The job ahead on Lawson Field Theatre

BACKING LAWSON FIELD THEATRE: Pictured after Cabinet minister and East Coast MP Anne Tolley announced a grant of $417,000 to help with seismic-strengthening costs for the Lawson Field Theatre are (from left) Gisborne district councillors Larry Foster and Karen Fenn, GDC’s funding and contracts adviser Julie Condor, council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann, Mrs Tolley, War Memorial Theatre Trust member Anne Muir, councillors Malcolm MacLean and Rehette Stoltz, hall trustees Bronwen Holdsworth and Shona Egan, and councillor Meredith Akuhata-Brown. Picture by Paul Rickard

GISBORNE deputy mayor Rehette Stoltz has thanked the Government and the War Memorial Theatre Trust after receiving a $417,513 grant towards seismic-strengthening costs for the Lawson Field Theatre.

The council was delighted to receive Government funding to help get Lawson Field Theatre back to how it used to be, she said.

Mrs Stoltz also thanked the theatre trustees for being involved in restoring Lawson Field Theatre, as they had done with the War Memorial Hall.

MP Anne Tolley said the funding came from the Regional Culture Heritage Fund. As a regional MP, she had helped put “regional” back into the fund, she said.

She thanked Gisborne District Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann and her staff for their work. She said it was a shame to have Lawson Field Theatre unavailable to its many users.

“I’m very much looking forward to the theatre’s reopening and broadening the range of cultural experiences on offer in Gisborne. It will be a real boost to the community,’’ Mrs Tolley said.