Oxford's biggest theatre is celebrating a major increase in funding. Southern Arts is giving the Oxford Playhouse in Beaumont Street an additional £100,000 in 2002-2003, rising to £200,000 in 2003-2004. The funding is conditional on The Playhouse maintaining its existing levels of subsidy from other sources.

Tish Francis, joint director of the Oxford Playhouse, said: "We have spent ten years overcoming the difficulties and changes that have beset theatres across the country and have seen the Playhouse re-emerge as a vibrant venue, but it has been a constant struggle financially to achieve and maintain this position."

She said the funding would help to commission, launch and produce new work, as well as develop more theatre for young people and children.

Co-director Hedda Bebby added: "Rather than having to spend our time focusing on immediate operational issues, we can now take a longer-term view of the Playhouse's future. I believe the theatre has a vital role to play as a resource for the community and we want to encourage as wide an audience as possible."

Ms Bebby said the venue would still need to rely on the support of the local councils, Oxford University and business.

"Above all," she added, "we are dependent on box office income from the 140,000 attendances a year."

The funding is part of a £1.6m increase in theatre across the region.

PLAYHOUSE FACTFILE

1923: J.B. Fagan opened The Playhouse in the Red Barn, a converted big game museum on the Woodstock Road. Shaw's Heartbreak House is one of the opening performances.

1938: An appeal leads to the purpose-built theatre opening in Beaumont Street.

1961: The Playhouse is taken over by Oxford University and made more widely available for student productions.

1963: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor appear in Marlowe's Dr Faustus.

1987: The Playhouse closes due to more stringent fire regulations and a squeeze on university finances.

1991: The Playhouse reopens.

1995: The Playhouse is awarded a National Lottery grant of £2.5m, to be matched by £1.2m already raised by the theatre, plus a further £200,000.

1996: A fully refurbished Playhouse reopens once more.

2001: The Playhouse gets another welcome funding boost.

*Cash-strapped Pegasus Theatre in Cowley, Oxford, has been awarded £96,400 by the Arts Council.

But the cash will not be released for three years under a £25m Government scheme. The Pegasus, in Magdalen Road, is among three theatres to receive a slice of the millions put aside under the scheme.

The Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company will receive £169,000.

The theatres, with the Playhouse, are being encouraged to work together to improve theatre in the city.