| 3 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT The Court Theatre T T Kim Newth New theatre on track for 2025 The new theatre complex will present a light and welcoming face to the public, with a glazing design that opens up the interior. PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE COURT THEATRE 03 313 7677 027 454 1045 kurt@sathelning.co.nz Commercial • Civil Drainage • Sewer & Stormwater Treatment Chambers • Septic Tanks 027 327 5971 | paddy@mmdl.co.nz | www.mmdl.co.nz residential / commercial foundations & floors excavations & siteworks decorative concrete, driveways & landscaping concrete pumping & placing With the roof recently installed on the new purpose-built Court Theatre building in Ōtautahi Christchurch’s Performing Arts Precinct, the time is right to start looking ahead at what is in store for the city once it is fully completed in 2025. Making this exciting new multi-million dollar theatre possible is a partnership between the Crown providing land in the precinct, the Council developing the precinct (including construction of The Court Theatre, public space and landscaping) and The Court Theatre, together with their supporters who have donated generously towards this project. After the February 2011 earthquakes, The Court Theatre had to leave their original home at the Arts Centre and make do with an old grain shed in Addington - a useful, but temporary, refuge while they planned a new permanent home. One of the world’s top theatre design specialists – London-based architectural practice Haworth Tompkins – was paired with Athfield Architects and a team of local consultants to design the new three-storey theatre, now fast taking shape on the corner of Colombo and Gloucester Streets. “We have been in conversation with Haworth Tompkins since 2014,” says The Court Theatre’s Artistic Advisor Ross Gumbley, whose career with the company spans nearly 40 years. “As we said to them, we stand on the shoulders of people that went before us to create the intimate experience we call The Court Theatre. That was our starting point – how do we make a theatre that’s intimate?” The detailed final design is perfectly aligned to serve The Court Theatre’s wide ranging repertoire of comedies, dramas and children’s shows through to large-scale musicals. Key elements include a 377-seat playhouse theatre (with main seating and two mezzanine levels, to be known as The Stewart Family Theatre) and a130-seat studio theatre, along with an education studio, attractive front of house spaces, dressing rooms, and dedicated workshop and costume facilities. “It will be the best theatre space in Aotearoa. There has never been a producing house theatre built on this scale in this country. By ‘producing house’, I mean we create our own plays as opposed to being a receiving house for productions. “Every little detail has been considered. For example, wardrobe/costume making will be close to the goods lift, in turn close to dressing rooms and the stage. When you have hundreds of costumes needing to be laundered and maintained, you need to make sure that the access between wardrobe and backstage areas and the stage is as smart as you can make it.” Ross says many are looking forward to having two theatre spaces, including the new purpose-built studio theatre that will be used to trial new work, host Scared Scriptless shows and as a stage for visiting productions and children’s theatre, as well as other Court Theatre productions better suited to the more intimate space. The new theatre complex will present a light and welcoming face to the public, with a glazing design that opens up the interior. Sustainability and accessibility have been guiding principles adhered to in the design and build. “We have an incredible responsibility to the future and that’s what this building is all about: a young theatre practitioner being able to create work in the best possible surroundings and for audiences to have the best theatre space to enjoy what the Court produces.” The Court Theatre attracts around 120,000 attendances a year. Putting all that foot traffic in the central city - sometime in the first half of 2025 - will be a real boost for the inner city .
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