BATS Theatre

BATS Theatre is New Zealand's leading venue for the development of new theatre practitioners and plays. BATS, established in its present form by Simon Bennett and Simon Elson in 1989, is located at 3 Kent Terrace, Wellington.

BATS is a small theatre seating around 100 people, and has minimal backstage areas. The theatre, traditionally closed on Sundays and Mondays, frequently puts on two or three different plays in one night. It has an annual programme of between 50 to 60 shows with at least 90% of those shows being New Zealand and world premieres. It has been home to much of Wellington's young and experimental theatrical talent, and runs the "Young and Hungry" and "STAB" seasons annually. It is also billed as the 'heart' of Wellington's annual Fringe Festival. Despite its small size it has a significant effect and complements the work of the nearby much larger Circa and Downstage theatres.

BATS is largely funded by Creative New Zealand and ticket sales.

History of BATS

The venue itself has had a long and varied life, starting originally in the 1930s as The Savage Club, a dance hall and venue for amateur theatre. From the late 60s until 1975 Unity Theatre was in residence, a society with a tradition of left-wing political affiliations and a penchant for work by obscure European dramatists. Unity had a strong core membership which went on and contributed to the growth and success of Downstage and Circa theatres.

From 1979 to 1988 the theatre was administered by the BATS Incorporated Society. BATS is an acronym for the Bane and Austin Touring Society, (named after Rodney Bane and David Austin, the founding members of BATS). BATS Inc began as a prolific amateur theatre company, producing school tours and shows, achieving a string of main-bill successes. In the early 80's however, commitment waned and BATS Theatre simply became a venue for hire, administered by BATS Inc.

During these years, BATS became the home for Drama School productions and was used by a number of co-operatives. Famous Door, Stiletto Theatre, Strawberry Theatre and Shoe String Theatre all used BATS as a base and shows like Frankenstein, True Love/Polythene Pam and Fool For Love enjoyed moderate success. In spite of its shabby cult status, neglect and a lack of funds meant that BATS was deteriorating rapidly.

In 1988, while in his last year of drama school, Simon Bennett became aware of the BATS predicament. After many a drunken night spent with Simon Elson while working on King Lear, together they formulated a proposal to save BATS Theatre. Operating as NOMIS productions (Simon backwards), the two Simon's negotiated a lease from BATS Inc. and from November 1988 until April 1989 they worked organising sponsorship, money, materials, redesigning and rebuilding the foyer, stripping back and redecorating the auditorium, redesigning the access ways, cleaning up and redecorating backstage and lobbying all the right people for support.

THEIR POLICY FOR BATS WASTo rekindle the popularity and accessibility of theatre for young people and to provide a venue, a training ground and a way in for young people struggling to forge careers in the difficult world of professional theatre.

THESE AIMS WERE TO BE ACHIEVED BYKeeping ticket prices for students on a par with cinema admission and video hire rates. Programming the theatre with entertainment value as a priority Ensuring a consistently high standard of work Keeping the doors open for young theatre practitioners. Promoting the theatre along the lines of cheap but good entertainment BATS Theatre reopened as a professional venue on 1st April 1989 and Simon Bennett quickly discovered that theatre management and directing are mutually exclusive occupations. He resigned from the active management of BATS in May that year to pursue a career in directing, leaving it in the hands of Simon Elson. Simon ran BATS for a year maintaining its high profile and ensuring a string of successful productions that somehow allowed him to balance the books without substantial external funding. During that year BATS hosted the hit shows: JISM, The Sex Fiend, both Phenomenal Frock Shows, Digger and Nudger, Hen’s Teeth, Billy, Twelfth Night, Dancescape, Hamlet and Simon’s brain-child The BATS Fringe Fest.

David Suisted, a chartered accountant in private practice, had met with the two Simons in October 1988 and from that time on assisted with professional advice on financial, secretarial and tax matters. After eighteen months of extraordinary levels of achievement and exhaustion, Simon Elson went overseas for a well earned break, leaving the theatre in the hands of Liz Penny.

On 16th April 1990, just one year after BATS opened, fire raged through the backstage at 5.15am killing the theatre cat Cyclops who died of smoke inhalation. The fire started through an electrical fault in old wiring and left walls charred, burnt costumes and props, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. The dressing room and backstage areas were severely damaged in the fire, with the auditorium suffering smoke and heat damage. The Visitor by Full of Piranhas dance company was due to open the night of the fire. Thousands of dollars worth of tailor-made costumes and props for the show had been destroyed in the fire. On the following night, April 17, a fund raising party was to take place to upgrade the theatre. This was quickly changed into a party to rebuild the dressing room and backstage area. On 13th May 1990 a variety concert at the St James Theatre was organised to raise funds to put BATS back on its feet. The concert was called “Got A Light” and included such luminaries as the Topp Twins, Paul Holmes, Lynn of Tawa, The Six Volts, Gary McCormick, When the Cats Been Spayed, Kate Harcourt, Alice Fraser, Te Rakau Hua O Te Wau Tapu, Helen Moulder, Full of Piranhas and many other celebrities and theatre practitioners, all giving their time for free.

Wellington companies came to the rescue too, donating labour and materials for the rebuilding project. Circa and the Depot held benefit shows at Downstage Theatre. The Wellington City Council made the St James available for the concert. It attracted 1100 people and raised $22,000.00. Phoenix the new BATS cat was presented by Fran Wilde. BATS reopened on 14th June with Ken Duncan's Blue Sky Boys directed by Simon Bennett and starring Timothy Balme and Michael Galvin.

On David Suisted’s initiative, and for funding and financial reasons, the Nomis Partnership converted into a private company in January 1992. A programme of selling shares was established and at the Company’s AGM in October 1993 all shares were converted to the value of 1 cent each to provide a platform for private fundraising.

Since 1991 BATS Theatre has been managed by a growing number of fulltime staff, with the help of a broad base of contract workers and volunteers. Helen Searancke took over from Liz Penny. Helen went on to become the Programme Manager of The Watershed Theatre in Auckland. After Helen, came Guy Boyce. Guy went on to become the Programme Manager of Downstage Theatre before taking up the Director’s post at Playmarket. During his reign, Guy achieved funding from the New Zealand Arts Council (now known as Creative New Zealand). This funding allowed BATS to explore new opportunities and during his time Guy put several new initiatives into place.

When Guy left, it became apparent that BATS was in need of more human resources to help develop and run these new initiatives and to meet the demands of a growing programme. Upon his departure he employed Katherine Joyce as a full-time Theatre Manager and Conrad Newport as part-time Programme Manager. Over the next two years BATS’ annual funding increased and its staff expanded to include a full-time Front of House Manager, Elise Way and a House Technician, Tim Dallas. At this stage the BATS office was located under the Embassy Theatre. After several months Conrad went on to pursue his acting career. Katherine moved into the position of full-time Programme Manager and employed Brent Thawley as a full-time Business Manager.

In October 1998 Martin Rodgers took over from Katherine as Programme Manager. Meanwhile, Katherine established the Young & Hungry Youth Arts Trust as an entity in its own right and is currently Theatre for Schools Co-ordinator at Capital E. Kate Robertson and Juliette Howard came on board as BATS Facilities Managers in 1998. After a short BATS stint Juliette went on to be a successful lighting designer.

In 1999 BATS took over the lease of the two small spaces on either side of the BATS foyer. Roy’s, the old fish n’ chippy, became home to the BATS office and what was previously Don’s Car Insurance Office was magically transformed into The Pit, as this intimate bar is fondly known. Karen Blyth came on board as Front of House Manager in late 1999 to replace Elise Way, who left to have a baby.

In March 2000 both Martin and Brent left BATS. Brent stepped across the road to Downstage to become Finance Manager. Martin moved on to Arts Advocacy work. With Brent leaving as Business Manager Kate was promoted to the position of Business Manager in early 2000. Sharyn Duncan, formerly of SiLO Theatre in Auckland, took over as Programmer and continued until late 2001 when Paula van Beek was employed. Kate left BATS at the end of May 2002, and stepped over to Downstage, and was replaced by Kirsten Kelly. Martyn Roberts, Facilities Manager, left BATS in June 2002 to become a fulltime freelancer and was replaced by Kristan Mulcahy. In September 2002 Karen Blyth left to go live in Eastbourne and work as the cast coordinator for Cloud 9. Brigid Connor, just back from Japan, started as the new Front of House Manager.

In March 2003 Dimi Hegglun took over from Kristan as Facilities Manager. Paula van Beek departed BATS in June 2004 to go international and James Hadley was appointed the BATS new Programme Manager.

Dimi left BATS in January 2005 and moved to Canada. Rob Larsen joined the team as the new Technical and Facilities Manager. In the middle of the year, Marama Killen became Front of House Manager when Brigid Connor returned to Japan and Clare Kerrison replaced Kirsten Kelly, as Business Manager. In August 2005, Steph Walker was hired to job share with Marama at Front of House, bringing the number of BATS staff up to 5.

BATS philosophy

The fundamental philosophy of BATS has stayed true to its former ambitions. It constantly seeks to build a new young audience for theatre by presenting diverse, relevant and challenging theatre. It focuses on being accessible for both its audience and incoming theatre companies. BATS gives support to many developing arts practitioners.

BATS theatre is a presenter venue staging an annual programme to its audience. Their programme aims to develop live performance practitioners, audiences and new theatre works from Aotearoa New Zealand, presenting the best of cutting edge and experimental theatre from New Zealand and overseas.Many of these works go on tour and become national hits and even if the shows don’t continue on, the actors, writers, producers, designers and directors do.

As a presenting venue we are reliant on co-operatives wanting to produce works at BATS. These co-operatives are driven by artists, producers and already established theatre companies who submit scripts or proposals for us to consider in our programming. Fundamental to BATS is the maintenance of low ticket prices and a share/risk policy between the theatre & co operatives which ensures that we remain New Zealand's most accessible professional theatre for both audiences and practitioners.

External links

* [http://www.bats.co.nz/ Bats Theatre website]