every year.

There are reasons for that. John Cooper is a veteran actor and director who for many years ran a professional, Arts Council-funded touring company. He also employs a professional musical director and choreographer to work on major Stagecoach shows.

It is that professionalism which makes Stagecoach so different from other youth theatre groups, says Freya Grummitt, at 17 a Stagecoach veteran who has been with the company for nine years.

"It is so different," Freya, a Huntington School sixth-former who plays the role of the evil Mrs Coulter in His Dark Materials, says.

"It is so professional. We get pushed so hard."

In the 14 years of its existence, hundreds of York youngsters have benefited from that approach. Angharad Ormond - who writes on the letters page in the Evening Press today - is one of them.

"It provided me with not only a foundation in theatre but a foundation in life," she says.

"John Cooper has the amazing ability to challenge and encourage the young people. Kids are given freedom of speech, freedom of thought and responsibility, as performers, directors, administrative staff and theatre technicians.

"Since leaving... I have seen the younger generation grow, and have witnessed the development of shy, quiet children into confident, talented performers."

All that could be placed at risk if the city council goes ahead with its decision to scrap Stagecoach's annual grant.

At the moment, that stands at just under £8,000 a year (there was an extra £1,600 this year for a specific project, which is where the oft-quoted £9,500 comes from).

The council proposes to phase out that £8,000 over three years - with the Stagecoach grant for the next financial year being reduced by something like £2,000.

It doesn't sound like a lot: but for John Cooper it is the beginning of the end.

Stagecoach's budget is very tight, he points out. The council grant makes up about a quarter of its operating costs - the rest comes from fees to young members, and box office receipts.

And while the company could struggle by without that money, he wouldn't be prepared to do so.

"Of course we could survive it," he says.

"But we would have to lower standards. We would have to do more plays without technical support, without scenery; we wouldn't be able to afford fees for the musical director or choreographer. All the elements that the young people really get off on would have to go."

" We'd have to start doing things on the cheap," cuts in Freya, indignantly.

"And I'm not prepared to do that," adds John.

So, the bottom line is, if the council does start to phase out funding, this summer's production of Under Milk Wood will be Stagecoach's last, John says. "That would be it. I don't think I would be prepared to carry on."

Coun Keith Orrell, who will chair Monday's council leisure and heritage advisory panel meeting at which the decision on Stagecoach's funding will be taken, stresses the decision to cut funding is no reflection on the work that Stagecoach does.

Cuts are being forced on the council by a "critical" budget situation, and the fact York is being short-changed to the tune of £1.25million by central Government, he says.

It isn't only Stagecoach that will be suffering: there will be cuts to other services, and council staff will be losing their jobs.

Savings have to be found in the leisure budget as elsewhere, he says. Stagecoach, unlike other youth theatre groups, has had council funding for years - and had been warned months ago that its funding for the next financial year was not guaranteed.

"No doubt the many people who work with Stagecoach will argue that £2,000 this year is not going to solve the council's budget problems," he says.

"But, sadly, it is lots of small amounts that add up to the savings we have to find."

None of that cuts any ice with John Cooper. "They the council have no conception of the value of the work we do," he says bitterly. "It is peanuts to them, but it is our life blood."

On the way out of the studio, Jessie Haughton-Shaw pauses to look at the photos of past performances.

"It would be really weird not having Stagecoach," she says.

Sarah Gibbon, standing beside her, agrees. "There are other things I could do I suppose," she says disconsolately. "But it wouldn't be the same as Stagecoach."

Evening Press theatre critic Charles Hutchinson puts the case for supporting Stagecoach

WHAT more could Stagecoach Youth Theatre York do to warrant sustained investment from City of York Council?

Here is a company that gives absolute value for money: at least six productions a year, annual representation at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; year after year of transforming ducklings into swans through the bonding, binding, stimulating, educative power of theatre.

The council knows about waste - refuse collection became its specialist subject last year - and so it should recognise that Stagecoach does anything but waste its funding.

Artistic director John Cooper produces more shows than any other youth theatre in the city, takes his company of fledgling talents to the streets to entertain locals and visitors alike, and sets young performers on the path to a professional career with stage and social skills.

Just as Stagecoach builds up youngsters, filling them with confidence, expression and a sense of responsibility to others, so the company has built a theatre from scratch at Trinity Hall in Monkgate, with the aid of the city council, it should be noted.

In the absence of an arts centre - another York asset that went to the wall - it has become beholden on the likes of the Stagecoach Studio Theatre and Riding Lights at Friargate Theatre to bolster theatrical diversity in York.

One letter writer this week picked exactly the right word to describe the council's proposed grant cuts to Stagecoach: meanness. Stagecoach already makes a little go a long way; it should not have to add a third symbol, a begging bowl, to theatre's traditional signs of comedy and tragedy.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, January 13, 2006