Ayckbourn's lottery cash winner

The dream of the playwright Alan Ayckbourn to see a new theatre opened in Scarborough, where he has premiered most of his plays, has been realised with pounds 1.48m from the national lottery, writes David Lister.

The new Stephen Joseph Theatre will open next spring. The money will be used to convert the 1936 Havers Hill Odeon cinema into a 420-seat theatre. There is already a Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. His new musical, A Word From Our Sponsor, is there. But the Scarborough Theatre Development Trust wants a larger building with an auditorium designed by Ayckbourn himself.