Theatre backs local talent to survive Covid
Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal is launching a new festival of local talent and creating a new venue to survive the lack of international touring acts due to Covid-19 border restrictions.
Theatre chief executive Bob Mangan said
2020 was about surviving the loss of income and cancelled shows from the lockdown, but
2021 was about stabilising the theatre by focusing on local talent.
Mangan said they were creating a smaller new venue on the stage of the theatre with a maximum capacity of about 600, compared to the 1292-seat capacity of the main auditorium. The new venue, called The Stagehouse, would be accessed through the loading dock to the right of the main entrance.
The first event staged at the new venue would be a concert by Christchurch musician Analise Twemlow as part of a new festival in March called Made in Canterbury.
The festival will feature a concert by Adam McGrath, of The Eastern, a gig by CLO and Simon, and a special screening of the 1990s cult film Snakeskin, starring Melanie Lynskey.
Mangan would like the event to grow to other venues and become an annual fringe festival of local talent.
Covid-19 border restrictions meant they had to move their business away from international touring acts to stay afloat, he said.
‘‘One of the big challenges is content. Even local productions have international talent.
‘‘Things won’t be back to normal for us until the borders have opened up.
‘‘2020 was about survival and 2021 is about stabilising. We want to embrace our Canterbury community and tell Canterbury stories.’’ The theatre has also launched a regular season of cult film screenings called Ghostlight and invited local theatre company Top Dog Theatre, known for their annual open air Shakespeare play in Mona Vale, to perform in their venue.
Top Dog Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night will be staged in August and will be marketed to schools. ‘‘We wanted to create a more sustainable event programme with a community focus,’’ Mangan said.
‘‘Hopefully, our venue for hire business comes back online in 2022, but if we have all these plans in place then we can manage until then.’’ The second Ghostlight Film Series started last week and continues this week with screenings of Moana, Reservoir Dogs and Mean Girls tomorrow and Wednesday.
Isaac Theatre Royal marketing co-ordinator Cathryn Allwood said the film season was created in the wake of the lockdown.