A new £1.4m school theatre is set to transform Dorchester's arts scene.

The revamped 450-seat theatre at the Thomas Hardye School will benefit both students and the wider community, with the venue to be used in conjunction with Dorchester Arts.

It will enable the arts organisation to attract larger scale productions than it currently can to its home at Dorchester Corn Exchange.

The new county town arts venue comes after a plan for a new theatre in the Maltings at Brewery Square was scrapped due to lack of funding.

It took six months to build the new theatre - which has roll-out seating - with work completed in early May. The school theatre it replaces was built in the late 1990s.

The theatre also has a new backstage area converted from an old music room with dressing rooms for performing artists and a cooling system for the warmer summer months.

The school will officially launch its refurbished theatre at a presentation evening on July 5.

Laura Cheney, director of school improvement, said the theatre funding was made possible from Section 106 funding. Money from same pot will also be used to refurbish the Corn Exchange.

She said: "We have a strong working relationship with Dorchester Arts and we've developed a way of working together.

"It's going to lead to bigger things, to students having more opportunities in performing arts."

Headteacher Nick Rutherford said Hardye's has had strong links with the community for years and it's good to see this continuing.

"Anyone from the community can gain from this. We're the only secondary school in Dorchester and it's great that the whole town can benefit from it."

Mark Tattersall, artistic director of Dorchester Arts, said he is 'delighted' Dorset Council and Dorchester Town Council supported a plan to make use of Section 106 funds generated by the development of Poundbury to refurbish the Corn Exchange and help towards upgrading the school theatre.

He said: "This way, the town has two high-quality performance venues, one with 150 seats and the other with more than 400 - very much like the provision we would have had if the Maltings had been possible, but at a fraction of the cost and with additional benefits for both the school and the wider community.

"We were grateful to the school for involving us in the planning of the theatre, making sure that it meets not only their needs but also those of our audiences and performers.

"We are delighted with the new space and look forward to bringing exciting shows of all kinds to the theatre. Our first show there is with the Australian act Spooky Men’s Chorale and had the new theatre not have been available they would not have been able to come here - they need at least 400 seats these days to make a show viable."

Mr Tattersall said bookings for the shows will be through Dorchester Arts and the organisation will be announcing more 'big name' visitors soon.

See www.dorchesterarts.org.uk for more information.