Submission
9 year plan feedback
Should we remove 231 Stuart Street (formerly the Fortune Theatre) from the list of strategic assets in the DCC Significance and Engagement policy?
Yes, remove 231 Stuart Street from the list of strategic assets (this is our preferred option)
Do you have any comments about 231 Stuart Street?
The Stage South Charitable Trust Board advocates that 231 Stuart St should be removed from the SEP strategic asset list and sold for sympathetic development, with all of the profits from the sale ring-fenced exclusively for theatre performance infrastructure.
We submit that, as 231 Stuart St is a heritage grade 1 structure, it’s appropriate that these profits go towards the preservation and development of performance spaces in another heritage grade 1 building which has a viable and sustainable performing arts business plan - the Athenaeum.
We recognize that the public/private partnership this project requires will demand a rigorous and robust legal framework. Public funds spent on a privately owned building need to be protected to ensure returns for the community in the long term. The resulting asset will need a legal framework to account for all future scenarios, which clearly defines the city investment as a stakeholder in the building and protects public investment in future decades.
However with Dunedin’s small population and infrastructure challenges, and the unique position of the Athenaeum building and its owner, the Stage South Board believes this is a viable and exciting option that will serve the performing arts community with a small theatre and a music venue, and create real and lasting value for the city.
Additionally we submit that, if the DCC has no capacity or intention to develop the ‘Sammys’ site into a music venue and music hub - which would be the preferred option - this building should also be sold and all profits directed into the creation of the proposed music venue in the basement of the Athenaeum space.
Should we charge an entry fee of $20 (incl. GST) for international visitors aged 16 and over, at Toitū and Dunedin Public Art Gallery?
Do you have any comments about the entry fee for international visitors?
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
STAGE SOUTH SUBMISSION ON THE PERFORMING ARTS VENUE(S)
Tēnā koutou
The Stage South Charitable Trust Board requests that Council reinstates the 17.1m allocated to a Performing Arts Venue in the 2021-2031 10 year plan.
Stage South has been engaged with Council since 2018 on the investigation and building of such a venue. It is devastating to the whole performing arts community that the allocated budget has been removed from the draft 2025 – 2034 plan.
After 7 years of work and planning, the latter 18 months of comprehensive negotiations and meetings, local venues and organisations that create and house events year-round in our city have been shafted and seemingly cut off without a lifeline.
This is appalling in a UNESCO City of Literature which trumpets its commitment to art and culture.
It is not ‘finding a balance’.
The proposed allocation of an additional $2m yearly to ‘stadium major events funding’ adds insult to this injury. The theatre community understands the stadium needs to generate revenue, but the current approach of chasing the ‘destination’ big event reputation while abandoning local performing arts venues will leave ratepayers in a cultural desert by the end of this decade.
The Stage South Trust Board proposes the DCC reallocates 5% of the event ‘attraction’ budget increase to keep the interim theatre space Te Whare o Rukutia open and operating for another year of actual planned events and activity.
A further 5% would offer a lifeline to the Playhouse.
We ask for the following urgent actions:
1. Immediate financial support to be granted for operations of Te Whare o Rukutia. This will require the DCC to reverse its decision to end funding for the venue.
2. Financial investment for Playhouse Theatre infrastructure. Playhouse representatives have publicly stated they expect to close in 24 months without this support.
3. Confirmation that the Professional Theatre Fund will remain as it is currently.
In the 9 Year Plan we request the DCC create and adopt an Ōtepoti Theatre Action Plan - as has been implemented with our colleagues in the music scene.
This action plan should include the following mid-term actions, as recommended by the Performing Arts Group (Stage South, the Playhouse, the Athenaeum, the Regent) in our Statement of Intent.
• Support for the Playhouse renovations and refurbishment.
• Support for the public/private partnership of Athenaeum development to improve the 90 seat Fringe theatre and create a significant new music venue.
• Support for the new-build performing arts centre. This will require DCC land or partnerships with landowners to secure a suitable site. The centre would benefit Dunedin’s entire community, offering the theatre and general arts ecology a vibrant, sustainable space to thrive for the foreseeable future.
• If a memorandum of understanding for a new-build is not secured within 18 months, consideration could be given to new infrastructure for the Regent Theatre enabling a 300-350 seat ‘stage-on-stage’, so at least some professional touring theatre can still be presented in Dunedin.
Any consideration of further investment into the Mayfair is mistaken. It is fundamentally unfit as a 21st century performing arts venue. The building is damp, aged and flood prone, with a limited envelope. The plan put forward by the Mayfair Trust proposes to spend a huge amount of money but retains the many design limitations; small completely inflexible stage, European proscenium arch, poor acoustics for spoken word, inadequate access, poor sightlines, inevitably high running costs and multiple technical design limitations. The single stage business model and total design proposed doesn’t ensure the multiple income streams required for sustainability. There is also the fundamental problem that the venue was designed as a cinema and adapted for traditional European theatre; vaudeville and musicals. It’s inherently unworkable for modern theatre and with its strong colonial flavour and lack of community space actively excludes Māori and Pasifika performance.
The Mayfair Trust doesn’t have the organisational expertise to develop their venue in a way that allows a sound professional theatre business plan. It operates as a volunteer venue and exists not to further performing arts in Dunedin overall, but because they love their building and romance of the colonial heritage features. Representatives are unwilling to accept or discuss its limits and have been notably absent in meetings between Stage South, the Regent, the Playhouse and the Athenaeum over the last 12 months. There are a number of touring companies and local professionals who have stated they will never work with the Mayfair Trust or perform in the building again.
Kā mihi nui
The Stage South Charitable Trust Board
28.04.25
Local Water Done Well feedback
Which water services delivery model do you support?
Why did you choose this option?
Do you have any other feedback related to the proposed water services delivery models?
Supporting information
Submitter
Submission id number: 1132554
Submitter name:
Karen Elliot
Organisation
Stage South Charitable Trust