Alive in Hamilton

When I was born, 1956, Hamilton had a population of 35,941 (according to the Familypaedia). Now Hamilton is the fourth populated city in NZ, and in 2016 had an urban population of 193,600 and a metro population of 230,000. That meant a lot to me when I lived there. Brisbane felt like a 'huge' city, with a population which, when I moved here in 2006, was 1,180,285. By 2016 the Brisbane population almost doubled, to 2,209,453 – now 10 times greater than Hamilton! But I had a place I really enjoyed, before I moved.

One of my favourite places in Hamilton was the theatre where Hamilton Operatic Society was based - the Drury Lane Theatre. It was a small, very comfortable theatre with a jovial chef and happy front-of-house volunteers. The society had been around since 1904, and they hung very old pictures from various shows around the back offices. Their “Previous Shows” page lists the first public performance as The Geisha Girl in 1914.

I started there in 1995, just after I watched Dad working as Assistant Stage Mechanist on The Merry Widow in another theatre that HOS used. I was in HOS for 18 years; I loved theatre and worked in many different positions... I was Props Manager for Evita, Annie, Sound of Music and many others; Assistant Stage Manager for Les Miserables; backstage hand; front-of-house helper, working as a waitress for meal shows or in the snack bar. I sought, painted, cut, sewed, stuffed and made props, managed the props room downstairs - under the stage. I helped performers to change their costumes on the side of stage. My Dad was Stage Mechanist, and I'd often help him if he needed it. 

HOS had built the theatre in the 1950s when the land had been gifted to them. In the 1970s they added on a fly tower, and in the 1980s they rebuilt the auditorium to accommodate more people. The funds for this was given to Drury Lane Theatre by the Trustbank. The theatre was renamed the Trustbank Community Theatre, later changed again to the WestpacTrust Community Theatre, and sold to HCC in 1997. In 2015 the name was finally changed to the Clarence St Theatre.

Founders Theatre, the city theatre, was opened in November 1962, and became the HOS location for some of the large shows, such as The Merry Widow, Evita, Les Miserables, Annie, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and West Side Story. In March 2016 Founders Theatre was closed due to some fly tower safety issues, and the HCC is discussing finance to rebuild a new theatre to take over Founders.

One of my favourite – ever – stage shows was The Rocky Horror Show. I saw it in Hamilton, again in Auckland, and over here in Brisbane. Richard O'Brien wasn't based at HOS, but the HCC council knew how many people in Hamilton loved TRHS – there'd be late evening outside approval for screen shows, and people would turn up in costumes and join in the songs. In 2004 HCC put a bronze statute of O'Brien as Riff Raff from the show, in Victoria St just where the old Embassy theatre used to be, and O'Brien was photographed beside that recently. His TRHS was successfully done by HOS in 2005 and again late 2016, and he also filled the Fagin role in the 2012 HOS stage show of Oliver. 

 

O'Brien has been the Patron of HOS since 2009. 

HOS has done some of the same shows that I've watched in Brisbane, including The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Cats (I saw that first in 1988 in Melbourne and again fairly recently in Brisbane). They did some more than once (for instance, Les Miserables 1995, 2001 and 2017, Oliver 1990 and 2012, The Merry Widow 1985 and 1994, Tell Me on a Sunday 2000 and 2015).

Living now in Brisbane has never really introduced me to a theatre. Sure, for a year between 2013-14, I was involved with the front-of-house staff of La Boite theatre in Kelvin Grove, but after my stroke in 2014 I couldn't go back. I don't really miss that.

But I do still miss the Hamilton Operatic Society – and the old Drury Lane Theatre. 18 years, there often, my name in programmes... I was always alive, there, in Hamilton.