The Ngaio Marsh Theatre is a 400-seat proscenium-arch theatre housed within the University of Canterbury Students' Association

University of Canterbury Students' Association

The University of Canterbury Students' Association is a student organisation associated with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, established in 1894. All current students of the University have automatic membership. It is funded by students and is governed by a constitution through 12...

 building in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It is named in honour of Dame Ngaio Marsh

Ngaio Marsh

Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...

, who was a director and patron of theatre, especially Shakespeare, at the University between 1942 and 1969, and indeed the theatre's opening production — Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — was directed by Marsh.

Technically the theatre is well-equipped, with a Strand

Strand Lighting

Strand Lighting is an international theatre and television lighting company founded in 1914 in London's West End that supplies lighting fixtures and controls for the entertainment industry. Strand's products have been used on countless theatre productions and TV shows worldwide.-History:Strand...

 520i lighting control desk and a Yamaha

Yamaha (manufacturer)

is a multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, electronics, motorcycles and power sports equipment.-History:...

 GA24/12 sound desk, and a good stock of lanterns. It is a hemp or handline theatre, with the house tabs and three of the four on-stage lighting bars being winched, the house border, projection screen, mid- and up-stage tabs and cyclorama

Cyclorama

For the classical album Cyclorama, see Jonathan Goldstein; For the rock album Cyclorama by Styx, see Cyclorama ; for the theatrical backdrop, see Cyclorama...

being on free-running counterweights, and all other bars on handlines. There are also four lighting bars front-of-house, accessible only by ladder. The control room is situated at the back of the auditorium, and is split unequally into two sections, with access by a short ladder on both sides of the auditorium.

The theatre is extensively used by the Students' Association's performing arts clubs, as well by as local schools, dance schools and other external groups.

External links

• University of Canterbury Students Association, the organisation that owns and maintains the theatre.
• University of Canterbury Drama Society, the University society that is usually most active in the theatre.