The unveiling of the new and improved Phoenix Theatre and Arts Centre in Bordon will be celebrated with a free open day on October 26 from 10am until 4pm.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony conducted by East Hampshire District Council chair Catherine Clark, there will be a fun-packed day of activities.

From children’s Lego workshops with Brilliant Bricks to a 1980s dance session with Phoenix dance officer Elizabeth Blake - plus exclusive screenings of documentaries giving a behind-the-scenes look at the refurbishment and outlining plans for the future - there will be something for everyone.

Thanks to Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding secured last year, the Phoenix is developing three new pieces of theatre, and each will have a rehearsed reading at the open day.

There will be comedy The Play’s The Thing, in association with 440 Theatre, local boxing tale The Booth by Cavan Syrad, and The Butterfly by Claire Jackson, which tells the story of Eleanor Glanville, one of the first English female scientists to study butterflies.

The Phoenix is also paying tribute to the building’s former incarnation as an army school through silent disco technology, allowing visitors to take a tour accompanied by recordings of a past pupil.