The Hannah Playhouse, Wellington, New Zealand

THE HANNAH PLAYHOUSE

Designer's Tips

Home of Downstage Theatre: Corner of Courtenay Place & Cambridge Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. P.O.Box 9441 Wellington. Phone (04) 801-6946. Fax (04) 801-6948.
E-mail downstage@downstage.co.nz Website www.downstage.co.nz

In 1964 Downstage Theatre Society was formed with the aim of starting a professional theatre in Wellington. Its first home was the Walkabout coffee bar on Courtenay Place where the Hannah Playhouse stands today.

In 1968 The Hannah Playhouse trust was formed to build the Hannah Playhouse on that site using a gift from Sheilah Winn of $300,000. with the Downstage Theatre Co being its tenant. Downstage designer Raymond Boyce was theatre consultant to the Architects Ron Parker and James Beard. In 1969 Downstage moved temporarily to the Star Boating Club and in 1971 construction began on the Courtenay Place site.

The design brief was for a theatre restaurant with the auditorium allowing for various performance arrangements. The foundation is a reinforced concrete slab and the building structure is reinforced concrete floors suspended on concrete columns. The auditorium itself is on the 2nd floor and is internally placed with complete around-theatre circulation for audience and actors. This arrangement also helps in soundproofing the auditorium from the busy surrounding streets. A mezzanine gallery of timber runs along the north, south and east walls of the auditorium.

The roof structure is steel framed ( with timber purlins and clad with aluminium ) and is linked to the lighting grid extending right across the auditorium 5.500m above the theatre floor. The grid allows for flexible lighting arrangements and the flying of scenery at the "proscenium" end. A removable timber trap ( approx. 7m x 6m ) in the 2nd floor slab allows the auditorium to open to what is now the bar space below. The stage position is not fixed and may be located at will.

The Hannah Playhouse opened on 15 October 1973 with a production of ‘As you like it’. Downstage ran as a full theatre company until 1994, but now has a small core staff , with different artists and production personnel working short term contracts.
(notes by Kirsty Chamberlain Dec 97)

Designer's Tips

updates, comments or other info: venues@venueweb.co.nz

Audience seating rostra is constructed from individual steel framed rostra 0.900m x 1.800m, which use scaffold pipe for legs - there are enough pre-cut legs to provide for any seating arrangement, the height increasing in 0.300m increments. There are enough rostra that the stage may be constructed also, and standard pre-cut legs to allow for a stage of 0.300m, 0.600m, or 0.900m.
The theatre was originally designed to seat only 175 (complete with tables for dining). Current seating is from 230 to 280 depending on the layout. With these many people, it is generally not advisable to use the floor as the stage because of sightline hassles. If many seats are to be placed on the floor, (perhaps around tables) the stage should not be lower than 0.900
The theatre no longer owns any lighting equipment at all, but has an ongoing contract with a local lighting company to supply lanterns, control cable etc. as needed on a show by show basis. This is good news for lighting designers, as you may spec the exact lanterns you require, rather than working around a fixed and limited in house stock.
All scenery has to come into the theatre via half ton electric hoist through a trap in the theatre floor above the dockway [see images below] - this is 2.400m x 1.200m. If your scenery pieces won't fit through here, you will have to cut them up!

[Below] Auditorium cross-section views - click for larger images

Free CAD drawing Viewer
All you need to view and print any drawing on this site with step by step instructions

View basic plans of the venue
Hannah plan. Revision date: /06/00

Download 2d dxf file of the venue.
hannah.zip (74k) Revision date: /06/00

Clicking on the above icon will open a gif plan of the venue. The gif plan is optimised to print on landscape A4 paper direct from the browser.
Use this option for a quick preview of the venue plan, or if you have no CAD software. It shows a basic plan of the venue, but will lack detail, is missing text, and information on layers that are not shown - check with the CAD screen shot icon at right to compare this drawing with the info available in the actual CAD file.
Once printed, you might want to check the scale, and mess about with a photocopier to get the drawing into some kind of usable size.

Clicking on the above icon will allow you to download a zipped dxf format CAD plan of the venue.

Once unzipped, you can view and edit it in your CAD program, or alternatively you can download it, then view and print it in this free drawing viewer.

   See CAD Viewer Tutorial for step by step instructions.
   See About the Drawings for more information on the CAD drawings.
   See About CAD programs for information on various CAD programs, links to sites where you can download one, and tutorials on viewing these drawings in several different CAD programs.

Drawing Notes:n/a

The Hannah Playhouse - Revision date /07/04

Company

Venue Name

The Hannah Playhouse

Street address:

12 Cambridge Tce, Wellington, New Zealand

Postal address:

P.O. Box 9441, Wellington, New Zealand

Web Site:

www.downstage.co.nz

E-mail:

downstage@downstage.co.nz

Telephones:

Phone: + 64 4 801 6946
Fax: + 64 4 801 6948

Physical Venue Description:

Purpose built intimate theatre with eccentric / flexible auditorium on 2rd floor, offices / dressing rooms and public bar on 1st, box office / foyer / cafe on ground.

Operating Structure:

Home to Downstage Theatre

Key Personnel:

See Downstage website

Public Areas:

small box office foyer on ground floor, small public bar / toilets on 1st, auditorium on 2nd

Catering:

by own arrangement or can be arranged for corporate / whole house bookings etc.

Ticketing:

Box Office on ground floor open weekdays 9:00am to show time, Saturdays 12 noon to show time.
Online booking 24 hours at our website www.downstage.co.nz
Phone bookings during above hours. All major credit cards.

Disabled access:

Public lift to all levels. Please notify staff pre show of your requirements, wheelchair spaces in auditorium available.

History:

see above

Other:

Technical

Auditorium Description:

On 2rd floor. Concrete floor with large trapped area centre opening to floor below. Eccentric shape rhomboid floor plan, large concrete stairwells, and wooden walls supporting narrow balcony @ 3.000m. Steel floor over whole auditorium @ 5.500m with 1.400m sq cutouts for lx access. Limited flying space through 7.000m by 1.300m opening in area between stair towers.

Seating Capacity:

Depends on show. Usually about 250 - 280

Stage:

no fixed layout - stage / seating can be placed anywhere

Hanging Plot:

n/a

Getin:

via half ton electric hoist through 2.400m by 1.200m opening in floor above dockway. Goods service lift to auditorium floor. Sometimes easier to manhandle large lighter items up main stairs.

Dressing Rooms:

Two on 1st floor - 6 persons each. incl washbasins. Separate male & female showers / toilets adjacent. Extra people can be accommodated in temporary area outside main dressing rooms.

Stage manager:

tannoy to all artists areas.

Misc

iron / ironing board, automatic washing machine / dryer.

Other:

Very limited storage and backstage space. No workshop or other support space, although limited technical area within grid.

Lighting

Lx Control:

supplied via contract with local lighting company - speced show by show

Dimmers:

as above - 72 rack mounted Theatrelight 2.5k dimmers usually available

Luminaires:

supplied on show by show basis - up to lx designer to specify.

Sound

Control:

Allen & Heath MixWizard 14:4:2 Mixing Console

Output:

Powersoft Digam Digital Audio Amplifier (4 channel) feeding 2 x Bose 802's

Accessories:

4 x Cerwin Vega midrange speakers - effect specials (10")

2 x Rane RE 27 Graphic EQ - 27 Band

Yamaha SPX 1000 multi-effects processor

Tascam CD Player

Sony MD Player

Effects Units

n/a

Hanging Plot:

n/a

Venue Web
CAD files of Theatrical & Performance Venues
This page last updated Thursday, July 15, 2004