Established in 1979, Free Theatre Christchurch has consistently produced avant-garde performance for over four decades. In 2011, thanks to a Creative Communities grant and support from the RATA Foundation, the company instigated an archival project to collect, organise and preserve materials from productions, including images, film footage, programmes, reviews and publicity. A portion of these materials can be found on this page, which will be updated regularly. See also Manifesto and Writings by and on Free Theatre on our About page. As such, this is a unique and valuable resource, presenting a living history of contemporary performance in New Zealand over three decades.
The Free Theatre archive has provided material for a documentary Free Theatre: the 37 year experiment (2017) about the company by respected New Zealand filmmaker Shirley Horrocks. A book is also to be written by company members. Free Theatre has been asked to deposit material with the Centre for Performance Research in Wales and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, who wish to develop a database of New Zealand experimental performance. If you have materials you would like to be preserved within the Free Theatre archive, please contact us at [email protected] / 021 025 61384.
This archive exists because of the care of many administrators, secretaries, managers and members since 1979 to collect and preserve material from each production. The work to catalogue and digitise our archive alongside presenting some of it on this website, continues.
The Free Theatre archive has provided material for a documentary Free Theatre: the 37 year experiment (2017) about the company by respected New Zealand filmmaker Shirley Horrocks. A book is also to be written by company members. Free Theatre has been asked to deposit material with the Centre for Performance Research in Wales and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, who wish to develop a database of New Zealand experimental performance. If you have materials you would like to be preserved within the Free Theatre archive, please contact us at [email protected] / 021 025 61384.
This archive exists because of the care of many administrators, secretaries, managers and members since 1979 to collect and preserve material from each production. The work to catalogue and digitise our archive alongside presenting some of it on this website, continues.
