The Priestley Centre is performing a lost work by JB Priestley - written when he was a teenager - as a one-off fundraiser.

The play, called The Rebel, was discovered as a hand-written manuscript in the archives at the Little Germany theatre.

It was initially written by Priestley when he was just 17 as a piece of creative writing.

The Priestley's one-night-only production is expected to attract an audience from around the country.

"It's an extremely rare piece - JB's only known lost work," said Priestley director Christiaan Hohenzollern.

"Everyone knew of its existence but nobody knew where it was. We couldn't believe it when it turned up in the archives.

"I found the hand-written script by chance - it was a bookmark in an old leather photograph album full of pictures of JB's family.

"It will be a real treat to see it performed.''

He continued: "The hand-written script was a piece of creative writing, which JB revisited and finished off as a play, written on an old typewriter. He actually wrote it at the Priestley in about an hour as a piece of last-minute entertainment for a chairman's dinner!

"That was July 4, 1938 - the only time it was ever performed. After that it was lost."

Priestley staff are trying to find two missing pages from the script.

If they are not found, Bradford playwrights will be invited to write new sections of the play.

"I'm turning the place upside down looking for the missing pages!" said Mr Hohenzollern.

"We have a beginning, bits of a middle, and an end.

"It's difficult to read JB's handwriting so it has taken some time to decipher what The Rebel is about.

"It's set in Bradford and follows a man's stand against political change.

"It's typically Priestley - very dry humour, with a fable-like message."

Following the discovery of The Rebel, Christiaan found a second piece of writing by JB, thought to be another work lost forever.

"It was written on the same typewriter he used to finish The Rebel," he said. "I know that because the letter 'e' is dodgy! I found it in a box I unearthed from under the stairs at the Priestley.

"It's the beginning of a play but doesn't correlate to any other piece of JB's work.''

Mr Hohenzollern added: "He was a prolific writer - he wrote more than 100 works - so there could even be more undiscovered pieces lying in boxes here at the Priestley!"

Priestley members will perform The Rebel before Christ-mas as a one-night fundraiser.

The theatre needs to raise £10,000 to avoid liquidation and is trying to secure funding for its long-term future.

"We're expecting a lot of national interest in this production because The Rebel is Priestley's lost work," said Mr Hohenzollern.