KEY POINTS:
If it's true the finest art is born out of struggle, then Auckland must be one of the creative capitals of the world.
Not only is funding in short supply, so are suitable venues. The latest bombshell is the University of Auckland's decision to boot the Auckland Theatre Company out of its traditional home, the Maidment Theatre, from October next year.
The actors were initially told to clear off by the end of this year but, after it was explained to the ivory- tower dwellers that the company needed more time to find alternative venues and revise its programme, a nine-month stay of execution was granted.
The problem is Auckland has only one drama theatre of this optimum 450-seater size. ATC also uses the 700-seater SkyCity Theatre for larger shows but it is too large for more intimate performances.
The Maidment is to close for between three and six months for roof repairs and, not wanting to jeopardise the chances of returning, ATC representatives will not discuss their venue predicament. But just what the future of the reroofed venue will be, not even the university seems to know.
Spokesman Bill Williams will only say: "The university is investigating how best to use the facility more effectively as part of a review of all space needs. There are no plans to exclude existing theatre users such as the Auckland Theatre Company whose contribution to cultural life we value."
But when asked whether that meant the ATC could return as the Maidment's single biggest user, he was non-committal. "No particular options are being considered. What we want to ensure is that we make the best possible use of the Maidment when it reopens in 2009; that it meets the university's needs as a performance space while also being available as a cultural resource for the city."
University sources suggest the expanding National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries wants to reclaim the theatre for use to relieve pressure on inadequate rehearsal and teaching space. But whatever the reason, if the theatre is absorbed into the university, the loss to the city and region's performing arts infrastructure will be drastic.
Particularly when you lump it in with the recent forced closure, for safety reasons, of the venerable but shamefully neglected 1900-seater St James Theatre in Queen St and the closure for an indeterminate time of the Town Hall and the Aotea Centre while the leaking roof of the adjacent underground carpark is replaced.
It would be something of a sick joke if, after years of fighting for equitable regional funding, Auckland's performing arts groups succeeded in getting parliamentary support for the regional amenities funding bill only to find their venues had, one by one, disappeared.
In the case of the Town Hall and Aotea Centre, the closures will be temporary and, hopefully, brief. But the Maidment problem highlights that roads, drainage and electricity are not the only economic infrastructures we need to keep in good working order.
Like the maintenance of the electricity lifelines into Auckland, we tend to use the crisis model when it comes to managing arts infrastructure. The poor old Civic Theatre had to all but collapse before we took action.
So maybe the university's reclaiming of the Maidment and the small fire that alerted the authorities to the calamitous state of the St James were the sort of wake-up calls we need to force us into action.
If so, a good starting point could be the proposal, which from memory goes back a few years now, put up by The Edge for the city to acquire the St James site, resurrect the protected theatre as a 1300- to 1400-seat venue for opera and big theatrical productions and build alongside a 600-seater home for the ATC and other groups seeking an intimate performance space.
In a rational world this is as much a regional or national infrastructural issue as was the billion-dollar rugby stadium the Government briefly dangled before our eyes last Christmas.
But I'm not holding my breath for the rest of the region or the Government to agree to that.
