June 10, 2014

New Zealand Theatre Month

NZ Theatre Month           posted 16 May 2014, 12:44 PM / edited 20 May 2014, 03:58 PM

New Zealand has a vibrant, productive and energetic theatre industry and yet compared to many other arts forms, we’re often invisible to a big section of the general public.

We think it’s time more New Zealanders experience theatre and are excited by the idea of live performance.  To this end, we suggest introducing (starting some time in 2015) a NZ Theatre Month – a la NZ Music Month, NZ Book Month, National NZ Poetry week, NZ Fashion week etc.

A dedicated NZ Theatre Month will promote the local theatre we have to offer and it is our hope that professional and amateur theatres from all over the country will present New Zealand plays during this time.  Our goal for this initiative is to remind audiences about theatre and to get a higher level of attendance and engagement for all venues and companies. NZ Theatre Month will eventually become a peg on which all sorts of publicity, events and activities for our theatres and practitioners could be hung.

We welcome your comments and ideas, and would appreciate it if you could please complete this short questionnaire so we can gauge the level of interest from the industry. The deadline for this is June 16th.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VL8FDPW

Many thanks,

Roger Hall, Kathryn Burnett, Stuart Hoar (Playmarket), Dean Parker, Sophie Henderson (The Basement) , Elise Sterbeck (The Basement).

NZ Theatre Month           posted 20 May 2014, 03:59 PM

You can also send your questions and thoughts to nztheatremonth@gmail.com. Thanks!

Dean Parker       posted 22 May 2014, 11:26 AM

Clearly this is all going to happen. The question now is: which month to choose? We need a month that is a good theatre-going month (ie, not summer months) and one which doesn’t conflict with other Months like NZ Music Month (May) and NZ Book Month (August). And which is toward the latter part of the year so it can be used for various Theatre Awards and Theatre Accolades. What about October?

John Smythe      posted 22 May 2014, 10:45 PM / edited 24 May 2014, 12:33 PM

Yes, Dean – spring is the time of renewal, the time to reap the rewards of creative cultivation, germination and gestation.

Editor    posted 10 Jun 2014, 02:17 PM

A reminder to please complete the survey regarding the proposed NZ Theatre Month (go to the top of this thread).