Annual Report 2001-2002

Her Majesty's Theatre & The Civic Hall

The Her Majesty's Theatre Business Unit manages and operates the City's two premier performing arts facilities - Her Majesty's Theatre and The Civic Hall, and runs the MajesTix ticketing agency.

Highlights of the 2001-2002 year

The Lydiard Street frontage of Her Majesty's Theatre was re-painted in a light buff shade in November/December 2001 with the result that the detailed architectural decoration on the building is now more visible.

The outdoor performance space Alfred Deakin Place, the linking plaza between the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the University of Ballarat Arts Academy Viual Arts building in the Camp Street arts precinct, was officially opened on 2nd December 2001. This space is managed by Her Majesty's Theatre on behalf of the City of Ballarat.

Capital Works projects at Her Majesty's Theatre upgraded the auditorium mixing desk and sound system, and included the installation of 5 additional fly lines on stage and the purchase of additional stage lights.

A Safety Audit of Her Majesty's Theatre was completed by VIOSH in December 2001 from which a prioritised safety plan for improvements was created.

Stuart McKellar joined the staff of Her Majesty's Theatre as the Technical Operations Manager in late August 2001.

The new-look Her Majesty's Theatre Web site at www.hermaj.com was launched in February 2002. The new web site includes such features as a continually updated What's On listing, Online ticketing for Theatre Season productions, and photographic images of views of the stage from different levels and angles in the Hugh Williamson Auditorium. 48 tickets were sold online by 30 June 2002.

Her Majesty's Theatre continued to present a very busy and varied program of live performing arts and had an audience attendance in the 2001-2002 year of 61,596 people. 253 performances or events, including 165 Royal South Street Competition sessions and 18 pre-Competition rehearsal sessions, took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in the course of the year, and the Theatre was in use for performances or associated rehearsals and set-ups for 196 days of the year (representing 53.7% of possible utilisation).

In total 19,537 tickets were sold to the 19 productions marketed in the annual Her Majesty's Theatre 2001 or 2002 Seasons and Daytime Series and other entrepreneured productions performed in the 2001-2002 year. A total of 2,602 Season or Series package tickets were sold.

Highlights of the year at Her Majesty's Theatre include:

• The 2001 Royal South Street Competitions ran over 66 days at the Theatre from mid August to early November 2001, with an audience attendance of 24,293 people.
  
  
• The 2002 Begonia Festival co-presentation of The Scared Weird Little Guys - Rock attracted an audience of 696 people.
  
  
• Commercial presenters hired Her Majesty's Theatre for performances of The Four Kinsmen (February 2002), Looking Through a Glass Onion (March 2002), The Red Army Choir & Dance Ensemble (March 2002), The Dance of the White Horses (March 2002) and The Three Irish Tenors (May 2002).
  
  
• Professional productions entrepreneured by Her Majesty's Theatre in its annual Theatre Seasons were The Tempest (Bell Shakespeare Company), Certified Male (Art, Cackle & Hoot Entertainment), The Scared Weird Little Guys - Rock, Your Dreaming - The Prime Minister's Cultural Symposium (Playbox Theatre), The Sentimental Bloke (Petty Traffickers), The Dreaming (Bangarra Dance Theatre), Stories from Suburban Road (Perth Theatre Company), & the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.
  
  
• Daytime Series productions entrepreneured by Her Majesty's Theatre were: Gaslight's 15th Anniversary Christmas Show, A Different Hat, The Sentimental Bloke and The Agatha Christie Mysteries (Lux Radio Theatre).
  
  
• The Theatre also presented A Very Tripod Christmas especially for a youth audience (November 2001), The Volunteers Concert (December 2001) for a full-house invited audience of volunteers in celebration of the International Year of Volunteers, and 2 performances of The BFG (Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Tas) for school holiday family audiences in April 2002.
  
  
• Local musical seasons were presented by Ballarat Lyric Theatre - Guys & Dolls (July 2001) and Ballarat Light Opera Company - Half A Sixpence (May 2002). The Horsham Arts Council presented a 3-performance season of Anything Goes in March 2002.
  
  
• For the second year The Mars Young Performer of the Year Finals were held at Her Majesty's Theatre in June 2002. The Ballarat Theatre Organ Society presented two concerts featuring the Theatre's Compton Organ in July and November 2001.
  
  
• 10 Ballet Schools and Calisthenic Colleges presented performances at Her Majesty's Theatre, and there were 5 productions by local Private and Government schools and the Australian Catholic University Aquinas Campus 2001 Graduation Ceremony.
  
  
• 21 Groups totalling 850 people participated in tours of Her Majesty's Theatre.

The BFG

Half A Sixpence

The Dreaming

In addition MajesTix sold another 4,929 tickets to 70 performances held at a variety of other venues in Ballarat, which included the Ballarat National Theatre Company productions of Breath of Spring, What the Butler Saw and A Clanging Cymbal and the University of Ballarat Performing Arts productions of The Wild Blue, On The Town, The Three Sisters, and All's Well That Ends Well and to Ballarat Symphony Orchestra and Ballarat Choral Society Concerts.

The re-development of The Civic Hall as a major Hotel/Convention Centre was announced and Folkestone named by the City as the preferred Developer. During the course of the 2001-2002 year The Civic Hall was the venue for 15 events with attendance by 13,930 people. The Civic Hall was again one of the locations of the 3-day Ballarat Antique Fair in March 2002, the venue from which the Australian Labor Party launched it's 2001 Federal Campaign in Victoria (October 2001) and at was the venue for 7 Balls & Dances including the Mayoral Federation Ball (November 2001) and the Ballarat Rotary Club Last 60/40 Dance (June 2002).

No formal events have been held in Alfred Deakin Place since it's opening in December 2001.

The final financial results of the Business Unit including the operations of Her Majesty's Theatre, The Civic Hall and Capital Works for the 2001-2002 year were:
Income = $900,645, Expenditure = $1,530,384.

Total value of tickets sold through the MajesTix Box Office was $823,414.