On 5th May 1982, the curtain went up for the first time at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth...it was a Gala Performance featuring "a host of stars," including Leonard Rossiter, Dickie Henderson, Keith Harris and Gene Pitney.

Twenty-one years on, and just look at the theatre now.

With some 400,000 people going to shows at the Theatre Royal each year, it's now the best attended producing theatre outside London - not bad, considering the venue is slap bang in the middle of the country's least populated region.

Happy birthday Theatre Royal!

The venue - which is also home to the more intimate Drum Theatre - has, in its time, staged most of the big touring shows, and played host to scores of major stage stars.

It's also the regional home of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, which visits every year.

The Theatre Royal has also earned a reputation for producing some great shows, which have then moved on to the West End - the most recent was Cooper, starring Jerome Flynn.

And the stunning, highly successful production of Cats this year was also co-produced by the Theatre Royal.

At one time, no fewer than six Theatre Royal shows were playing at the same time in the West End - an achievement unmatched by any other theatre.

In 2000, the venue won the national award for being the most welcoming theatre in the UK.

The theatre is celebrating its 21st birthday by staging some big shows, and by putting on a photographic exhibition of past productions.

It has also built a new production and education centre, TR2, which had its "debut" with the rehearsals for Cats.

The multi-million pound building, beside the River Plym in Cattedown, holds workshops and is the home of The Young Company which boasts 600 members.

The three "pods" at TR2

Already, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and the Birmingham Royal Ballet have asked the theatre to manufacture shows for them at TR2.

And the Theatre Royal is planning to set up a modern apprenticeship programme to train young people in specialist skills, such as prop making, scenic painting and costuming.

The success of the theatre isn't just good news for Devon's theatre-goers - it's also good for the local economy. Research suggests that the theatre is responsible for £18m being spent in Plymouth city centre each year, indirectly supporting hundreds of jobs.

And this is a vital statistic for the theatre, which receives funding from Plymouth City Council. It also gets help from the Arts Council. In fact, when the Arts Council grant was under threat in 1993, a 100,000-strong petition was raised in a high profile campaign - and the funding was re-instated.

So the Theatre Royal lived to fight another day...and, in its 21 years, it's helped to prove that Devon is anything but a cultural desert. For that, it deserves a standing ovation!