Dale, Paige, Toni and Matt Henderson. Photo / Alex Cairns
Row upon row of costumes - more than a thousand - fill one side of a shed on the property. The other side is filled with furniture, props and set design.
Hand-sewn costumes for the Shrek musical are packed into dozens of boxes ready to be used in a high school production.
A miniature cardboard set design for The Addams Family musical sits on the dining room table.
Welcome to the Hendersons’ home, where theatre runs in the family.
“It is just part of who we are,” says Toni Henderson.
Ahead of Baycourt Community and Arts Centre’s 40th anniversary, Toni and her husband Dale Henderson are sharing their love story, which began at the theatre.
Dubbed Mr and Mrs Baycourt, Toni and Dale Henderson, 56, met at the Baycourt in the late 1980s.
Dale was working at Auckland’s Mercury Theatre and was on tour as the travelling technician for the Footrot Flats musical, which visited Tauranga in 1985. He was in town for less than a week but Toni, who was volunteering as front-of-house, caught his eye.
“I spotted this girl I quite liked,” he says, smiling at Toni from across the table.
“We just got on really well,” Toni responds. “We are actually best friends, that is why we are still together.”
Naturally, when the role of technical and operations manager at Baycourt came up, Dale applied and was reunited with Toni. He started working on April 1, 1986, and holds the same role today.
“This is my happy place”.
The pair got engaged in 1987, engaged and a year later they tied the knot.
The ceremony was at Holy Trinity church on Devonport Rd and the wedding reception was at Baycourt.
“Baycourt meant something to us,” Toni says.
“We met there, the venue felt like home to us.
“It became part of our lives.”
Dale says the wedding ran like a theatre production.
Toni played the role of project manager, planning the ins and outs with spreadsheets that included all the important dates and times.
The entertainment was headlined by Dale’s brother-in-law and Tauranga vocalist Barry Spedding and other musical family members and friends who got up to sing.
And the next day, Dale went back to pack out the theatre - just like they would for any production.
Toni says they were drawn to theatre despite both sets of parents not being involved in performing arts.
The pull of the performing arts was so strong that Dale dropped out of an engineering degree to work in theatre.
Toni has just left her job in marketing and customer support at the Port of Tauranga after 24 years to become project manager of her own business Events Tauranga, which also hires set props and costumes to community groups and schools.
The pair also co-founded the Tauranga theatre company and charitable trust, Stage Right Trust, which is bringing In the Heights to the Baycourt stage this June. Toni has been involved in more than 100 Baycourt productions. At one stage, the family was averaging about four shows a year.
“Work was getting in the way of my arts commitments,” she says with a chuckle.
It was not uncommon for their three children - Kelsey Henderson, 28, and twins Matt and Paige Henderson, 26, - to sit on the side of the stage or in a dressing room while their parents worked at Baycourt.
“Matt was operating the lighting desk at 13 years old,” Toni says.
Their eldest daughter Kelsey was on stage at just 3 months old.
A local dance teacher, who knew of Toni and Dale, phoned to ask if Kelsey could play Baby Arthur in her production of The Legend of King Arthur.
“Kelsey would cry in the dark but as soon as the spotlight came on she loved it.”
Twins Paige and Matt say they remember “playing hide and seek for hours” at the theatre. Matt’s earliest memory is of waiting for Dale to pack down the theatre after a show.
“I saw a gate and ran for it and ended up in the orchestra pit because the stairs were still open and split my lip,” Matt says.
He is now doing the stage lighting for Tauranga Girls’ College and Tauranga Boys’ College joint production of The Addams Family on stage this May.
A highlight was playing Shrek in Stage Right Trust’s production of Shrek the Musical in September 2018.
“That was a dream role,” he says.
Matt also took on the role of Khashoggi in Tauranga Musical Theatre’s production of We Will Rock You last September - a role he says he learned in one day.
“That was a lot of fun,” he says. “I love the comradery of theatre.”
The 26-year-old has also just finished his role as an automatic gate technician at EasyGate to focus on his freelance theatre work, while staying on as a casual technician at Baycourt and running a videography, photography, branding, media and content creation business, Third Party Media.
His twin sister Paige is a dance teacher at KJ Studios and is the choreographer for Tauranga Musical Theatre’s production of Matilda at Baycourt this September and October.
Paige has choreographed and performed in musicals on the Baycourt stage. Baycourt provides the opportunity for people in performing arts to do what they love on a “real theatre stage”.
“It is not just any theatre - it is the theatre.
Speaking from Australia, Kelsey tells the Bay of Plenty Times she remembers as a young performer telling the sewing team during one production that she was heading into the bottom of the wardrobe for a nap.
“They kindly woke me up when it was time to make my stage appearance,” she says.
Kelsey, who is a duty manager for Arts Centre Melbourne and works part-time at the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co), says she loves being part of a theatre-loving family.
“It extends your ‘blood’ family into something so much larger. My theatre-loving family is truly half the people who have ever stepped into my life. A connection bridged with theatre is a bond like no other.
“I am so lucky to have been raised in such a warm environment with the support to attach anything, anyway I feel.”
Baycourt was officially opened by Prince Charles and Princess Diana on April 26, 1983.
The community raised about $400,000 to build Baycourt, double the amount of funds needed to open the venue.
“There was a real desire from the community,” Dale says.
“The community owns Baycourt.”
Dale says when Baycourt opened it was the place to have a wedding, community gathering, or funeral and its role in the community has now changed.
“In the last few years it has become more recognised for the value it adds to the cultural tapestry of Tauranga.”
Toni was there when Prince Charles and Princess Diana opened the venue.
“It was very special,” she says. “Those people are people you would only ever see on television. It was really something major for the community.
“She was the fairytale princess. What more could you ask for?”
Baycourt Community and Arts Centre manager Reena Snook said she agreed “100 per cent” that Toni and Dale Henderson were “Mr and Mrs Baycourt”.
“Dale and Toni’s association with Baycourt is invaluable and is proudly one of our unique qualities, setting us apart from many other regional theatres.
“I have so much respect and admiration for the important contribution they have made (both on and off stage) and continue to make to Baycourt’s kaupapa.”
Snook said 40 years in Baycourt continues to be an integral part of the social and artistic fabric of Tauranga.
On average, Snook said 70 per cent of the events Baycourt hosted were community-driven and it has stood the test of time because the community had been invested since day one.
“They have been at the heart of the facility since its inception.”
What: B40: Gala Concert
Launching Baycourt’s 40th Anniversary celebrations is the B40: Gala Concert. Curated and directed by Tauranga-born creative Jason Te Mete (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi), the event celebrates four decades of community creativity. Performers include Opus Orchestra, Te Wharekura o Mauao, Tauranga Musical Theatre, Stage Right Trust and many others.
When: April 21, 7pm
Where: Baycourt Addison Theatre
Cost: $11 – $54
What: B40: X-hibition
Where: Baycourt X Space
When: April 21 - 29, open weekdays from 10am - 4pm
Cost: Free
What: He Toi Kupu - Uhi Tai
Presented by Tuatara Collective in collaboration with Ahipoutu Collective, He Toi Kupu - Uhi Tai has two parts. It is a devised, bilingual theatre experience that features singing, dance, haka and authentic storytelling, through dialogue, monologue and poetry. It is also a physical collection of artworks that will be on display in and around the grounds of Baycourt, using both traditional and contemporary methods including carving and digital design.
Where: Baycourt Addison Theatre
When: April 27 - 29
Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm
Saturday 3pm and 8pm
Cost: $16
What: B40: Whānau Day
The B40: Whānau Day is the final event in Baycourt’s 40th anniversary celebrations, including free guided tours behind the scenes running every half hour from 10.30am to 1.30pm. Relax on the Baycourt lawn between tours with face painters, balloon sculptors, roaming performers and food carts.
Where: Baycourt
When: April 29, 10am - 2pm
Cost: Free
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