Canberra Theatre Centre
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2016) |
City Centre | |
| Coordinates | 35°16′54″S 149°07′50″E / 35.2818°S 149.1305°E |
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| Seating type |
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| Capacity |
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| Construction | |
| Opened | 24 June 1965 |
| Architect | Yuncken Freeman |
| Website | |
| canberratheatrecentre.com.au | |
Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC), also known as the Canberra Theatre, is the
The centre is sited in the heart of
Centre history
Originally the complex was two separate buildings: the Canberra Theatre and The Playhouse, which were linked by a covered walkway.
The Canberra Theatre was built as a 1,200 seat lyric theatre to house national and international touring companies; The Playhouse had 310 seats and was designed for local arts companies and for smaller scale touring companies. The Playhouse also contained a small visual art gallery, a meeting room and a restaurant,
1965: The Playhouse was officially opened on 18 August 1965 with a production of Peter Ustinov’s Romanoff and Juliet, produced by the Canberra Repertory Society.
1971: The covered walkway linking the two venues was enclosed to create more foyer and function space for the Canberra Theatre and improved box office facilities.
1975: The Playhouse was given improved backstage storage space, wardrobe facilities and addition dressing rooms.
1982: The Courtyard Studio - a rehearsal room/cum 90-seat venue, administration offices, and a scene construction workshop including an electrically operated paint frame (used for painting
1988: The Canberra Theatre auditorium, foyer and link were extensively refurbished so that the facilities were comparable to those of other major performing arts centres throughout the country.
1998: The rebuilt Playhouse opened.
2006: A new library was built between the Canberra Theatre and the Playhouse, as well as a foyer linking the two theatres.
2007: The foyer and dressing rooms to the Courtyard Studio were refurbished. In addition lift access to the first floor Administration offices was installed
Refurbishment
From the mid-1990s a two-year consultation process occurred between the Canberra Theatre Centre staff and the architects leading to the demolition of The Playhouse and its rebuilding as a new venue. It had a 'soft' opening in April 1998. The official opening was 16 May 1998.
Instead of a conventional fan shaped
The theatre has dressing rooms on two levels, wardrobe, a
), which wraps around the drum.Notable performances
Canberra Theatre
Dame
In recent years, the Canberra Theatre has housed several successful productions by Canberra-based Free Rain Theatre Company. These pro-am musical productions include Canberra premiers of The Phantom of the Opera in 2013, Mary Poppins in 2015, and both The Little Mermaid and Wicked in 2016.
The Playhouse
Local companies to use the Playhouse have included Canberra Opera; Prompt Theatre;
The Playhouse has also housed productions by visiting companies. These included
The Courtyard Studio
The Courtyard Studio is Canberra Theatre Centre's boutique, studio performance space that doubles as a venue for rehearsals, entertaining, corporate functions / meetings, exhibition space, and as a performance space. The Courtyard Studio can seat up to 90 people comfortably for a performance. For entertaining it can seat 100 and for cocktail parties it has a capacity of 140 people.
References
- ^ Canberra Theatre history Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine accessed 16 April 2007
- ACT Legislative Assemblyaccessed 16 April 2007
- ^ "Trove". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
- ^ Playhouse history Archived 29 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine accessed 16 April 2007