Fortune Theatre

New Zealand's Fortune Theatre lays claim to being the world's southernmost professional theatre company and is the sole professional theatre group in Dunedin. It is a regular host of both local and touring shows.

The Fortune Theatre building is registered as a category I historic place by Heritage New Zealand, which recognises its historic and architectural significance. It is located on the corner of Moray Place and Upper Stuart Street, in the heart of the southern city of Dunedin.

Financial difficulties in 2000 threatened the theatre with closure, and forced the sale of the building to the Dunedin City Council. The council currently leases the building back to the Fortune Theatre Trust. The theatre announced its closure on 1 May 2018, again citing financial difficulties.

Early years

The Fortune Theatre company was co-founded by David Carnegie, Alex Gilchrist, Murray Hutchinson and Huntly Elliot. The company has been operational since 1973 and from 1974, was initially located in the 105-seat Otago Cine Club theatrette at the rear of the Athenaeum building of the Octagon. However, after hiring full-time acting staff in 1977, it was decided that the venue was too small to continue to be viable. Since 1978, the Fortune Theatre has been located in the former Trinity Methodist Church which was opened in 1870 and is close to the city's centre, The Octagon.

Education

The Fortune Theatre provides a range of options for schools such as tours around the theatre, and opportunities to talk to the cast and crew of a production.

It also offers education workshops which are show-specific. The workshops are designed to link to a range of subjects in the New Zealand Curriculum, including NCEA achievement standards in subjects such as Drama at NCEA levels 1–3.

In addition, the Fortune Theatre hosts a drama ambassador programme to engage students with the theatre by offering opportunities to attend rehearsals as well as complimentary tickets to the shows with the condition recipients review each production. This programme began in 2005 with 19 schools in the Otago and Southland region areas of New Zealand. Each school can nominate one or two students per term to be their "Drama Ambassador".

"Larnach – Castle of Lies"

In 1994, the Fortune Theatre performed a play about the tragedies of William Larnach's family, titled "Larnach – Castle of Lies", before 100 invited guests in the ballroom of Larnach Castle.

"It was a night to remember. As the guests arrived a terrible storm blew up from nowhere. The smoke from the fires blew back down the chimneys so that you couldn't see – and your eyes hurt. Hail crashed on the iron roof so that you couldn't hear. Doors mysteriously opened by themselves and it got very cold. In the play – just as Larnach shot himself there was a blinding white light. Afterwards at supper people were talking about the lightning strike as Larnach held the gun to his head. I said `Oh no that was stage effects.' We asked the stage manager. He said `It was none of our doing, it was lightning.' I think that Larnach was present that night. He didn't like the play."

-- Margeret Barker (Co-owner of Larnch Castle)

Building architecture

The Trinity Methodist Church was designed by Scotsman R. A. Lawson and made out of the local materials trachyandesite and Oamaru stone. The former church is an example of Gothic Revival architecture and contains a "Rose" stained glass window which is located at the back of what is now the theatre's main stage.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Fortune Theatre, Dunedin" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.