01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
St John to the rescue
Remarkable Theatre president Chris MacKenzie, left, with St John Queenstown watch operations manager Chris Marr and Kawarau area committee chair Kirsten Dennison. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER
For Queenstown's Remarkable Theatre, it makes a neat plot.
Having been homeless since the lease on their former St John ambulance station rehearsal room expired early this year, the theatre company's landed a community room in St John's current Douglas St premises.
In an act of generosity, St John's given it free use of the space in which it's rehearsing up to four times a week for its September production of the Kiwi comedy, Take a Chance on Me.
"Since we left, we've been looking for places," Remarkable Theatre president Chris MacKenzie says, "and while there's some things maybe in the pipeline, we needed some places to use for maybe the next year or two."
He adds it's good to find somewhere in Frankton, as it's central for many cast, and the particular room they're using has similar dimensions to the Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall stage they'll perform on.
As a bonus, as director T. Ryan Brennan pointed out to the cast last Sunday, the noise of planes overhead encourages them to project their voices better.
MacKenzie says as a "thank you" they'll give some free tickets to St John personnel and invite them to attend the final dress rehearsal.
Bookings for Take a Chance on Me, running from September 11 to 20, open via Humanitix tomorrow.
