Theatre students will benefit from state-of-the-art facilities after their acting school enjoyed a £2 million refurbishment.

The work was carried out at Corbett Theatre, a Grade II listed building at the E15 Acting School in Loughton.

It included the demolition of extensions and replacing them with two contemporary linked buildings, housing a new library, common room, IT suite, changing facilities, kitchen, refectory spaces and external breakout areas.

Founded more than 50 years ago, the E15 Acting School merged with the University of Essex in 2000.

Professor Leon Rubin, director of the school, said: “The improved building will serve as the student hub for the E15 campus – providing state-of-the-art facilities that will ensure we can continue to maintain the highest of standards as one of the UK’s leading theatre schools.”

Chris Stammers, director and architect at Ingleton Wood, which carried out the refurbishment, said: “The style of the new building complex is sensitively designed to complement the pseudo-agricultural aesthetic of the main theatre hall.

“Its new extensions are deliberately subservient in scale and ordered as simple volumes, which emulates a modest collection of Essex barns nestled within the parkland landscape.”