Exclusive - The Holbeck Underground Ballroom: Theatre venue goes under the arches

ALAN Lane's energy is quite a force to be met with at 9am on a Thursday morning.

One of the country's brightest young directors, who has appeared on "ones to watch" lists for a couple of years now, Lane is an excitable kind of a man and when he is exclusively revealing the fruition of a project which has been close to his heart for several years, the enthusiasm is wildly infectious.

Lane is the artistic director of Slung Low, a theatre company which has won a rave review in the New York Times, a residency at London's Barbican Theatre and the Samuel Beckett theatre award in its short history.

His company creates work in unusual spaces – a vampire story in a Bradford car park and a war epic all around the Lowry Theatre in Manchester were shows in recent years.

"The problem we have had is that for the last few years the company has spent more time on trains travelling to London and Manchester and all over the country to present our work," says Lane.

"It's the price we pay for wanting to stay rooted in Leeds. This is our home city and our home county and we are passionate about staying here and producing our work here, but it is quite a bind to have to travel so much to present our work."

Until now.

Today, Lane has announced a new home for Slung Low: a collection of five railway arches in Holbeck, south Leeds. Much more than just a home for Lane's company, the Holbeck Underground Ballroom, or The HUB, will also be a performance and creation space for young theatre artists across Yorkshire.

Lane says: "It has long been an ambition of the company to have a home for all our activities, a space where we could develop our ideas, build our systems, rehearse our shows and prepare for an audience. A place that would help the development of work, create more time and space for ideas and somewhere we could be in control of our process.

"Having more freedom over the way we make work is an important part of our planned development as the artistic ambition of our projects continues to grow.

"But as well as this, we wanted to provide a space for all the other exciting artists we know are working in Leeds and around Yorkshire."

Lane cites the example of Rash Dash theatre company, as one which could benefit from The HUB. A group of dance graduates, they spoke to Lane about the fact that he has resisted the pull to London and kept his theatre company up North. They were based in Hull at the time and considering moving to London. Lane's enthusiasm for keeping artists here in Yorkshire convinced them to stay and now the company is based

in Leeds.

Lane says: "The companies and the theatres we have here are fantastic. Opera North, Northern Ballet Theatre and the Playhouse in Leeds are all great companies, but there needs to be provision for the younger theatre artists who are at the beginning of their careers. Theatre artists don't start by producing work for big companies on these big stages, they start off as emerging artists and with The HUB we'll be able to give them somewhere to practice their art."

Arts Council Yorkshire has provided Slung Low with enough funding to run the building, which will cost 30,000 a year, for the first 12 months. Lane, a true pragmatist, is determined to make the project self funded. "We will be able to say to some artists: 'You want to make work, we have a space, come use it for free', but we will also have clients who will be able to afford to pay for the space and we hope to finance the whole thing in that way, with help from the Arts Council."

As well as providing a place to create work, artists will also present it in the disused arches. The HUB was chosen following an extensive search of about 70 spaces around Leeds. Lane hopes it will be up and running by the end of April. "The Playhouse has spaces, but they cost money and there are precious few places where young artists can experiment and practise their craft. We think a space like this is vital for the arts to thrive and flourish."

Unusually for a theatre artist, Lane is keen to emphasise that funding for the arts, while important, needs to be thoroughly scrutinised and justified.

"I live in Armley and the money we get to spend on making theatre comes from my neighbours' taxes. We have a responsibility to make sure that we are spending that money as efficiently as possible," he says.

"Over the last few years we have collected quite a lot of equipment which we have used in our shows – sound systems, plasma screens, projectors and the screens to use them, silent disco equipment and a full High Definition video editing suite. When we're not using it, it's really important that we make it available to other theatre artists who can use it to make work. It just makes sense and The HUB will give those artists a place to use that equipment."

And ensure that the big names of theatre in the future have a place to practice now.

Hear an exclusive interview with Lane on the Yorkshire Post Arts and Culture Podcast at www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/podcasts