The Alhambra Theatre Trust have plans to create a new performing arts centre encompassing a 200 seat studio theatre, art house cinema and a headquarters for the Alhambra Stage & Dance School. The plans also include rehearsal rooms, an administration block, and retail/restaurant space. The building is situated on the New Row in what was once famed local institution Watt & Dewar’s Ironmongers.

The vision is for the smaller performance space, with flexible staging and a seating capacity of up to 200,  to act as a home in Fife for innovative young writers and performers and help foster a modern repertory company, similar to that which presents new work at Dundee’s Rep.

The hope is that The Ironmongers Studio would also enable the Alhambra Stage & Dance School to offer Dramatherapy and BTEC qualifications and so help stem the current exodus of talent from Fife to similar centres in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

These plans for The Ironmomgers Studio would add to the Dunfermline’s blossoming cultural offering evidenced by the ongoing success of Fire Station Creative, the already hugely popular Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries and the newly launched Outwith Festival.