Encore!

May 29, 2010
It's time to play the music and light the lights . . . the curtain is about to go up on the Theatre Royal's multimillion-dollar restoration. Geoff Collett looks at what lies ahead.
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IT HAS been five years - perhaps the five longest in the Theatre Royal's 132-year history - but on Monday, one of the most anticipated renovation jobs in the city's recent memory will at last be unveiled with the theatre's reopening.
There will be some hoopla, a gathering of dignitaries, VIPs and associated others, a dawn blessing and then a series of concerts - including those organised especially for an army of local performers hankering to try out the new stage. A chorus of ooh-ing and aah-ing at the efforts and skill lavished on restoring the theatre to something like its original glory can be expected to continue for the first few weeks, at least.
Then they have to get down to the business of making it work.
A couple of things about the longer-term challenge are apparent.
One - the reborn Theatre Royal won't be let down because anybody has stinted on attending to the details of fitting a 21st-century theatre into a 19th-century shell. For $6 million plus the labour and generosity of numerous supporters, you would hope not.
Two - even if nobody else in the world gave a fig about the place, Guy Boyce's enthusiasm for what's now in store would be enough to keep it chugging along in top gear for years to come.
Mr Boyce is the theatre establishment manager. His enthusiasm belies the fact that he is in Nelson for only six months, on a short- term contract to get the restored theatre back up and running.
Before arriving in Nelson in February, Mr Boyce ran Christchurch's annual arts festival for 10 years. In August, he will be off to a new life in Western Australia, to manage a performing arts centre there. But while here, he has returned "to my core roots - this is very, very exciting, and the potential here is just outstanding".
"There's no reason why this place can't be the boutique, gorgeous regional venue in the country."
"Gorgeous" seems fair enough. With its painstakingly restored light fittings, seats, ceilings and wallpapers, Mr Boyce predicts that people will be "gobsmacked" by their first view of the auditorium.
Frequently, he says, those who have been to see the place during the restoration work compare it to Auckland's Civic Theatre, which went through a major facelift in the 1990s. The comparison doesn't exactly hold - the Civic is a big city's temple of Art Deco, the Theatre Royal a small city's tribute to a Victorian queen - but the point is clear.
"People are really referencing the fact that what we've done here in terms of our fitout has really restored it to a grandeur."
"Boutique" is also a handy description. The place is, after all, quite small - 350 seats - which is commonly pointed to as the reason why the Theatre Royal will never on its own settle the argument about Nelson's lack of space for the performing arts. But for now at least, Mr Boyce is confident that boutique is good, and even suited to the performance market Nelson should be chasing.
"Performers who like the venue [including musician Dave Dobbyn and the theatre's patron, actress Dame Kate Harcourt] love the heritage thing and the intimacy. I think there's a real trend, where budgets can afford it, to taking shows into smaller houses because of that intimacy."
Mr Boyce knows that the theatre's limited size will suit (or not bother) some shows but will be an obstacle for others.
The argument over whether Nelson needs a long-discussed 800- to 1000-seat performing arts centre seems bound to get a fresh burst of energy with the theatre reopening, as those who like to debate these things use the occasion as an excuse to once again push their barrows on the issue.
Mr Boyce, for his part, can see the case for a larger "town hall-type structure" (his ideal location would be the army barracks site next to the Theatre Royal, to create a precinct and offer shared management opportunities). But, based on his own observations of current demand and the nature of the shows Nelson can hope to attract, he is prepared to suggest that "with where Nelson is at the moment, this is the right venue for now".
The theatre has been refitted with that expectation. Its backstage and other behind-the-scenes amenities and equipment are well beyond what might be expected of a community theatre, or at least of the Theatre Royal as it may be remembered from its previously decrepit state.
Most obvious is the hulking extension built on the rear, housing a fly tower (equipped with 44 counterweighted lines for raising and lowering stage sets, lighting, curtains and other performance equipment), new dressing rooms, toilets, rehearsal space, a new stage and an orchestra pit. Less obvious are the miles of cabling that have been installed to service the sophisticated lighting and audio systems; beyond what might be expected for most current needs, but part of the plan to "futureproof" the theatre for decades to come.
While there might be plenty to say about the grandness of the restoration, the comparative opulence of the backstage area or the efficiency of the new computerised air conditioning, Mr Boyce knows that what really counts is what happens on stage - and, by extension, in the audience - day in and day out for years to come.
"The building is nothing if it doesn't have a programme in it. If it doesn't have shows that people in Nelson want to see and people in Nelson coming to them, it's pointless - it might as well be a warehouse."
The early signs are promising. He has booked 110 performance nights between opening night and the end of the year - seven months - compared to the 112 performance nights the theatre notched up in its last full year of operations before closing.
Promoters are starting to track him down to find out about the venue as news of its re-emergence spreads. A couple of the country's leading performance companies, New Zealand Opera and the Royal New Zealand Ballet, have agreed to take touring performances there (adapted for the slightly small stage in the ballet's case), after years of an intermittent presence in Nelson.
Mr Boyce hopes that the recent trend of touring shows only getting as near as Blenheim will die out. A couple of vital relationships have already been established, including with the Nelson Arts Festival, which will use the theatre as one of its main venues.
Professional shows, though, are only the half of it, the other being the range of community organisations - theatre companies, dance schools, local orchestras and bands, school drama productions - who, hopefully, will be queuing for their chance to tread the new stage's boards. The Nelson Repertory Society, the theatre's previous owner, is still closely involved, with representatives on its governing trust and as a "client company" of the new venue, meaning it will continue to be the society's base. Community use rates will be cheaper than professional charges.
Balancing the inherent tension between professionals and local amateur groups could be the key task for the next manager, Mr Boyce says, including in marketing the different shows.
He knows, too, that there is a substantial target market of transplants from the big cities, who are used to metropolitan standards in the performing arts, who the Theatre Royal should seek to woo and convince that they can get a healthy fix of quality shows here.
Anyway, that's the vision from the manager's office. It will be over to another newcomer to pick up when Mr Boyce's contract finishes in August. His successor, Janice Marthen, most recently ran Dunedin's Fortune Theatre. "It's a good opportunity for me to pass the baton on to someone who sees potential for a place like this to really represent a fantastic array of work for the people and visitors of this city, " Mr Boyce says.
But first, there's an opening to get out of the way.