"When I took over this building,' recalls Theatre Royal Brighton Chief Executive Julien Boast, "one thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want to just open the doors at six o'clock.

"I wanted people to be in the building from nine in the morning until eleven at night.

"I think the secret of successful theatres is just making them accessible, so people feel welcome."

To this end - and in keeping with his aim of markedly extending the age range of those visiting the building - Julien set up the Theatre Royal Brighton's Big Brighton Storybook in 2005.

The scheme, aimed at primary school children, was conceived as a way of introducing young children to the theatre through special tours and storytelling events and, with support from The Argus Appeal and Arts Council England South East, it is the theatre's only publicly funded initiative.

It has proved highly successful too and will play a significant part in the bicentenary celebrations, along with a range of accompanying outreach projects.

"We regularly get actors on tour to come and read stories to the kids,"

says Julien.

"We never say in advance who it will be. The children arrive at the stage door and are taken through to the room, and on the way we usually give them a little clue as to who will be doing the reading.

"The kids, up to the age of 11, will be sitting there on these gorgeous velvet cushions and suddenly Timothy West or Faye Tozer or Penelope Keith will walk in.

"Really, you can't buy that stuff. You should see their faces, they're just sat there going, Oh my God'.

"Even if it's an unknown actor, as it sometimes is, they absolutely love it, even children as young as four.

"We're reading Oscar Wilde to four year olds!"

Visiting companies are encouraged to join in. Stephen Unwin, Artistic Director of the hugely acclaimed English Touring Theatre, describes working with children as a major part of his company's link with Theatre Royal Brighton "When we come to Brighton, we do lots of talks and educational work," he says. "It's a very good part of our relationship and it means a lot more than just coming down and doing a play for a week and then disappearing again."

And if the idea of educational work sounds a little too worthy, fear not - Julien is very much aware of the potential pitfalls of such a scheme.

"A lot of what people do in that area is actually quite dull," he says. "Like the stuff they were parodying with Legs Akimbo in The League of Gentleman.

"It's all very worthy but actually you just bore the kids.

"I started the educational department here with Susan Stranks from the Seventies TV show Magpie, and she was really keen to avoid all that and instead do something powerful that really inspired and entertained.

"It's great someone with that kind of maverick nature can come here, with purely theatrical instinct, and this building can inspire that - getting good projects which are essentially about entertainment.

"The building and our contacts obviously help, too. Some storytellers are patronising and just awful but put an actor in there and the children love it."