The first phase work consisted of installing the stage and partitioning off the various spaces for dressing rooms, toilets etc. We envisaged opening with seating on the flat and proceeding with further stages of conversion as and when funding would permit.
An application to Stewartry District Council for a major grant to complete the conversion resulted in protracted negotiations, which although frustrating at the time, might now be seen as a blessing in disguise. Eventually, a grant was awarded for £50,000 but with two important conditions attached. Tiered seating was to be installed and we had to obtain our Theatre Licence before they would release the final instalment of the grant.
The blessing in disguise was the fact that by the time all of this had been agreed, the National Lottery had come into being, and to our surprise, our first application to the Scottish Arts Council for a lottery grant was approved in full, taking into account the Stewartry grant as partnership funding. Again, there were conditions, principally that the layout of the ancillary spaces had to be totally rethought. The bar was relocated from under the seating to adjacent to the foyer, the toilets in turn moved to the dressing room space, and the dressing rooms are now on two levels in the transept at the rear of the building. We gained the session room as an additional public area, at the expense of some of our storage space.
Our amended application to the lottery was beefed up as much as possible to twice the original figure, and now to 80% of budgeted cost, and again we were delighted to have it approved in full. The work now began in earnest aiming for our target of staging our 1996 pantomime as the first production. However, as is inevitable there was overspend on the budget. We applied again to the lottery but this time were only partially successful. Underestimates were allowed or not allowed depending on whether or not they should have been foreseen, and additions and alterations to the project were also judged on how they related to the approved project. We were awarded 80% of the costs which were approved, bringing the total of Lottery funding to £231,500. The actual cost of the building and equipment is around £400,000.