Playhouse Theatre happy to be back on stage

A scene form the The Memory of Water.

Theatre Hawke's Bay is up and running with The Memory of Water reopening at the beginning of the month until this Saturday at the Playhouse Theatre, Hastings.

President Kim Wright says they are looking forward to seeing the local community coming together and supporting theatre.

"There is still time to see this fantastic play which runs until July 11."

Wright was only appointed as the new president in February this year and one of her first duties in the role was to close the theatre down.

"It's been difficult for every local theatre society being locked down at all, let alone in the middle of a production," she said.

"Thankfully there are no job losses as we are all run entirely by volunteers, but the cost to just have the theatre exist is substantial, even before the lights and heating is turned on so you can imagine a closure for this long can be financially crippling.

"Artistic people need contact, we missed the audience and the amazing people we get creative with - it's been a funny ole time."

Rob Hickey, the director of The Memory of Water, described the process of rerehearsing the piece after lockdown as being "a singular experience".

"We auditioned and cast the play in December of 2019, started rehearsals late January, opened on Thursday the 19th of March anticipating a two-week run, and had to close after only two performances due to the very sensible Covid-19 restrictions.

"The cast and crew were devastated by the artistic cut-off and the society was facing a major financial risk. After paying for costs involved in set construction, props, costume, performing rights, advertising and myriad other things, every theatre company relies on ticket sales to recoup costs. Our income was cut down from two weeks to two days.

"So, we decided to battle on throughout lockdown."

Unfortunately, re-scheduling meant that three of the original cast were no longer available so, Rob stepped in to take over from Neil McCorkell and he managed to find two more exceptional actors in Gerard Cook and Joanne Stevens to cover the roles originally played by Clair Rochester and Dan Pooley.

The society's board held meetings via Zoom to keep things together and the cast also used Zoom to hold regular gatherings to run lines – and to drink a few wines!

The theatre has also ensured that a "ghost light", a single light left onstage, has been kept burning throughout lockdown.

"A ghost-light is a part of theatre superstition. It's a single bulb on a standard lamp set up to either allow the theatre ghosts to perform during down times or, depending on the theatre's lore, to deter ghosts. On the whole, I think theatre ghosts would be rather pleasant spirits so I'd welcome them," Rob said.

Bookings can be made via https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2020/mar/the-memory-of-water#/buy-tickets