Hamilton City Council recently denied Meteor and Clarence St theatres’ applications for continued funding through the multi-year Community Partnerships Agreement. The loss of funding from the agreement, which granted each theatre $50,000 annually for three years, has raised concerns about the venues’ futures. Some people, like local actor and playwright Cian Parker, believe the decision could endanger the accessibility of performing arts for the people of Waikato. Maryana Garcia spoke to Parker and other theatre advocates about what the cuts mean for the local arts sector.
When Cian Parker was 7 years old, the only theatres she knew had screens in them. She never dreamed of being an actor.
“It wasn’t within my realm of possibilities. I didn’t even know what theatre was.”
Then Parker’s primary school class was given free tickets to see Tanemahuta Gray’s production of Maui at Founders Theatre.
“We thought we were going to the movies.”
When the curtain opened, Parker had front-row seats to a show she will never forget.
“It was full acrobatics. There were people flying above us,” Parker said.
“I remember there was a scene where the mum is standing behind a see-through black cloth while Maui was talking in front of it and I knew she was a memory. I thought it was so smart.”
Parker was hooked. But access to the performing arts wasn’t easy.
“My mum couldn’t afford to take us to theatre. I went to high school and had to do drama assignments but our school couldn’t afford to stage our own shows.”
It wasn’t until Parker earned a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study drama at Waikato University that she was able to see more theatre productions live.
“As I got to the end of my studies, I had an idea for my first-ever show.”
Parker reached out to Meteor Theatre with two sentences of information about her idea. Theatre manager Deborah Nudds gave Parker some dates and told her to bring the show in.
“Without that phone call, that first slot, I would have never had the confidence to continue working in theatre,” Parker said.
“Somebody’s got to open that door and often it is those venues who know the community, who know the artists that can provide those opportunities.”
Parker has since written and performed shows across New Zealand and taken her work as far afield as Britain and Serbia.
She has won multiple awards including Most Promising Emerging Artist at the New Zealand Fringe Awards for her one-woman show Sorry for Your Loss which premiered at Meteor Theatre.
Currently, Parker is cast in Te Pou Theatre’s upcoming production of The Handlers by Poata Alvie McKree.
“My 7-year-old self would be very surprised,” Parker said.
Parker believed she would not have the career she has today without the support of community theatre organisations.
She was disappointed when she heard the Meteor and Clarence St theatres’ funding applications had been denied.
“I think I felt like there was a disregard of the theatres,” Parker said.
“Those spaces are important for local artists to feel safe to create and for local audiences to engage in cheaper options.”
Charlotte Chuen is the chair of One Victoria Trust which operates Meteor Theatre.
Chuen said since the decision to decline the theatre’s funding application was made she has had conversations with Hamilton City Council creative ambassador and deputy mayor Angela O’Leary and community grants allocation sub-committee chair Kesh Naidoo-Rauf.
“It hasn’t changed the end result,” Chuen said.
“This year, $50,000 would have represented 10 per cent of our income because all of our costs have gone up.
“We were asking the council for more but hoped they would at least continue the current funding amount.”
Chuen said the theatre was already doing “the bare minimum” to keep the performing arts accessible to the public, but with the funding cuts announced by the council, the theatre’s continued operation was at risk.
“Any cuts in funding mean we have to decide what we cut or if we cut the whole thing.”
In 2023, Meteor Theatre hosted 84 different public events with 16,785 audience members.
“Of the 80 different groups that came through last year, I’d say three-quarters would have nowhere to go if the Meteor closed.”
Clarence St Theatre Trust chair Paul Mitchell said any notion that one theatre could pick up the work of another was incorrect.
“Each theatre has its part to play,” Mitchell said.
“To cater for all of Waikato we need the council to back us with funding.”
Both Meteor and Clarence St theatres have been invited to apply for funding through the single-year Community Services Grants scheme.
But Mitchell said funding through the scheme would amount to less than they had previously sought.
Creative Waikato chief executive Jeremy Mayall said Hamilton’s theatres were spaces for creative skills development and community connection.
“Any funding the theatre trusts receive goes towards essentially subsidising the running costs,” Mayall said.
“The cost of running a theatre is not cheap. There’s lights and there’s power, heating, cleaning and staffing.”
Mayall said he worried the decision to deny Meteor and Clarence St theatres’ three-year funding grants would make the performing arts less accessible.
“If the theatres ran on a purely commercial model it prices a lot of people out of the market.”
The Waikato Herald gave the Hamilton City Council the opportunity to respond to the comments made in this article.
Its community adviser and grants manager Philippa Clear said the council recognised the arts sector’s role in shaping a vibrant city.
“The council updated its community grants policy last year to ensure funding was equitable for the many community groups that operate with the council’s support,” Clear said.
“Both theatres have been advised to apply to a new fund this year. While this means their initial application to a different fund has technically been declined, this is purely procedural.”
Clear said the level of funding the theatres receive will be decided by the council in July.
Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.
