A group of Waterford citizens is hoping to usher in the new millennium with a revival of theatre in the grand Victorian style and setting. It has announced a major appeal for funds to help it refurbish and extend the Theatre Royal. The venerable theatre has been Waterford's showpiece centre of culture and entertainment since 1876. Down the years, it has hosted grand and light opera, drama, variety and pantomime.
It has always been linked, quite literally, to the heart of municipal life, for it is attached to Waterford City Hall. The Georgian structure which is the City Hall was built on the Mall 210 years ago.
In 1876, a lease of the west wing of the City Hall, which contained the Georgian playhouse, was granted to a group of citizens for the purpose of converting it into a modern theatre, which was named the Theatre Royal.
From then on, in spite of periodic difficulties, it has been in operation under a variety of managements and leaseholders, and on occasion operated by Waterford Corporation or its agents.
The present operator is the Waterford Theatre Royal Society Ltd, a co-operative founded in 1956 in response to the closure of the theatre by the corporation, which intended to convert it into civic offices.
After a strong campaign, the society won the lease, raised the funds and reopened the theatre in 1958.
The plan to refurbish fully and extend the theatre was drawn up in 1996. It was costed at £750,000 at that time, and 75 per cent of this was to be met by a grant from the Department of the Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht and the Islands, with the balance being guaranteed by Waterford Corporation.
Not for the first time in Waterford, fate - in the form of the hidden legacy of the city's forefathers - intervened. A mandatory archaeological dig on the site of the planned extensions to the theatre turned up important Viking, Norman and Georgian finds.
This meant that a new design for the extension had to be drawn up which would complement the historic area and fit in with the proposed corporation development of the dig site.
This new and more elaborate building is now underway. But the delay in starting, and additional building costs, will bring the final cost to at least £1.1 million.
There is a shortfall, therefore, of over £400,000 and the project is seeking both corporate sponsorship and private subscription to meet it.
The development fund appeal has the backing of patrons, prominent in the entertainment and business fields, whose association with the Theatre Royal goes back a long way.
They include the actress, Anna Manahan, a Waterford woman who gained her early stage experience in the theatre, Val Doonican and Niall Toibin, who both performed there many times, as well as Redmond O'Donoghue, chief executive of Waterford Crystal.
The Theatre Royal is vitally important to annual regional institutions, including the Light Opera Festival, the Tops of the Town and Feile na Scoile. It is also home to seven musical societies, two drama companies and a pantomime society, as well as being available for hire to visiting drama and dance companies.
The development project will give it improved comfort and safety standards all round, as well as badly needed facilities such as new dressing rooms, better seating and stage facilities, and a sunken orchestra pit.
Dublin lost its famous Theatre Royal many years ago. Determined efforts preserved Waterford's from a similar fate, and it is now on the way to becoming a long-term asset.
The address of the Theatre Royal Development Fund, for receipt of contributions, is the ESB Building, The Mall, Waterford.