A night out at the movies could mean staying right here in Dannevirke in the future.
Darlene Amboy, owner of the Regent Theatre on High St, is keen to reopen the 200-seat cinema theatre again and has been waiting for the warrant of fitness and health and safety requirements to be approved.
"It was just a little harder and pricier due to the new regulations," daughter Stephanie said. "However, it should be all go very soon. We're trying to push the opening day for sometime this year and as soon as we can."
Defeated Tararua mayoral candidate Kay McKenzie is keen to organise a community group to run the theatre and is hoping to have a discussion with Mrs Amboy soon.
The Regent Theatre was built in 1918 on the site of the original Bank of NSW and is registered by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board as a category two building in recognition of its historical and cultural heritage significance. The Regent was New Zealand's only provincial theatre from the World War I era to have remained open continuously, apart from short periods for repair and refurbishment, and showed movies until it closed in 2011.