News

Thanks to everyone who made it along to the North Shore Theatre and Arts Trust annual general meeting last night.

It was great to catch up with Friends of The PumpHouse members, hirers, funders and members of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board too.

We’re thrilled so many people take an interest in what we’re doing to keep The PumpHouse Theatre thriving.

Guest speaker Andrew Caisley, Board member of Creative New Zealand, gave the audience an overview of CNZ’s history, activities and some of the challenges that come with Government funding for the arts.

While we knew lottery sales contributed to arts funding, we didn’t realise this extended to prize money!  The more first division lotto winners, the less arts funding there is for the following year.

Funding arts and community services from gambling proceeds is a moral dilemma for many grass roots community organisations. We’ll be interested to see the recommendations of the review of gambling regulations currently being undertaken by the Department of Internal Affairs.

In the theatre the North Shore’s Scout and Guides are hard at work building an impressive-looking set for A Raft of Good Tales, opening next Thursday.

If you’ve never seen a Gang Show before its quite an experience.  For some of the young people involved its the spark of a life-long love of performing, for others, it will be their only time on stage.

Grab some kids and come along for a family-friendly variety show of comedy and music with a nautical theme.

Shoreside Theatre’s almost-sold-out season of The Hollow closes on Saturday night.

At time of writing there were only 50 seats left across the last three performances.  Luckily most of those are for the matinee at 2:00 pm on Saturday when there will be a free post-show Q&A with Carol Dumbleton, the show’s director.  Agatha Christie was a regular visitor to Carol’s parent’s guest house in Devon so she’s sure to have some interesting stories to share.

If you aren’t coming to the show first, the Q&A will start around 4:45 pm and is open to all.

The popular North Shore Concert Band are in the house on Sunday with their annual PumpHouse Concert – this time its Hollywood vs Broadway with music from An American in Paris, The Sound of Music, Chess, James Bond and more.

Their concerts usually sell out, but we’ve still got a few tickets left if you haven’t got yours yet.

From Wednesday night, Rangitoto College senior drama students tackle one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays – Titus Andronicus.  There are only three performances, so don’t miss out on the chance to see this rarely-performed play on the PumpHouse stage.

Behind the scenes we’ve taken delivery of 50 padded chairs and given them a professional clean and polish – these will provide much needed comfort in the in the Coal Bunker Studio, just in time for The Dumb Waiter in September.

Shoreside Theatre’s production of The Hollow by Agatha Christie opened last night to a packed house.  The two Saturday night performances are almost sold out, so don’t miss out.

Shoreside Theatre are also here on Monday and Tuesday evening next week holding auditions for the ever-popular Shakespeare in the Park season.  Next year’s season will be their 21st in The PumpHouse Amphitheatre so its sure to be a special event.

If you’ve always liked the idea of taking part, pop along and register – they always have extras as well as the leads.  See the Facebook Page for the event for more details.

With only a few seats left to Tim Bray Productions season of Badjelly the Witch, we are getting a few calls about the Restricted View Seats.

These are seats in the balcony areas where the view for smaller children (and even some adults) can be restricted by the safety rail. Generally we’d only recommend these seats for older children (6+)

To get an idea of what the view might be like have a look at the example photos on the Where To Sit page.

The PumpHouse Theatre 40th Anniversary Planning Meeting

We were thrilled at the turn out on Monday, 20 June from those who have stories to share about the history of The PumpHouse.

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the theatre’s opening and we’re busily collecting photos, newspaper clippings, newsletters and memories from anyone with something to share.

At today’s meeting we heard about shovelling coal and selling it to fund the restoration, and the much-loved PumpHouse picnics. Some of the stars of the first ever music stage at The PumpHouse, Electra, were on hand to reminisce.

It was great to see so many familiar faces all keen to share and get involved.

As we get closer to our anniversary date on 18th and 19th May 2017, we hope to publish a book of photos and memories and create a short video of interviews. Lots of people have recommended we take a look at the possibility of Amazon publishing, considering they are a popular place to purchase books nowadays. All advice is welcome!

Do you have something to share? Give Julia a call on 09 486 2386 or email julia@pumphouse.co.nz.