Ewan McGregor has thrown his weight behind a campaign to secure the future of the venue where he got his first big break.
The star of Trainspotting and Star Wars first took to the stage at Perth Theatre in 1987, when he was just 16 years old. Now, he has become an ambassador for an ambitious drive to restore the Victorian auditorium.
The Crieff-born star had a troubled adolescence and was dogged by lingering bouts of depression during his unhappy time at the town’s fee-paying Morrison’s Academy.
After leaving school early, however, he discovered his vocation after securing a job as a stagehand in Perth.
Despite the role being humble and modestly paid, the father-of-four is convinced it was responsible for clearing his despondency and setting him on the road to stardom.
McGregor said: “I feel like my life changed the first day I walked into Perth Theatre. It was the best thing that happened to me. It set me on my way.
“The week I decided to leave school the theatre needed extras for A Passage to India, so I was in. I donned a turban, blacked up and shouted: ‘Asiskerjay! Asiskerjay!’ I can’t remember what it means but it involved running around the audience.
He recalled: “My life went into widescreen. I had a ball and the depression lifted. I stayed after that production and became a member of the stage crew. Occasionally I’d get a few lines to say and that was when I started learning stuff.”
Looking back on his six-month stint at the venue, he said: “I learnt an awful lot about life and growing because I hadn’t really seen anything before. I met gay people and people who were having affairs. I gobbled it all up. It was brilliant.”
He has agreed to be an ambassador for the theatre’s restoration project. It means his face will appear on posters and adverts urging people to back the fundraising campaign.
The city theatre which first opened its doors in 1900 closed last year to allow the radical makeover to take place. The regeneration scheme will see the auditorium restored to its former glory with the orchestra pit reinstated, the upper circle reopened and a new 225-seat studio and a community performance space created.
It was confirmed last month that the total price of the project which is expected to be completed in 2017 has risen from £15 million to £16.6m.
Most of the sum has been pledged by Perth and Kinross Council, state-funded arts agency Creative Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund and other bodies. Horsecross Arts, which is behind the regeneration scheme, is looking to fill the £1.5m funding shortfall. Visit www.horsecross.co.uk/support-us to donate.