Melville Centre

A stone-built Victorian gothic grammar school, converted in 1962 by the local authority for theatre use. A single storey building with sandstone/Bath stone features, the entrance is up four shallow steps with separate disabled access. The original school entrance hall forms the foyer. The auditorium is painted black - with windows blacked out from the inside. The original parquet flooring extends from the performance area underneath the installed seating (on shallow stepped timber risers). A suspended ceiling provides extensive grid for curtain tracks, lighting and sound system. The performance space is level with the auditorium and simple – no wing space or flying. Backstage facilities are also limited, with dressing rooms at the far end of a corridor that bisects the building, and get-in only available through the main entrance doors and foyer. The building was the base for Gwent Theatre and its youth theatre company, Gwent Young People's Theatre until 2010. It is now an arts centre used by myriad community groups including the local film society.