It might look unprepossessing, just a small and not very flash weatherboard building on the corner of Beardy and Ohio Streets but the old Armidale Playhouse is the true repository of the city's theatre history.
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In recent years it has not been used for public performances because it failed to meet current building requirements.
Hopefully though it will not be long before the lights go up again through the efforts of the Armidale Drama and Musical Society (ADMS) and supporters who want to see the old building resume its status as an intimate 110-seat theatre available to groups and individuals across the community.
Proceeds from a Trivia Night fundraiser at the Ex-Services Club on Saturday, May 4, at 7pm is just one of many efforts to fund the upgrade.
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Overall costs of the project are estimated at $373,000.
So far $90,000 has been spent on Stage 1. A further $55,000 has been raised for Stage 2 with former head of the UNE Drama Department, Christopher Ross-Smith donating an additional $10,000 from his Armidillos theatre group to create a bar.
Grants towards the estimated $218,709.50 required to complete the upgrade have reached $90,000, leaving fundraisers with a final target of $120,709.
"We are within reach of our goal and the support we have received has been tremendous," said fundraising committee member Bruce Menzies.
"The Playhouse has always played a vital role in Armidale allowing students and other theatre people to experiment with productions and where community groups can stage shows at little cost.
"It encourages the vitality and variety of local theatre and music performance. We are very excited about this restoration."
The Playhouse building was originally a three-room classroom block from Ben Venue School, built about 1900.
It was dismantled when building the new brick Ben Venue started in 1930 and transported to the West Armidale School (now Drummond) in 1931.
In the 1960s the Department of Education decided to build a new Drummond School and Professor Maurice Kelly, then president of the Armidale Theatre Club arranged with the Department to secure the building and relocate it on a block of Crown land, its current site.
The building plans were approved in October 1967 with the official opening on March 29, 1969, with a gala performance of Sheridan's The Rivals directed by Gwen Foggon and starring Antony Llewellyn-Jones, later to be a professional and well-known actor in Australian stage and TV.
- Tickets to the Trivia Night fundraiser are available at www.adms.org.au or in advance through the Ex Services Club.
