A NEW theatre is opening for the first time next week after ten years of work and fund-raising by amateur group The Rossendale Players.

But their latest show seem strangely familiar to one member of the group, 83-year-old Jenny Hutchinson.

Jenny joined the society when it first formed 64 years ago and acted in the same play that will open at the New Millennium Theatre, Waterfoot, next week, Somerset Maugham's "The Circle".

She said: "I can still remember all my lines -- 'yes sir', 'no sir', and 'Mr Champion-Cheney'. I was a maid in a pinafore and a little frilly cap and I had to announce him when he arrived.

"It was very exciting because we were the first group of players in the valley. We performed in the Waterfoot Conservative Club -- only a few yards from our new theatre."

Jenny, of Schofield Road, Waterfoot, acted for several years with the Rossendale Players but had to give up the stage when she married.

"I had three children in two and a half years so there wasn't much time for plays after that," she joked.

But she still carried on helping out with everything from making tea to selling ice cream and will be guest of honour when the play opens to an invited audience on Friday, September 29, the anniversary of the original opening night.

She'll also be watching the latest recruit to the Rossendale Players, 15-year-old Emmeline Smith, of Waterfoot, who is playing the maid. Emmeline, who goes to Westholme School, Blackburn, said: "This was the first play performed by the group so it is very flattering to be given a role.

"This is the first time I have been in a production as big as this so I am quite nervous but really looking forward to the experience at the same time."

Jenny said: "I hope it is as exciting for her as it was for me."

The Rossendale Players began fund-raising for their own venue in 1990 and bought the building -- the former Bethel Baptist Lecture Hall -- three years later for £35,000. During the last seven years the 98-year-old hall has been transformed with a total renovation costing about £70,000 including seating for 100 people, a new bar, balcony, stage, lighting and sound system.

The decorating is being finished this week and the carpet will be laid next week.

Former teacher Edna Trickett, 87, said she has been watching the development with great interest as she is the only trustee of the old church still living.

Edna was first sent to perch on a form in the hall as a Sunday school child when she was only four years old and later taught Sunday school there herself. Although she was sad to see the congregation gradually decline, she said she was thrilled to see the old hall given a new lease of life. Edna, of Edgeside Lane, Waterfoot, said: "I used to go to Sunday School in the morning, then chapel, then Sunday School in the afternoon, then chapel again at 6pm.

"It was a flourishing church but by the time the church shut there were only seven of us left and our average age was 75. "I'm pleased it's been taken over because that building has always been associated with education, it was a Ragged School during the week and then it was a pupil teacher training centre. I feel it's fulfilling its role again because the theatre's educational too."

"The Circle" will be open to the public from Saturday, September 30, to Saturday, October 7, at 7.30pm each night except Monday. For tickets, call 01706 217679.