'Rings' star leads £1m drive to give youth theatre a new home

BILLY Boyd, the actor who won a starring role in the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, is leading a £1 million fundraising drive to ensure other young Scots performers have the chance to make it big.

Boyd is the patron of Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT), where he started out as an usher - a far cry from his epic role as Pippin in Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogy.

But he insisted that his humble beginnings were crucial in helping him to learn his acting craft - and in developing him as a person.

Boyd, the figurehead of the attempt to raise £1 million to give the SYT a new home in Glasgow’s Merchant City, said the company is about much more than discovering talent.

"It’s a great place, but 75 per cent of Scottish Youth Theatre’s work focuses on personal and social development through the creative process," he added. "Over the years, it has assisted tens of thousands of Scots youngsters."

A host of celebrities, including Emma Thompson, Blythe Duff, the Taggart star, TV presenter Kirsty Young and actor Richard Wilson have joined the fundraising effort, because for many SYT was their launch-pad to success.

"We’ve just received an early Christmas present from the Scottish Arts Council’s National Lottery fund, giving us a £141,000 boost, but there is still loads of work to be done," said Boyd. "This is a tremendous boost to the company who do so much good work with youngsters all over Scotland.

"Now that we can refit purpose-built premises in the Old Sheriff Court building in Glasgow’s Merchant City, we won’t feel like second-class citizens, using someone else’s space."

Boyd, who is in Scotland for Christmas, but meeting up with friends in Hawaii for New Year, went on: "I think it is so important to have things like this, not just for art and drama or keeping kids off the street, but for their social development.

"At the moment, the SYT can take kids from age four, now we will be able to take classes at 18 months with sensory rooms, colours and shapes," he added. "It’s not just about making great actors."

SYT’s chief executive, Mary McCluskey, who taught the young Boyd as a teenager in the Dolphin Centre in Glasgow’s East End, said the move to new premises in March would be brilliant news.

Thompson is about to embark on a fundraising campaign by sending letters to other actors to raise finance as part of an appeal.

"Emma has offered to do lots of things for us - she’s great," said Ms McCluskey. "And Blythe Duff and Colin McCredie, both ex-pupils, held a Taggart evening with all four detectives; it was a question-and-answer session. We still need about £500,000, but we are confident we’ll manage.

"We are delighted to have been so generously recognised. Our new home in Merchant City will be a truly unique venue, which for the first time in our long history will give us five rehearsal rooms, a dance studio, a sensory room, a studio theatre, technical and wardrobe workshop spaces, offices, a conference room, a spacious foyer and an open-air courtyard with a performance space, all under one roof. We can’t wait to move in, in 2005."

Iain Munro, the head of capital at the Scottish Arts Council, said: "Scottish Youth Theatre is at the forefront of producing high-quality drama for young people by young people, and this award recognises the fantastic achievements the company has had in developing young talent in Scotland.

"The new state-of-the-art facility will provide an inspirational and motivational space that will help the young people involved to create exciting new theatre. The new facilities will also help SYT to further develop new and existing partnerships, benefiting many more young people and youth theatre groups across Scotland."