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After a seven-year hiatus, the Friends of the Theatre Royal group has been reactivated and is aiming to raise funds to support the theatre ahead of a planned reopening in 2027.
The group has been supporting the theatre since 1993 through fundraising efforts as well promoting the theatre’s history and activities throughout the South Canterbury community.
The group became inactive after the Theatre Royal was closed in November 2019 for safety reasons.
The theatre is being redeveloped and seismically strengthened as part of a $25.8 million dollar project.
Group communications lead Reeham Haris said the group had two big fundraisers planned before the end of the year.
“We’re kicking off with a special Halloween screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 31 at Movie Max.
“We’re actually casting a few people to come along and do an interactive sort of thing with the audience.
“We’re going to have live entertainment and all the bells and whistles that you want to see out of a [The] Rocky Horror [Picture Show] screening.”
Ticket sales are all going to be treated as donations other than the cost of the things that we need to get the event going.
“We will have two screenings, one at 3pm for all ages and then another at 7pm which will be adults only (18+).”
Fundraising subcommittee chair Ethan Richardson said the other event would be a mystery musical held at The Playhouse in December.
“It’s a fun new thing we’re running with and we want to give this experience out to the community.
“You come along, but you don’t know exactly what musical is happening until the curtain goes up.
“We might put out clues as we get closer so that people can try and guess what the show is going to be.”
Mrs Haris said there was a casting call out for anyone wanting to be a part of the cast for both upcoming fundraisers.
“We want people to know that there is this opportunity.
“Especially for the mystery musical because it’s not just a fundraiser, it’s also bringing the community together and celebrating the venue managers, the actors, the audience, all of that that goes into creating this musical theatre.”
The musical would be harder to cast as they could not reveal what the production would be, she said.
“We’re still figuring out how it’s all going to work but we are definitely welcoming expressions of interest and want to get as many as we can.
“We’re also more than happy to get volunteers who want to come in and do bits and pieces in whatever capacity that they want to get involved in. We are all volunteers and we always need more numbers.”
Mr Richardson said the group had a $1 million fundraising goal across a larger campaign.
“We’re starting with these community events but we’ve got lot of plans coming about what we’d like to do.
“With these first two events we just want to start building that excitement.
“I know people are waiting to get back in there and get back in the spirit of the theatre and the performing arts now that we’re going to have this great asset again.
“We just want to get out there with some these events to start the engagement drive and then keep building on it through next year.”
Anyone wanting more information or to get involved with the two upcoming projects can do so by emailing fotr.fundraiser@gmail.com.
Limited tickets for The Rocky Horror Picture Show Halloween showings are available for purchase from the Humantix website.