Lucy Sage wrote the biggest cheque of her life the other day. The number of noughts in the sum involved made her so nervous that she admits: "My hand was shaking when I handed it over."

That was only the beginning of the 25-year-old actress from Morpeth's ambitious plan to open a stage school, turning out professional performers, in the shadow of the Byker Wall, Newcastle.

The cheque was the deposit on the premises - a former snooker hall off the Shields Road - that will house the Sage Academy of Performing Arts. By the time the wannabe actors, dancers and singers pass through the doors for the first term in September, the scheme will have cost Lucy around £250,000.

Apart from a £3,000 council grant towards security, she's funding the school herself. That's only possible, she says, because she bought a house in London "at the right time". The proceeds of the sale made possible her dream of opening a stage school.

"I always knew I would come home, this was where I was happiest, but I didn't know as what. Of course, we all went away and thought we were going to make it and be famous. You believe that when you're that young," says Lucy.

She left home at 13 to be a pupil at the famous Italia Conte Stage School in London where her contemporaries included Martine McCutcheon, who became a household face as Tiffany in EastEnders.

For Lucy, the reality was different. After six years studying, she had small roles, did fringe theatre and the odd TV commercial, but found herself teaching more of the time than acting. Last year she took the decision to sell up down South, move back in with her parents and use the money from selling her house to finance the stage school project.

Finding premises took longer than anticipated. Plans for premises in the Ouseburn Valley, nearby, fell through, leaving Lucy desperate to find a home for her school if she was to be able to open this year. Her financial position ruled out leaving it any longer.

"Then we were driving through Byker and saw this huge building that looked empty," she recalls. "But when we came round the corner it wasn't. It was a snooker hall and still open. So, I went in and said to the lady behind the desk, 'would you like to sell it?'. She said she'd talk to her husband about it that night."

Their answer was yes and the large cheque that made Lucy so nervous was the deposit on the former Quasar Centre and Supa Snooker Hall. At present she finds herself the proud owner of a rather dilapidated building and eight full-sized snooker tables, left by the previous owners. The place is not only in need of a good clean - she covers the tatty benches in the bar with curtains before allowing me to sit down - but also a total conversion into the Sage Academy.

As she outlines her plans, only a week after taking possession, builders are busy ripping out existing fixtures as they strip the building to its shell. What will emerge in a few months time will be five fully-equipped studio spaces, students' green room, showers, offices, space for in-house performances and living quarters for Lucy.

As far as she knows, the Sage Academy will be the first of its kind in the North-East. Universities run performing arts courses and there are dance schools galore, but not a performing arts academy preparing students for the hard knocks world of professional show business.

"That's the main problem: telling people that we are different and why we are different, why we are not your local dance school where you'd go on a Saturday. Because we've never had a stage school in the area, people don't know about them," she says.

"It's probably a very ambitious idea. When I trained you had no option but to go to London. Then during my first three weeks away I was told I must lose my accent only to see everyone on TV had an accent. Fortunately, acting doesn't revolve around London any more."

Students will be chosen at auditions "purely on talent or potential talent", she explains. The main full-time, three-year diploma course in performing arts will be for school-leavers over 16. "We're trying to create professional performers. This is going to be the real world, not pussyfooting around."

Her time in London acting and teaching has enabled her to build up a full contacts book of teachers she can invite to lecture at the academy. She hopes that eventually it will gain a reputation equal to that of famous London stage schools like Italia Conte and Sylvia Young.

Eventually, she aims to have 15 to 30 on this course each year, saying: "If we get 10 to 15 in the first year, I'll be pleased. In the first couple of years, it will be mainly people from the Newcastle area but in the future, once we start getting a reputation, I hope people come from all over.

"I've had one girl apply from Scotland because there's such a shortage of this type of school in the North. There's no reason people shouldn't travel to us. They go to London to train so why not Newcastle?"

Other courses will be part-time, held at weekends and in the evening, for those aged six upwards. Good response has caused her to expand her original plans already, and she says she's willing to try anything if there's enough demand.

'With five studios, the options are endless as to what we can do," she says. "If I can get enough people interested, I'm willing to try any classes at all."

Her parents, Les and Gay, who deal in property and run a coffee shop in Morpeth, have been "fantastic" about helping her get started. She'll be principal of the Sage Academy and one of the teachers, although she hopes to cut down her time in the classroom once the business is on a level financial footing.

Despite all this, the girl who auditioned for stage school at the suggestion of her dance teacher remains an actress at heart. "Acting is my first love. That's what I call myself - an actress," she says.