OUR HISTORY
Over 60 years of theatre-making for everyone; from young people to the young at heart
Khandallah Arts Theatre began in 1959, with the mission "to foster the study, practice, and enjoyment of the arts; and in particular, dramatic art".
From 1959 to 1983 we were gypsies, with no fixed venue for rehearsals or performances. Rehearsals were held in private homes and church halls, and productions were staged all over Wellington - from the Khandallah Town Hall and Onslow College, to the newly built Memorial Theatre at Victoria University.
By 1967, eight years after we began, the club had almost collapsed. Productions at the Memorial Theatre had become increasingly ambitious, stretching resources too far, causing many early members to leave. For the next three years, a stalwart few held the club together.
Then in 1970 Zenocrate (Zennie) Graham, who had been an early member of the club and then gone overseas, returned. Her enthusiasm, hard work and fresh ideas boosted morale and membership, and theatre-making flourished once again.
From 1971 the company held rehearsals and club nights at the Cashmere Avenue Community Hall, owned and used as a worship and community centre by the Methodist Church. In 1983, after the Church had turned it over entirely to the community, it officially became ‘our theatre’, shared with the many other groups who continued to use it, including the school across the road.
The next 18 years in the Cashmere Avenue Community Hall were an intense period of theatrical endeavour: seasons of thrillers, comedies, dramas, classics, one-act plays and plays for children, and club nights when members participated in rehearsed play readings, poetry readings, musical evenings and art displays. We slowly adapted the interior to become more and more theatre-like, utilising the space as much as possible and making it our own.
Then, on 6 September 2001, disaster struck – a routine, but very overdue, maintenance job revealed that many of the structural timbers were rotten, and the Cashmere Avenue Community Hall was condemned overnight.
We scrambled to find another venue for the production we were days away from opening, and (ignoring the ‘KEEP OUT’ notices at the entrances) salvaged all we could of the sets, building materials, costumes, fabrics, technical equipment, furniture and props that we had stashed throughout the building.
The following two years were filled with negotiations, fundraising, plans and construction, culminating in the opening of KAT’s new ‘forever home’ — Cochran Hall — on May 1st 2003.
Although the new hall was owned by the Ministry of Education, they would not have built it without the support of the Methodist Church, which made a very significant financial contribution on the condition that the building continued to be available to community groups like KAT.
It was agreed that the school would undertake the day-to-day administration and upkeep of the new facility, and KAT and the Deirdre Tarrant Dance School, as the major community users, would join the school in making the “big” decisions relating to its use and major improvements. A few years later the Dance School moved out, leaving KAT as the sole “major community user”.
With a new, secure ‘home’, KAT was once again able to truly lay down roots and make the space our own.
Our first production in the new hall was held in November 2003.
As of 2024, we have produced a full programme of theatrical productions every year. Find out what we’ve staged.