Almeida gets a makeover

Extra space became available by using part of the refurbishment money to buy an adjacent property in Upper Street which had a backyard. The property was sold on but the yard now houses new toilets and five dressing rooms, including one adapted for people with disabilities.

Beneath the stage, where crew had had to crawl, bent double, over a crude rubblestrewn floor, Foley and his team excavated to a depth that has now realised a roomy, airy space which can house all the theatre's technical paraphernalia.

"We didn't want to upset the theatre's ad hoc character and vitality," says Foley. We have created a lot more space because the entire front-of-house area was flattened. There is now a glazed roof where there was open air but you can slide the whole of the front elevation across to form one big opening and people can still spill out into the street as they used to."

Inside, the auditorium looks untouched. But the seating has been renewed, air conditioning installed and under-floor heating replaces noisy old radiators. Oh, yes, and there's a new roof. No more need for strategically placed buckets.

For the theatre's technical director, James Crout, having a large, purpose-built stage door cut into a side wall of the auditorium, to get scenery in and out, is already a reason to smile. "Scenery would come in through the same doors used by both audience and cast and was constantly being damaged.

"This will enable us to use our scenery more simply and in bigger pices," he says. "And to know that people are bringing stuff in more safely, which has always been an issue, is a huge relief.

"We can now match a speaker or microphone to any part of the building," says Crout, "and there is a new lighting grid instead of the set of old bits of scaffolding pole which the lights were hung from before. But the best thing for me is that my technicians will now be theatre technicians rather than figuring out how to make the toilets function, clearing the drains and generally struggling to keep this old bird going."

Michael Attenborough, son of Sir Dickie and artistic director at the Almeida since last summer, is clearly thrilled with the "new" venue. "I think what lies ahead is a healthy mix of continuity and expansion," he says. In place are his plans to attract a wider ethnic mix of audience and for local secondary schools to form a close relationship with the theatre.

But all this costs money, as the Almeida's head of development, Sophie Cook, knows only too well. "The Kresge Foundation in the US granted us £200,000 - but only on condition that the rest of the funds were raised by a 31 March deadline, so that was quite an incentive. We have had about six or seven "lead" gifts, the largest being a quarter of a million. But most of it comes from charitable trusts, foundations and from individuals who are passionate about theatre."

Still, it's not too late to help. For £1,000 you can have a seat named after whoever you choose. Or how about Cook's inventive adopt-a-brick scheme at £100 a brick? "The wall is our signature so you can preserve a brick for future generations."

Four hundred are already being supported - so to speak. Another 3,960 anxiously await adoption.