Happy birthday! ASB Waterfront Theatre celebrates 10 years

The ASB Waterfront Theatre and its resident theatre company, Auckland Theatre Company (ATC), are celebrating the buildings 10^th birthday.

The $36-million-dollar build, opened in 2016, was funded by AUT, Creative New Zealand, Auckland Council, alongside private donors.

Head of participation and learning at ATC Sam Philips says, “as part of the fundraising effort, AUT were a huge support to Auckland Theatre Company”.

The waterfront building was designed by New Zealand architect Gordon Moller and took three years to complete.

The ASB Waterfront Theatre seats 675 people and hosts performances from other performing arts groups such as the New Zealand Opera.

"When you build a theatre and you put it on the waterfront and then you call the company that is resident there ‘the Auckland Theatre Company,’ we assume a civic responsibility to be a home for people,” Phillips says.

LISTEN: Sam Philips talks about the importance of having an accessible theatre in the city.

“ATC has been such a consistent touchstone of my theatre journey...I can't really imagine being where I would be as a practitioner without ATC,” she says.

AUT and Auckland Theatre Companies continued partnership means AUT students can buy $22 tickets to all shows.

“[the theatre] represents a culture taonga on the waterfront...to have a space in town that can be a meeting space to experience ideas that you wouldn't see otherwise,” says Phillips.

Upcoming performances from ATC includes ‘RGB: Of many, one’ a play about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and ‘Sons of Vao,’ an award-winning Pasifika play.