Intoduction

Well simply put, the entertainment industry in the UK has an unemployment rate of over 70% at any one time without any real programme of help being available anywhere in spite of the billions spent on restart programmes each year. We turn out more and more trained professionals each year from schools dedicated to teaching performance and technical skills with fewer job opportunities available for the swelling ranks and no means of advice or assistance provided in the same manner as other professions. Education in Britain is receiving unprecedented amount of publicity for the strain the departments are under and their constant search for support. Not forgetting the fact that the entertainment industry is one of the last home owned industries we have. It is responsible for bringing in huge amounts of tourist revenue, and has the potential for enormous export value. Yet all of these potential resources are being wasted because no-one seems to want to confront the problem. And in doing so we are missing massive opportunities.

What we are proposing is a centre that will allow us to begin harnessing that potential in such a way as to benefit everyone, and go some way to providing a role model which we hope will be adopted and duplicated around the country. At the same time we will be taking a hugely important local landmark and an internationally recognised architectural achievement in the old Poplar Baths now disused and derelict, and in bringing it into the 21st Century restore it to its former glory and breathe new life into it and the surrounding area.

We will build a state of the art facility where performers and technicians of high skills and abilities can produce plays studied at examination level on the National Curriculum to be seen by every student we can accommodate. Those who cannot see the productions live will find them available as recordings, and all will have access to the support material we will produce and distribute free of charge on the internet. We will produce strong commercial works and programmes that will attract people from outside the area to come in and visit, bringing valuable business for the area, and film works produced here for broadcast and recorded media distribution. We will utilise the centre's many departments as a resource for creating work experience and restart programmes which we will look to collaborate with local educational, training and employment organisations in the delivery, and look to use our facilities to provide resources for the direct benefit of local people and groups.

We are intensely enthusiastic about what we believe is an arts and entertainment facility that will be one of the most powerful things that could possibly happen to contribute to the emergence of this area as a desirable location for living, for doing business and for recreation.