Mayfair Theater

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Mayfair Theater

The Mayfair Theater is a former cinema building in the city of Dunedin , New Zealand . It belongs to the Dunedin Opera Company and, with its 400 seats, serves as a stage for performances by local theater groups and as a guest venue for foreign theaters.

The building is located at 100 King Edward Street in South Dunedin , near the intersection known as Cargill's Corner.

The building was constructed as a cinema by the King Edward Picture Theater Company in 1914 . This group included some important Dunedin businessmen such as William and Mary Ann Hudson from the confectionery company of the same name, the brewers Charles Speight and Robert and Charles Greenslade from the Speight’s brewery .

The cinema opened on December 8, 1914 as the "King Edward Picture Theater". The name officially associated with the design of the building is Edward Walter Walden († 1944), but it seems to reflect the expert knowledge and personal style of Edmund Anscombe (1874–1948).

It was one of the early examples of a structure built specifically as a cinema. While the theater stages had a fan-shaped seating arrangement and a deep stage space, the Mayfair had a rectangular auditorium and originally only little space behind the front stage. It was decorated with extensive stucco work by Robert Wardrop (1858–1924).

The cinema was rebuilt in 1934 for talkies and renamed the “Mayfair Theater”. The fore stage was redesigned according to plans by Llewellyn E. Williams and additional stucco and stained glass windows were installed. The cinema closed on September 25, 1966.

The building was acquired by the Dunedin Opera Company in 1967 and converted into a theater venue. The number of seats was reduced from 862 to 413 by removing the boxes in the stalls and pulling the front stage further into the auditorium to create a larger stage. Since then it has been used as a theater, especially an opera house.

In 2008, it was one of only three historic buildings in New Zealand specifically built as a cinema. The others are the Princess Theater in Gore (1913) and the Victoria Theater in Devonport in Auckland (1912).

In 2008 a modern fire alarm system was installed from donations. Previously, the code "Mr Sands to report to the dressing rooms" was used to instruct the employees to evacuate. However, this has been banned by the New Zealand Fire Department as no longer in accordance with the law.

On December 5, 2008, the theater was classified as a Category II Historic Place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust under number 7786 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minutes, 03.19.1914, King Edward Picture Theater Co. Ltd., squatting Collections.
  2. ^ King Edward Picture Theater Company Journal, 12/6/1914, Hocken Collections.
  3. ↑ Registration report, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Heather Bauchop, 12/8/2008, p. 8.
  4. ^ Meeting of Directors, minutes, July 12, 1934, Hocken Collections.
  5. ^ Otago Daily Times, October 16, 1967, p. 13.
  6. ↑ Registration report, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Heather Bauchop, 12/8/2008, p. 13.
  7. ↑ John Lewis: Theater's amateur fire alarm finally turns professional . Otago Daily Times. March 12, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  8. ^ Page of the New Zealand Historic Trust on the Mayfair Theater

Web links

Coordinates: 45 ° 53 ′ 33.7 ″  S , 170 ° 29 ′ 54.1 ″  E