THEATRE management expert Grahame Morris had his work cut out when he agreed to help with the appointment of the new chief executive for Newcastle's Northern Stage.

But the surprise departure of Alan Lyddiard at Northern Stage was quickly followed by the death of Newcastle Theatre Royal's chief executive Peter Sarah last month and, suddenly, Mr Morris was in temporary charge of that venue as well.

Now Mr Morris, who ran the Theatre Royal between 1988 and 1995, finds himself in the position of helping the boards of two major North-East attractions draw up a shortlist of potential bosses.

He has to help find two major appointments in theatre for Newcastle - Northern Stage will re-open next year after an £8m rebuild, while the Theatre Royal is set to expand at a cost of £4.2m.

Mr Morris says: "In a sense, yes, it is daunting, although the jobs are quite different. I suppose I am lucky in that the last seven or eight years, I have been running a theatre complex in Sheffield which has both a very beautiful 19th Century presenting house and a producing theatre.

"But they are quite different and they do demand slightly different emphasis within the skills and talents, so I would be very surprised if there was any overlap in those applying for the two jobs. It is exciting to come back to Tyneside to see how the cultural landscape has changed.

"There is that very large building on the south bank called The Sage, which is fantastic. There wasn't The Baltic when I was here last time and you've built a bridge while I have been away, very bold.

"It still feels when I arrive at central station and walking up through the city centre like a very lively, busy, alive, interested, focused kind of place. A fantastic place to be involved in."

Northern Stage is due to produce a shortlist of candidates imminently, while the Theatre Royal board has set up a sub-group to identify a new chief executive in the next few weeks.

Mr Morris left his post as chief executive of Sheffield Theatres just over a year ago to become a kind of roving theatrical trouble-shooter.

He says: "I've been doing advisory work for the last 12 months or so, and had this all happened three months ago, I'd have been struggling to make this work.

"A couple of projects I was working on came to an end and I did have a bit more time, and there is no other group of people in the business that I would less like to leave in the lurch than the Theatre Royal and the staff up here. They are very important to me."

On his task of keeping the A-list theatre ticking over until Peter Sarah is replaced, he says: "The last thing I want to do is do it badly, that would be horrible. I am doing some work for the Arts Council on the Royal Shakespeare Company's re-development at Stratford.

"That's a £100m development involving about half of south Warwickshire from what I can see. I am doing some work in Leicester on its new building (a performing arts centre) and doing some work with the Arts Theatre in Cambridge on its recovery plan. I spend my life on trains."

On the death of Peter Sarah in April at the age of 58, Mr Morris says: "I cannot remember a death in the industry in my career that has caused as much shock and sadness as this one. He was universally admired and respected."

And his opinion on Peter Sarah's legacy to the North-East?

"Without any question, of its size, the Theatre Royal is the most successful presenting theatre in the country, and its audience figures stand comparison with any, and the programme is very rich and very varied.

"Its relationships with its audiences and producers from which we get most of the work is incredibly strong and friendly, and that speaks volumes about what Peter has achieved here.

"You can walk into a theatre at the front or the back and you can know within a few seconds or minutes whether the place is well run.

"You can see it and sense it and understand it in the way that people react to you. Here there is a huge sense of professional wellbeing."

Mr Morris talks confidently about the Theatre Royal retaining its proud reputation despite near rivals Sunderland's Empire and Newcastle's Tyne Theatre gaining new leases of life last year.

He says: "This is a major population centre and, if I were staying, I would be firmly of the view that there is more than adequate room for us all to prosper.

"Inevitably our policies will overlap here and there in areas like ballet and some musicals, but the Empire was never a drama house and I imagine it isn't now. So drama and contemporary dance, built up by Peter, will continue to be the cornerstones.

"Forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but I do not have any sense from colleagues here that the Tyne Theatre and us are in conflict over planning.

"I would not want to sound arrogant about it, but I would expect that if a producer wanted to bring a theatre show to Newcastle, then his first port of call would be here.

"If they build relationships of their own and demonstrate a financial return to producers, then good luck to them."

Morris is a little less certain about Alan Lyddiard's decision to quit Northern Stage when the theatre company is about to make a major impact in regional theatre.

He says: "Times of change and investment are the periods when people often chose to leave, and Alan had given an extraordinary length of commitment - 13 years in this business is a lot, people either tend to stay for five years or for life.

"It was a kind of surprise because, in some ways, I thought he was here for life, but Alan has so many connections and partnerships overseas that he probably wants to continue to develop.

"But it means the board there has an opportunity to redefine a future for itself with a new leadership, so I wish them well."

Immediate goals for Mr Morris have been to steady the ship at the Theatre Royal at the start of the summer season and the launch of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) season for November 14 to December 3.

He is positive the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal, due to start next summer, will not endanger the 2006 RSC season.

Mr Morris says: "A lot will be decided about what is feasible and desirable before the men in hard hats move in.

"I remember grandiosely sitting in this very office ten years ago thinking 'we should have the entire block and take over the whole area from the kebab shop on the corner to Barclays Bank' and Peter made that happen, while I never did."

He is hopeful that a tribute night will be held for Peter Sarah at the end of June, but no firm plans have been made so far.

He said: "I said to people at a meeting that our aim must be to continue to run the building to Peter's standards over the next season and, hopefully, be able to hand it to a new chief executive who, I would like feel, thinks that Peter just walked out of the stage door the Friday before he or she started, rather than it being a traumatic handover."