Dunedin’s Regent Theatre has been impacted by the pandemic, with mass cancellations of touring shows during lockdown earlier this year.
The recent move to Alert Level 2, and ongoing uncertainty, has caused another casualty — the cancellation of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s performance of Venus Rising, which had been set for the Regent this Friday.
Regent Theatre director Sarah Anderson the situation was "pretty challenging" for the theatre, which was not ratepayer-funded and mainly relied on large-scale and touring shows to keep afloat.
"We are fortunate in that we have so many volunteers, with only a small paid team, so we haven’t been forced into redundancies," Ms Anderson said.
"Also, we had a huge year in the 18 months prior to Covid-19, which enabled us to weather the initial lockdown."
In the short term, the Regent’s small paid team had been re-deployed into in-house projects, and in the longer term the theatre was hoping to work on new projects with "friends in the community," she said.
But the longer restrictions and uncertainty went on, the more difficult things would become for the theatre.
"Unfortunately, a venue like ours is not eligible for 99% of the extra funding that has been made available, so we are looking at every opportunity for bringing events and funds into the theatre," she said.
The Regent Theatre worked closely with local contractors, such as sound and lighting specialists, and was concerned that times were tough for them, Ms Anderson said.
"It is such a moving feast at the moment, it’s hard to know what will happen."
The September tour of American musician Amanda Palmer — the first international touring act to come to New Zealand since Covid-19 hit — had been rescheduled for November.
"It is a relief that we haven’t had to cancel this show, and now we have lead-in time to gather a great audience."
