How the next 50 years can look
AND FOR OUR NEXT ACT!.....
After fifty years of high quality and diverse delivery, we take pride in being the only remaining professional theatre house in regional Aotearoa. This unique position makes it even more important that we ensure the next fifty years are just as successful.
Unfortunately, and after all those years, our building is no longer fit-for-purpose and needs attention. It’s cold, cramped, leaky and shabby. Access for all is difficult and there is not enough space front-of-house to properly host our audiences and events.
Back-of-house also presents huge challenges for performers and technicians, especially when it rains! We estimate we have removed 25,000 litres of water by the bucketload in the last few years because our roof is buggered. We also need to address safer access by our technicians to our theatre lighting.
A realistic and achievable vision
In the present economic times, we want to avoid any unnecessary spending and only invest to a level that will see the worst issues fixed. The plan is practical and efficient; it has been carefully developed over several years and can be seen in the building design images and the floor plan here. It involves a modest facelift to address problematic areas, without going overboard, without changing our location or the building footprint, just making the best of what we have.
The improvements will be obvious before you walk in the door, with an eye catching and modern façade, designed to enhance and transform our highly visible corner site.
Inside, we will be able to host you in a larger and better designed foyer, with many more toilets!
Our dedicated team will enjoy larger work spaces, and our General Manager will finally have a separate office.
Building our future together
We are launching our fundraising campaign on our 50th birthday with the aim of completing the building renovations by early 2026. The renovations have been estimated at $5.1 million for the facelift our building deserves, before it’s too late.
We have looked down the back of all the theatre seats and already found $1 million, and remain confident we can raise the rest through a balanced mix of public funding applications, trusts and grants, foundations, fundraising events, sponsorship, donations, and an appeal for community support.
We have already researched many other recent and similar projects in New Zealand to see what works best and what to avoid. Watch this space
How You Can Help
Please tell your family and friends about our exciting plans!
Please support us by buying theatre tickets. Go to www.centrepoint.co.nz
to see upcoming productions.
You can easily make a donation when you book tickets and all donations from 1 July 2024 will go towards our building renovation unless you request otherwise.
Palmerston North Theatre Trust
Registered Charity CC21192
We will be in touch soon to tell you how you can help.