Ngaio Marsh Theatre

Story

The Ngaio Marsh Theatre was a 400-seat proscenium-arch theatre housed within the University of Canterbury Students' Association building in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was named in honour of Dame Ngaio Marsh, who was a director and patron of theatre, especially Shakespeare, at the University between 1942 and 1969, and indeed the theatre's opening production — Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — was directed by Marsh.Technically the theatre was well equipped, with a Strand 520i lighting control desk and a Yamaha GA24/12 sound desk, and a good stock of lanterns. It was a hemp or handline theatre, with the house tabs and three of the four on-stage lighting bars being winched, the house border, projection screen, mid- and up-stage tabs and cyclorama being on free-running counterweights, and all other bars on handlines. There were also four lighting bars front-of-house, accessible only by ladder. The control room was situated at the back of the auditorium, and was split unequally into two sections, with access by a short ladder on both sides of the auditorium.Prior to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the theatre was extensively used by the Students' Association's performing arts clubs, as well by as local schools, dance schools and other external groups. In October 2015, the decision was taken to demolish the theatre and the University of Canterbury Students' Association building due to damage sustained in the earthquake. The demolition was completed in October 2016. Construction has started on the new Students' Association's building which is to include a new Ngaio Marsh Theatre.