I asked my flatmate - usually pretty clued-up for someone who wears roman sandals - how many shows he thought The Basement put on this year. "Uh, 30?" he guessed. Wrong by 300 per cent! By their annual December fundraising show (MegaChristmas in homage to Megaupload), the little-theatre-that-could will have hosted 94 low-cost, experimental shows in their downstairs auditorium and smaller upstairs studio. That's damn good going for an artistic oasis still stuck in a Greys Ave carpark (it should be a green park by now).
But we ain't seen nothing yet. Exuberant and irrepressible general manager (and actor) Charlie McDermott estimates that next year, there'll be 158 shows on offer, including the Comedy Festival slate and three mad weeks of Fringe Festival.
It's not all about quantity, however. What's really got McDermott excited is something called "risk sharing". Thanks to Creative NZ funding, and the Supercity landlord giving The Basement free rent, theatre producers will no longer have to pay up to $300 plus GST per night, whether or not they've sold any tickets; instead they'll pay 20 per cent of every ticket sold.
The benefits of the model - the same as Wellington's celebrated Bats Theatre - are enormous. No big bills encourages artistic development and experimentation, and hopefully more set designs.
"Up until now it's only been those who can afford the space who've put on work. They are not necessarily the best shows because artists are starving!" says McDermott jokingly.
