The long-running drama that is Auckland's Q Theatre is nearing a happy ending.
The medium-sized flexible theatre yesterday got the nod from Auckland City's arts, culture and recreation committee.
All that is needed now is full council ratification and confirmation of a $6 million grant from the LotteryGrants Board, conditional on the council's increasing a contribution towards running costs from $300,000 to $400,000 a year.
Q Theatre general manager Susanne Ritzenhoff said the committee's decision was a fantastic outcome for the project, which has been planned for 10 years to fill the gap left by the demise of the Watershed Theatre in 1996.
She was also delighted with the committee's decision to formalise planning for other performing arts venues in the council's long-term budget planning process.
"That will make sure they [other venues] don't fall off the agenda," she said.
Yesterday's decision follows a review of performing arts venues in Auckland that called for an immediate start on Q Theatre behind the Town Hall and an immediate start planning a 500-to-600 seat drama theatre within the same Aotea Theatre precinct.
Further down the track there should be a 100-to-200 seat black box studio space as part of the drama theatre, said the review by Horwath International.
The Auckland Theatre Company has mixed feelings about the review. It agreed on the finding that Auckland needs a number of theatre spaces.
But company general manager Lester McGrath said this week that the concept of a flagship multi-theatre venue, envisaged only a few months ago with a proposal at Mid City in Queen St, seemed to have dis-appeared.
The city's leading professional theatre, with no home of its own and uncertainty about the availability of the Maidment and SkyCity theatres, is concerned about the political will and money to build a 500- to 600-seat drama theatre.
